I actually went on a hike the other day. Probably the first one this year! It was a quick little one, leaving from Settler’s Park, up the Red Rocks Trail, and then out and back on the Anemone Trail. It’s a pretty steep hike and you quickly gain elevation over the canyon floor.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/400, f/13.0, 320ISO :.

We set out for our first Durango ride of the weekend to the Junction Creek Trailhead. The first thing we noticed was multiple truckloads of kids shuttling from the parking area. There must have been some sort of DH trail right in the area that isn’t on the riding maps. We set out to do it the old skool way of earning our turns. Junction Creek is at one end of the Colorado Trail which goes from Denver to Durango. The trail starts off flat and hardpack, eventually turning upward with multiple switchbacks to climb a 1000 feet or so to Gudy’s Rest. Here is Ryan doing his best impression of how Gudy rested. Durango is in the valley straight ahead.
After that we did a short loop of really cool singletrack. Quite moderate, buff, and non-technical, excellent single speed terrain, not that we were riding them.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/400, f/13.0, 320ISO :.

After that loop we rode up the Colorado Trail some more, but it started to climb without much flow, so we turned around to save our legs for future rides with greater fun factor. Ryan missed the turn for the Colorado Trail. I took a picture of a tree while I waited for him. I scratched my legs up walking around in the thickets. Good times, good times.

.: Nikon D700, Nikon 35mm f/2.0D @ 1/400, f/13.0, 320ISO :.

I didn’t want to burn the kids out with too much posing, so I decided not to set up strobes, even though I really wanted to! The sun was bright and it was mid-day, but I just wanted the boys to have some fun.  So I pointed them at some small trees that they could climb and shot away!  These next shots are with the 85mm 1.4 shot wide open.  I love the background blur!  Well, other than the crazy mad adorableness of the nephews.  Can you believe that spell-check says that ‘adorableness’ is a real word?

After I ran out of ideas of how to trick the boys into doing things that I thought would make great photos, we headed back onto the porch. Next I decided to trick them into smelling the flowers so I could take ridiculously cute photos of young boys stiffing flowers. You might think that I would be beyond that level of cheesiness, but clearly I’m not! Can you believe that spell-check says that ‘cheesiness’ is a real word?

Last up we have some extreme close up eye photos! I love these! The Nikon tilt shift is also a macro lens. Handy. :>)

I’m always following the weather during the winter, tracking the big storms that yield glorious dumps of fluffy powder. I wasn’t able to get away too much this year, just too much business stuff combined with a pretty dry winter.  Well the storms finally showed up in late March and early April, and I was determined to get my money’s worth out of the pass.  So through the glory of Facebook, I found a co-pilot, 2 places to stay near Vail, and we set out for 3 days of bottomless powder hunting.

Things started out normally enough the first day at Vail. Until about 2 hours in the day I randomly shared a chairlift ride with a couple, and the girl had a piece of bridal veil material in her helmet. Turns out they were in town from Houston to get married at the swanky new Arabelle Resort in Lionshead. So we were chatting about weddings, and I mentioned that I have a shoot planned soon where I’m going to do portraits of the bride and groom in the dress and tux on skis. Tricia looks at me and says, “Can we do that on Sunday!?” Fortunately I had my camera gear with me, and I booked the shoot, thereby lengthening my trip another day. Well now I know that I need to get up skiing more often next year! And does this mean that I can write off my pass next year as a business expense?! Look for pics from that shoot soon on The Light Side.

Two runs later I went into the lodge to meet up with Io. She was talking with a man, who had a cute little girl pulling on his leg. Turns out he does energy-body work in Boulder. I asked him if he was interested in trading some family photos for body work . . . Yes! Two shoots hooked up in an hour! The next two days went pretty much as planned. I did a crazy amount of tree skiing. The next shot shows the aspen trees that lead down to the High Noon lift in the far Western back bowls. I’ve never skied them before because the slope is southwest-ish facing and is usually pretty bare. But after feet and feet of snow in two weeks, I was able to hit the chute just to the right of the lift, fresh tracks all the way. Very deep and steeper than it looks!

The second day at Beaver Creek was my best day there ever. We woke up that morning, and it dumped a foot of snow in 6 hours. It snowed crazy hard and I would have taken more pics but I was way too busy shredding. It was snowing too hard anyway. I hit tons of glades: Bachelor Gulch, Coyote Glade, Thresher Glade, Heads Up, 4 Get About It, Corkscrew, Stickline . . . my only regret is not hitting some of the steep upper glades earlier, by the time I got there they were closed. Next time I’ll know where to go first.

My last photo from this set is of a random guy who I shared a lift ride with. His beard was so awesomely coated with icicles that I had to take a portrait. Can you say, face shots?

So, I booked photo shoots, while skiing deep powder. I think it’s apparent that I need to manifest a place to live in Eagle County!

I finally was able to break away from the photo biz for a midweek powder day at Abasin. I wanted to make sure and punish myself for my lack of exercise routine this winter so I decided to telemark ski.  It was my first real tele day since February 1, 2007.  Yes, I’m already sore.

I dove straight into a Pali run right away. Here are some random guys enjoying some turns. The coverage was pretty thin, so the new snow is needed. It was a little crusty underneath but overall the skiing was good.

It was fairly windy on the ridges, but not nearly as bad as it was in Boulder the day before. The temperature was quite mild so it was quite bearable. Down in the trees and in the bowls it was quite nice.

After two laps on Pali I headed over to the Lenawee Lift. Insert more pictures of skiers gettin’ some.

Um, make your own comment.

I found a place to get arty.

So then I hiked up to the double-black terrain in Montezuma bowl that is skier’s right. There really is some cool, steep terrain here. Parts of it are steep enough that you can’t see what’s below you from the top. I need to learn the lines better from the lift so I can know where to go. The coverage is so thin that I played it safe and stuck to the places I could see. There is also a nice cornice for launching at the top.

It was quite windy at the top at times.

I ventured down around the edges of the bowl looking for powder stashes in the trees. Most of the hiking terrain on skiers right still isn’t open. They did open Crags, but there was nasty sun crust underneath the powder and the coverage was super sketchy. Then I made my way over to the Lightening Trees and . . . jackpot! Untracked backcountry-like conditions at midday. Its a bit of work to get there and get out, so it probably isn’t worth it. You should never go there or tell anyone about it! Check out how far my poles went into the snow. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

After a full day of beautiful weather and VeloSwapping on Saturday, I figured I had to get back up to Ned for a mountain bike ride before it’s too late.  Well it wasn’t nearly as warm as I had hoped; the high was 50 and the wind was brisk.  All the leaves are long gone, and there is a run of man made snow up at Eldora.

We had hoped that we were going to get one last ride in up high, but there is snow in the woods around the base elevation of Eldora. There were a few snowy turns at the top of Marysville, but nothing like my two early season post-holing expeditions.

Ryan was pretty psyched about his $10 tire purchase at Veloswap. That was until we spent 20 minutes on the shelf road fixing flats and then when the loose bead allowed the tire to peal off the rim during a corner. Bad Specialized tires. Bad.

It has been an extraordinary week. I thank those who have appreciated and commented on my recent post. I want to keep things moving forward . . .

This is my first image that I’ve ever shot with a Nikon lens! I’m going to give Nikon a shot since I have been unhappy with the focus performance of my Canon cameras. My new D700 won’t be here until Monday, but I bought a lens last week from a local guy. I borrowed a camera to test out the 85 1.4 to make sure that it was sharp. On the way home I was struck by the amazing lighting over the hills and snapped this picture. Wow, I really love this one. To me there is such a surreal beauty, peace, and glow over those mountains. This is the beauty that draws us to them.

I originally posted these pictures as part of a pictorial blog post, without many words.  Originally I felt that each picture told a thousand words, as they say, so I let the pictures do the talking.  Since Tuesday, the story of these pictures has evolved, so I have included them again in a new post.   I also have one additional picture from that ride that I didn’t post the first time.  It is this closeup shot of Matt at the top.  I intended to add him on as a friend on Facebook and post it there so he could use it as a profile picture.  I didn’t post it on the blog originally, as I preferred the bigger landscape shot.  Matt looks a bit nerdy in this pic anyway!  Well bike nerds are as bike nerds do.  My girlfriend calls me “such a nerd” almost every day.  It used to be bikes for me, now it’s cameras.  And as my inner photo nerd looks at this photo now, more closely, I am really struck by the lighting.  The diffused sun on his back is providing some amazing light; you can see it most clearly on both sides of his red jersey.  Almost angelic, I might dare to say . . .

Matt and Loni moved into the condo next door to mine early last year.  I was pretty happy that another Boulder cyclist/skier type moved in.  Matt’s garage is sandwiched between mine and Mark’s, and together we could boast that we probably have over two dozen bikes in the three garages in our building.  I could always rationalize my own pile of gear and tools and gadgets and miscellaneous Man Things, siting that well, at least my garage wasn’t as overfilled with crap as Matt’s.

One time, a friend of Matt’s came over to feed his and Loni’s cats while they were away, and he managed to punch the correct code to my garage instead of Matt’s.  I happened to come downstairs at the exact time that this was happening, only to find a man in a dark coat fumbling in the dark for a light switch.  As I walk up to him he asks me, “Do you know where Matt keeps the cat food?”.  I replied, ” No, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t keep it in my garage!”  Humorously, after opening the garage, the friend didn’t realize that he was in the wrong one, well, there was a whole wall full of skis and inordinate amount of bikes and parts everywhere.  Everything seems normal, maybe not this cruiser, but then again, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Matt to pick up another along the way and neglect to mention it.  So anyway, I was shocked to find that Matt had the exact same code as me.  What are the chances?  As it turned out, we didn’t.  The friend accidentally entered the wrong code, which was my code, which doesn’t really make the story any less amazing, humorous, or synchronistic.

Boulder is a funny place.  In any other place when a new mountain biker moves to town, he immediately hooks up with the other mountain bikers in town, goes riding, drinks beer, and makes friends.  Not in Boulder.  There are so many cyclists of every kind, that riding partners are divided into the most segregated of sub clicks.  Like, there is this one group with guys who have VO2 max numbers between 65-67, ride single speed mountain bikes with only 29 inch wheels, ride at lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on weekends like to do rides between 3 and 4 hours, at an average pace of 7.3 mph, leave between 10 and 10:15 am, in a group between 2 and 4 people, and drink only microbrewed beer from the Mountain Sun after the ride.  Oh, your bike has 26 inch wheels?  I’m not riding with you.  OK, I’ve got that creative hyperbole out of my system.  The point is, it took Matt and I about a year to figure out that our next door neighbor might actually be a good riding partner.  But once we did figure it out, we had a great time out on the trails.  And your next door neighbor is the best riding partner, because you can walk simply walk next door and say, “want to ride?”

And that’s what happened last Sunday, when Matt and I went to go ride the Little Raven Trail up near Brainard Lake.  The Little Raven is a cross country ski trail that has recently been made ridable with the addition of trail work and some plank bridges to get over some small bogs.  We got on the internet, pulled out some topo maps, and planned our route.  We’d do Little Raven, South St. Vrain, North Sourdough, and Wapiti Trails in a figure 8 fashion.  On the drive up the paved road to the parking area, we were wowed by the aspens, peaking gloriously golden.  The temperature was perfect.  Cool and cloudy, but just warm enough to get a bit of a sweat going.  At one point we took a break in an upper meadow at the top of South St. Vrain.  We discussed the possibilities of why they had deposited lots of tree stumps in the middle of the meadow, as seen in the eerie black and white ‘Dead Bike’ photo below.  We gazed towards the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  Matt pointed out the glaciers, and showed me some of the lines that he had skied in the past. We also talked about making some turns this upcoming spring, and getting some cool photos.  On our last few rides Matt talked about his summer ski adventures.  He managed to get some fresh powder turns on a glacier this August, a rare feat indeed.  At that point Matt had skied every month of 2008.  Part of that was made possible from getting laid off from his latest architecture job.  Initially he thought that he would get another job right away, but I guess that didn’t happen.  Hey, why fight it?  Funemployment paved my way into this photography career, and it was going to grant Matt the free time to ski a day in every month in 2008.  His summer goal.  Why not?

The Little Raven Trail is very technical in spots.  The bridges are easy enough, but there was a rock garden or two that forced me to dismount.  I remember telling Matt that I just don’t take the chances any more like I used to.  If I hurt myself these days then I’m out of work and I don’t get paid . . . and in my old age (ha ha), I just don’t feel the need to try and ride everything like I used to.  If there is a 75% chance that I’ll make it, well, thats a 1 in 4 chance that I won’t, and I’ll just walk thank you very much.  Matt and I are seasoned riders, we know where the limit is, and we’ll stay right here, pretty close to the edge, but not quite over it.  We’ve had our crashes, we’ve pushed the limits and lost, and we’ve gotten back up wiser men.  This is How It Works.  This is how we do it in Boulder, we work, we make money, and on the weekends we hurtle ourselves down mountains.  This theory was tested a little bit near the end of our ride, when I got to a rocky corner on Sourdough.  I was getting tired, my blood sugar was low, my brain was a little slow from the altitude, and I stuffed it, going down head first towards some rocks.  Fortunately I’m really good at crashing after all these years, and I was only traveling about 2 mph.  So I stuck my hands out and did a big push up, frogging my right shin a bit as it got caught between the handlebar and the top tube.  Ah well, these things happen, and I limped it back to the car.  No major harm done, just another day on the bike.

We drove down the Peak to Peak, taking the long way back to town, via Nederland, in the name of getting gas.  Matt took me where I could shoot some tourist pictures of Peaceful Valley, where there is a cluster of bright yellow aspens mixed with the dark green pines.  There was also another cluster, in the form of Leaf Peepers.  We were there with dozens of other cars pulled off the road to take the same stinkin’ picture.  I usually avoid this sort of thing, but hey, I need to keep my blog readers happy, so I snapped a pic.  As we drove Matt commented how he’s always coming home a bit late from sports adventures.  He and Loni were supposed to go grocery shopping that evening.  But Loni knows how these things go, adventures sometimes wind up taking longer than anticipated.

Tuesday was the last day of September 2008.  It was the last day for Matt to get this ski day in.  As in any other ski day, he began by eating some breakfast and scouring the maps and topos on the internet.  He decided on a route in Rocky Mountain National Park.  He went by himself.  It was Tuesday after all, and everyone else was working away as working people do.  There isn’t any avalanche danger this time of year.  By mid-summer all of the snow pack has melted away, and the glaciers that are left are water-eroded, bumpy, sheets of ice.  The adventure isn’t so much about the joy of skiing; it’s about the exploration, testing yourself, the solitude of the backcountry, the vistas, pushing your edge, living In The Now.  It is everything that desk job is not.  It is dangerous, unpredictable, trilling, athletic, un-nerving and calming at the same time

When Loni returned home at 5:30 she felt that something was wrong.  Matt should have been home by now.  She found his intended route by looking in the browser history of his computer.  She did not sleep that night. The next morning some of his ski mountaineering buddies set out to find him.  By 10am they had.

As of now we don’t know exactly what happened up on Taylor Glacier.  Matt was an expert skier and an accomplished mountaineer. He was methodical, calculated, and smart.  He knew where that edge was, and how to stay over here.  Well, shit happens, and sometimes we fuck up.  Sometimes we get a little tired, our blood sugar gets a little low, and we make a little mistake.  Unfortunately, at the top of a 12,000 foot glacial slope, a little error can cost you your life. According to the reports, he was wearing a helmet and had the appropriate equipment.  He died from multiple blunt trauma. Maybe he fell. Maybe he was hit by rockfall. It doesn’t really matter now, for whatever reason, it was his time to leave this world.

Death.  A trying time for those left behind.  Lots of questions, and ‘what-ifs’. I offer the story of a wise man.

A wise man won a car in a drawing.  Everyone congratulated him.  They all told him, “You are so lucky! The wise man said, “Maybe.”

A few days later, the wise man was driving his new car down the street.  His was hit by a drunk driver, hospitalized, and the car was totaled.  His friends and family came to visit him in the hospital.  They said, “This is terrible! You won this new car, and now it is destroyed, and you are injured in the hospital!”  The wise man said, “Maybe.”

That night, a landslide ripped down the hillside where the wise man lived.  His house was swept away and destroyed.  Once again, family and friends came to visit the wise man in the hospital.  They said, “You are so fortunate!  If you had not been in the hospital, you would have been at home when the landslide came and you surely would have been killed!”  The wise man said . . . “Maybe”

The moral of the story is, that events are not good or bad.  Things are as they are.  There is really no way as little humans in this big big world that we have any way of knowing what the outcome of events are going to be.  Sometimes minor setbacks and unfortunate events pave the way for bigger and better things. And sometimes major losses open the space for  . . .

Regardless, it can still be really tough to make some rational sense out of these sort of things.  It can be easy to say that he shouldn’t have been up there alone, or up there at all.  We could label the Gen-X and Gen-Y ‘extreme’ image as selfish and egoic.  Why are the current generation drawn to death defying acts?  When I was around 26 I broke my elbow and my pelvis skiing on Mt. Bachelor.  In a split second I could not walk.  I was in a remote part of the mountain, and it took the ski patrol over an hour to find me.  I was taught a very big lesson.  Rocks are hard, and they easily break bones, and if you can’t walk out, you might die out there.  I thought about all the countless times I had done epic mountain bike adventures into the backcountry, all alone, when no one knew my location.  Like the time I drove down to Hole in the Rock way out in B-F-E of southern Utah and was mountain biking in and out of the slickrock bowls 400 miles from nowhere, and no one knew where I was.  If I had fallen and broken my pelvis, I’d have been eaten by the vultures.  But damn that was fun.  I remember that ride so clearly, over the thousands of rides I’ve done in my life.  It was so good.  It’s rides like that that we remember, and tell stories about.  Along with the rides where you get lost, run out of food, get caught in the dark, and are utterly miserable and scared.  It is the epic stories that are remembered and revered.  I learned a lesson on Mt. Bachelor.  I learned to be as careful as possible in risky situations, but it hasn’t stopped me from getting out there.

You know what?  There are worse ways to go.  Matt was doing what he loved to do.  On top of the world.  Out of the office, out of the rut, pushing his physical and mental limits.  When a man loses the drive to push his edge, he is less of a man.  We respect the explorers, the astronauts, the daredevils, the risk takers, the leaders, those who can push fear aside and pursue, endeavor, conquer, suffer, and acheive.  How boring and lifeless would the world be if everyone took the safe route, bought the safest car with the best gas mileage and the biggest airbags?  What car do we really dream of, the Prius or the Porsche?  Someone has to get out there and light the world on fire and make life worth living and to inspire.  I know that I need a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and going to a cubicle never was a very good reason for me. Matt was one of those men who loved pushing his limits. He was a cyclist, a climber, a skier, an adventurer, a competitor. On the softer side, he was an intellect, a wit, a thinker, with many life long friends and companions.

Purpose.  Life just makes sense with some kind of purpose.  It’s what we are passionate about, what we live for, where we want to go, who we want to be, what we want to have.  Back when I was a cube jockey, it was all about the bike.  Faster, harder, higher, longer, and with the latest and greatest 38 gram, pink anodized, unobtainium butted, gadgety widget.  Now I have this drive to just make the best damn pictures that i possibly can.  And sometimes I wonder why the hell I do it.  Then every once in a while I think I take a picture that makes a real difference.  You know what?  I guess I do that at every single wedding.  So anytime anyone ever makes a “what? you’re a wedding photographer?” type crack, I know the answer.  I do make a difference in people’s lives.  I give people memories that they can identify with, and fucking beautiful ones at that.  And on this day, I have a picture of Matt, on his bike, out in the backcountry of the Colorado mountains, doing it his way, our way.  I have made links to all of the pictures of him on this page (just click them), so that his family and friends, or anyone who searches his name can download the full sized images, and they can have these memories as well.  My little gift, in addition to this rambling tribute.

We never know when our time is up.  We never know how it is that we are going to go.  It tears me up to think about his love Loni, and his furry friends Vinny P, Gandalf, and Riley, and how much they are going to miss Matt.  Hopefully Loni will be able to hold on to their condo next door. I also give a shout out to Matt’s sporting friends, who have adventured and suffered with him on many more adventures than myself.  These words go out to anyone who knew Matt, as a memorial of the life, times, and perspective within the Republic of Boulder.  We can’t stop doing all the things that have brought us together at the gateway to the Rockies.  The pursuits that push our limits, test our edges, and give us purpose.  We have to keep on truckin’, doing the things that light our fire, and in some cases, those things are dangerous.  We need to do everything we can to ensure the safety of ourselves and our loved ones.  There are probably extra precautions that we could take . . .  I’m not going to go on any more adventures without letting someone know where I am.  I might even make a will to make some sense out of my stuff and my crazy ass garage full of boy toys.  Think twice before you head into the backcountry, wait another day on that slope with ‘Considerable’ avalanche danger.  Make sure that you are as safe as you possibly can be, for the sake of yourself and those who might be left behind should you fall over the edge.  But after you do all that, go out there and hit it . . . continue pushing your comfort zone.  Continue bouncing down that rocky singletrack.  Continue sending that crack climb.  Continue ripping fresh corn turns on a mid-May morning. Continue getting out into nature and breathing in huge gulps of life. Keep smiling, charging, looking forward, all thrown in will a dash of physical suffering.  Matt wants it that way.

Some of Matt’s friends are planning a memorial service later this month.  Starting Monday, people can send donations to the Matthieu Chesaux Memorial Fund at Wells Fargo.

]]> http://www.steve-z.com/my-last-ride-with-matt-chesaux/feed/ 20 http://www.steve-z.com/out-of-the-office-and-into-the-foliage/ http://www.steve-z.com/out-of-the-office-and-into-the-foliage/#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:53:02 +0000 stevez http://www.steve-z.com/?p=597

My staunch work ethic finally crumbled this week. People who know me wondered, “how long can you keep this up?” I kept it up until Thursday. Glorious Thursday, when editing be damned, I had to get out onto the trails and out in the glorious fall weather. I knew the leaves were turning up there. I’m very happy to report that many of the aspens in Ned are just starting to turn, so there is still a few more weeks of glorious color up there. Get out and enjoy it! Here are some pics to motivate you.

While most of you were enjoying a three day weekend, I was working my butt off and shooting two weddings!  Lucky for me I like shooting weddings . . . ;>) . . .  and even luckier still the second one was up in Keystone.  So I splurged on a resort hotel room for myself and my lovely girlfriend and made a weekend out of it!  Part of the deal was that on Monday I would get to do an epic mountain bike ride in the mountains . . . my only high altitude ride of the year so far!

I rode the Swan River section of the Colorado Trail section between Breckenridge and Georgia Pass.  Last year we rode up to Georgia Pass from the Kenosha Pass side.  That was part of a whole mountain bike weekend and I made a photo slideshow and blogged about it HERE.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

But this time I was on a solo mission so I took way less photos.  Portrait of my mountain bike by itself?  Check.  Self-portrait on the trail?  Check.  Accidental mis-timed action shot?  Check.

What an amazingly sweet ride.  Super smooth and fast.  There was one pretty tough section that had me pushing at times, but I was conserving my energy because I wanted to do a pretty big ride.  I thought I was saving my energy, but man, I was so ill-prepared for 3 and a half hours of riding between 10 and 12,000 feet.  On the Swan River section of trail I blew up like I haven’t blown up in a really really long time.  I could barely even pedal in my smallest ring.  But, it was worth it.  No downhill lasts as long as one when you are bonked and wishing you were done!  And when it’s some of the sweetest trail on the planet, that’s actually a good thing.  On the last stretch of climb I had to get off and collapse because I thought I was going to puke.  This is what it looked like.

I brought an SB-26 and some Pocket Wizards on this Sunday’s mountain bike ride. My little Canon G9 has a hot shoe so that you can use big boy flashes on it. I strapped it to a tree to try and get some action shots in the deep dark woods. Unfortunately most of the crew came down before I had a chance to get the exposure and flash power dialed in. Billiam is running a little hot in the above shot. Oh well, I was able to get it dialed in by the time the ladies came by.

I headed out on a pretty big ride this Sunday. It wasn’t actually *in* the Indian Peaks Wilderness, because that of course would be illegal, and we all know that that would never happen. These shots were just above Yankee Doodle Lake, with a nice view of the peaks in the background.

My goal is to go mountain biking twice a week. I’ve been failing! I can’t complain too much because the photo biz is keeping me super busy midweek. So I’m a Sunday rider and this week we traveled down to Buffalo Creek for some classic Colorado buff singletrack.

Some of the terrain in the area is still recovering from a major burn that happened 8-ish years ago. This was the burn that was started by a Forest Service worker who was burning old love letters from her boyfriend. I guess she got fined 11 million dollars. She’s going to have to work a lot of overtime!

This is Issac. He still got the hall pass from the family today despite the fact that the last time he rode with him we made him get home late by taking him on a ‘special’ route.

The other news, is I’m playing with my new tilt-shift lens. That’s why the photos are all blurry in places. No, it isn’t photoshop. I’m still figuring some things out with it, but it’s pretty fun!

Yeah we hit some snow drifts. It got progressively worse until we were mostly hiking the entire time, punching deep into the drifts with our feet. This is known as post-holing BTW. Ben slipped and put his knee to the snow one time. This is what it looked like. His sock is in his hand because he is wringing out the freezing cold snow water. Weeeeeeee!

So, hiking up through the snow was pretty dumb, because we weren’t getting to anywhere where we were eventually going to ride, since we were on our way up towards Brainard Lake, and the trail on the other side of the access road is north facing and would likely have even more snow on it. Oh, whatever. We’d hike through a drift, ride 50 feet. Pick up heavy snow covered bike. Repeat.

At least that big nasty cloud that I saw from town wasn’t pouring down rain on us right?

Right. By the time we got out of the trail to the road it was snowing. In June. Below 10000 feet. We descended with shorts and light windbreakers and got ice cube feet and Slurpee headaches. Luckily the Millsite Inn was nearby and we got to warm up.

And drink beer and eat wings! It’s very important to refuel properly for epic endurance rides. And doubly important to keep the spirits up!

So we got rolling again and within no time the sun was out and our jackets were off. We rode past Gold Lake and ripped down the fast descent into Jamestown. It was a good time, lots of water, and I was wishing for my full suspension and gears as I was the only one without.

Down at the the bottom we had a creek crossing that was a little hairy! Everyone had at least one wobble where everyone thought that the person was going in! That wouldn’t have been fun, AT ALL! After Jamestown we did a little more exploring before finally hitting the road back to town. That last climb over Old Stage put a sting into the legs then we cruised the Foothill Path back downtown. So that’s the story. You know how it is, sometimes you have to endure a little suffering for a memorable ride and a good blog post! CYA next week!

I needed to do some testing of my 28mm 1.8 lens so I took some pictures out at the park by my house. They weren’t very exciting, so I tweaked them out in Adobe Camera Raw. The Buddha was there.