The last two weeks....

As I mentioned in the last post, Colorado weather is schizophrenic. Last weekend we had 60* weather and Schnauzer insisted we ride and show off his new "Beast" a giant diesel F350. He suggested 3 Sisters in Evergreen, and since I'd never been and he was going to drive, it was an easy "sure". We met up near his place, and continued on to the village of Evergreen, CO. Passing through downtown Evergreen it felt like a Norman Rockwell winter scene, or the cover of an L.L.Bean catalog. Frozen lake, kids ice skating, people ice fishing, dogs frolicking in the snow. Awesome little town! We got to 3 Sisters and Schnauzer let me in on his secret weapon... evidently, over the holidays he got bored and purchased a Pugsley (see honey, it's not just me others suffer from the same bike lust affliction). Needless to say, we had a blast on 3 Sisters, we only got 8-10 miles in total, but it took us all day due to the snow drifts and hike a bike sections. If you haven't tried out a Pugsley, put it in your list it's as much fun as I can remember on a bike... did I mention we were riding in snow drifts while wearing short sleeved shirts an enduring 60* temps? Crazy.

So Yesterday, not to be outdone, Schnauzers once again put together a great ride. This time we would travel south to the once bustling city of Pueblo. While temps in the Golden area were hovering ~ 38*, Pueblo would see a high of the mid 60's. The trail system was a mix of west Texas and open prairie. This time around we had Tim and his very capable girlfriend along for the ride. Tim has been in Colorado for a few weeks more than I, and is originally from the east coast also (VT). His girlfriend is originally from NY, Schnauzers is also from NY/NJ and I was born in the NY area and lived on the east coast a good portion of my life, so we were a group with very similar tastes. Tim is a wild man and has not yet learned fear. His girlfriend while a little more reserved on the tech stuff, did not give up and smoked us in the wide open sections (she is a former roadie after all). The trails were fantastic and the weather unbelievable. Pueblo is very arid and warm, the perfect get away for mountain bikers in CO while the good stuff is covered in snow. We only rode 10-15 miles, but they were super technical. We finished off the day in style with "Sloppers" from Grays Coors Tavern. Evidently these guys won on Food Wars Battle of the Slopper in 2010... I'm glad I got to taste it, and after a hard day of riding it did hit the spot, but I don't think it will ever be a part of my regular diet.

Oh, and sorry for no pixels, I've evidently misplaced or lost my camera and I'm sick of my mobile providers stupid billing system, so I'm going old school with no fancy cell phone pix. Going to try to track down my camera, it's been lost since my last trip to TX.

Colorado weather = koo koo

at 4 am there was no snow, by 5:30 the streets were covered. After a day in the cube farm, it was 20* colder than the morning commute but the snow was mostly gone....