Stardate 2019.822

Brisk and Misty Morning

An invigorating morning walk along the South Platte River with an iPhone.




Today’s hot chocolate is going to be quite good!




I hope you enjoyed the pics.




Lizard: 15
Parkinson’s: 0

Adios!

Stardate 2019.814

On The Keyboard Again

Hmmm... I seem to have forgotten how to code. Nonetheless, we'll see if I can come up with something.




Fall has been warm, and we could use some precipitation, although it's been mountain bike heaven.






A change is in order; I wonder if these bighorn ewes could sense it?



Several days later, a handful of little Fahrenheits, sporting their finest smirks, set a new record low temperature of 8 degrees, beating the old record of 22 by 14 notches. Then, most leaves lost color and dropped.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...





That's it for now.

Adios

Stardate 2017.277

Lay It On The Line
Hi, people! Lay it on the line doesn't really have anything to do with the ride. I just had the old Triumph song from 1979 on my mind. You can listen to it here. On to business at hand. Ever so slowly we are getting our cycling legs in tune. This past weekend we did a half road and half mountain bike ride for about 40 miles. That's not far, but not too short either. The mountain bike was used for both legs of the trip. Moreover, I have spring fever something terrible. We've been able to get out quite a bit, and I pulled some older helmet cam videos for fun.


Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park (road bike)



Kokopelli Trail, Western Colorado (mountain bike)

Our ride was good, although my toosh was sore from the previous day's ride. We saw a lot of bighorn sheep (as usual) while in Waterton Canyon, with some good-size rams. On a side note, we're also playing with food. I can hardly get down and stomach an energy bar these days. Instead of high-dollar energy foods, we're drying our own fruit, thanks to Snowcatcher. The day's snack was apple and peach slices covered in cinnamon. The cinnamon dries into the fruit. MMMmmmmm...



I turned around at upper Lenny's Bench. It was down to the flats now. I don't write much here as I'm always writing about Waterton Canyon and surrounds. I'll talk about several things along the trail. The Chatfield area had a surprise or two.




This little character had some nice markings.




The last of the snow was going, going, soon to be gone!




This is a bull snake; rattlesnakes are on their menu. This particular specimen would stretch out to 4 or 5 feet.




That's it for now. Thanks for reading and viewing!

Adios

Stardate 2016.890

The 2016 Mountain Bike Season Keeps Goin' and Goin'...
We probably will pay for all this nice weather, come spring. Nonetheless, I'm going to enjoy it while I can. I've been hitting Deer Creek Canyon Park quite a bit because I need to brush-up on my technical skills in the rocks. I think I've been too selective on my rides. The former, plus too much road biking. Anyway, enjoy the pics. Not far from the high-point, this meadow should have snow on the ground.




The great plains meet the mountains here, along with urban sprawl.




Not far away stands the mile high city and its symbiotic brown cloud.




Lower segments of the trail have the potential to be a bit wild.




My parting shot is a plug for Giant Bicycles. Of all the bikes I've stabled, the Black Pearl takes a spot next to my 1996 Specialized M2 S-Works. The Pearl's been a great steed!




Stay tuned, there's more on the docket.

Adios

Stardate 2015.252

City Slick'n

Occasionally Snowcatcher and I will ride to downtown Denver for whatever reason. I'm not big on downtown, but it does provide an excellent training ride of about 60 miles, round trip. Snowcatcher often rides it as a commute to work. Moreover, there is an excellent bike path along the South Platte River nearly the entire length into town. Today, we were checking on bike path detours due to highway construction.



First, a scenic detour of Chatfield Reservoir dam for climbing practice. Chatfield Reservoir is actually a huge flood control reservoir. In 1965, over four consecutive days of rain, the South Platte River let loose. The flood flows claimed 21 lives, inundated 250,000 acres and yielded $540 million in damage. Flood control followed.



We have been paralleling the Platte River for about an hour. Earlier, I had done some bearing work on my headset (a headset is the bearings where the forks attach to the bike frame); we stopped so I could fine-tune the bearings a bit. Low and behold, I find Dieter and Wolfgang lounging in an Altoids tin in my back pocket. Slackers! I was curious as to why they were suspiciously gone this morning. I attributed it to them marauding another Friday night spinsters dance. But noooo, they're just lazy!



"Hup to it, morons! I know you don't want me to send you back to Bavaria," I challenged.

"Bite me!" retorted Wolfgang.

"Bite yourself!" I chided. "My gosh, I thought you guys liked to ride, now get after it!"



We reach the end of the bike path and are forced to zig and zag through an old industrial area. A sign said the bike path would be completed by mid-April. The detours are not bad. Soon we roll onto brand new bike path for the remainder of the ride into downtown.



About 2.5 hours into our ride, we roll up to busy Confluence Park, which is the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River. On the west side of the river, REI has restored the 1901 Denver Tramway Power Company Plant into one of their huge flagship stores. It's a fun store to visit.



After some food, water and several minutes of people watching, we point our bikes 180-degrees and begin our return trip. Elitch Gardens Amusement park is along the way, so we stop for some blog fodder. The first to catch my eye is a portion of the Mind Eraser. The Mind Eraser is a coaster where riders are suspended whith their legs and feet dangling. Throughout the ride they blast through rollovers, dives and double corkscrew spins at 50-plus miles per hour. I have ridden this ride, and enjoyed every second of it!



The next ride that caught my eye was the Twister II. For me, nothing epitomizes a large amusement park more than a good old fashioned wood roller coaster. Did I mention the wood supports need to be painted white? Well, they do. The Twister II fit the bill, and we loiter around while I take numerous photos. I rode this roller coaster many moons ago when Elitch Gardens was located in another part of town.

The Twister II comprises 4,640 feet of track, is 10 stories high and sports a 90-foot drop. Even better, segments exert up to 3.1 g-force.








Sports Authority Field. The stadium is home to the Denver Broncos, and hosts numerous large-scale concerts.



The Denver skyline is my parting shot of downtown, proper. Now, it's into the industrial world we go.



We zig and zag the opposite direction along our bike path detour. As we ambled along, we came across the Denver Animal Shelter and decided to ham it up a bit.



Stopping at a Qdoba, we pick up some burritos for supper. Four-hours into our ride, we find ourselves back amongst green fields, only 30-minutes from the end of the line and good grub.

Until next time...

Adios