Video from the first of several to come big summer rides put on by Dave from Redstone Cyclery.

Flash is needed to view this video.

Also, check out the few pictures I got in addition to the video footage, as well as Jen’s writeup and Dave’s recap. Good times!

This past weekend was the 2009 edition of the Lyons Outdoor Games, and what a treat it was; from water to dirt.

Many more pictures here.

This past Memorial Day Weekend we had only one plan:  To leave the house!  with a secondary goal to dodge bad weather.  The first part was easy, the second turned out to be a bit tricky, but we managed.  The first stop ended up being Manitou Springs with a hike in Garden of the Gods the following morning.

From Manitou Springs we headed south with a stop in Pueblo to check out the trails in Lake Pueblo State Park.

From Pueblo we made the longer haul west through the mountains to the high valley floor.  We wanted to stay in Alamosa, but ended up in Monte Vista since that was the only place where we could find available lodging.  All this, in order to get up early and head to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

From the sand dunes we started heading north again.  It was after all only a three day weekend, so it was time to start heading back towards to Boulder.  But before getting home, we made one more stop.  This time in Poncha Spring, not far from Salida.  We wanted to ride the Rainbow Trail!

We had no travel plans or specific destinations in mind, but we came prepared; for camping, for biking, for hiking, for having a great time with no real travel destinations.  We made all choices as we went and I can’t imagine a better way to spend a long Memorial Day Weekend than so - with my two favourite girls in the world!

Click on the photos above to view bigger versions, and find even more photos here.

Jen and I have slowly been transitioning from ski season to bike season with a couple of recent mountain bike rides on the local trails.  This past weekend we were planning 2 days of back to back mountain bike rides in the high country.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen quite as we had planned.  Jen woke up Saturday morning with a severe migraine kind of headache and spent all of Saturday moving around as little as possible.  We were hopeful that it would go away by Sunday, and it did!  So after a relaxed breakfast Sunday morning, some final hot tub adjustment on my part, and some grant work on Jen’s part, we headed up into them hills.  Destination: the Forest!  More specifically, the Dots up by Nederland.

The trails were in super good shape.  No snow anywhere.  Spring has definitely arrived, even in the higher elevations.  Budding leaves and flowers appearing everywhere - I still to this day smile when I come across “furry tulips” (pulsatilla pantes).  It was the first wild flower I spotted on a hike up Flagstaff when we were first getting ready to move to Boulder.

The Dots are a set of trails in Rosevelt National Forest, not far from the West Magnolia area, and not quite as “public”.  We actually ran into the guy who built some of the trails.  Nice guy, and he gave us a little history and background as well as named some of the trails we didn’t know the names for.  The Dots don’t see quite as much traffic as the West Mag trails, so they are a little tighter in places, and the tight alleys seemed even tighter than normal due to lots of new growth.  This one section in particular, which is always a blast; think “Star Wars high speed pursuit on speeder bikes through the Moon Forest.”

It isn’t all high speed pursuit, though.  Lots of interesting rocky sections are thrown in for good measure.  And as always:  On photographs it never looks as steep as it is.

The views don’t suck, either.  There is something very refreshing about being in the forest looking towards the still snow covered Indian Peaks.

Jen was trying a new bike for this ride.  Her existing fleet of bikes have served her well for several years, but its getting about time to look at replacing or adding bikes to the stable.

On this ride she was rocking the Specialized Safire.   She looked extremely comfortable on this bike and if the permasmile was any indication I think she liked it!

Aaaaahh … the high country.   As the snow melts we will be going even higher…

And oh by the way, we finally figured out the source of the drive chain “stutter” on Jen’s demo bike.   Jason, what’s up with that; I thought you checked the bike ;-)  Don, bonus points for identifying the tire!

What a great ride.  Thanks sweetie!  More photos here.

Mountain biking with my honey on new trail

What the weather looks like now

The crack I found on my bike