Gooney Riders

Weekend Photos

French Gulch

Eszter from her race-

Jenny-

Ed-

awe so cute...

una mas-

Spent Saturday in Winter Park matting pictures, watching a bike race and pushing my bike up a new found trail right out the back door of the condo.
Sunday pre-ride Eszter's firecracker course with Jenny and Ed. 
maybe someday I'll have trails in my backyard instead of US36:)
cheers,
chris

Riding with Idols

As a bike racer, there were always girls I would look up to, admire, idolize, if you will.  Using past-tense is maybe the wrong tense to use, I still look up to them.  So when post-WP-suffer-fest, I got a chance to ride with one of these gals, not just ride but to descend one of the most fun trails on the mountain, it made my day.  

Then BC convinced me to climb back up again so that we could take trails back to the condo.  So worth it.  It always is.

I tried to convince Chris to take the day off the bike.  Something about rest and recovery.  So he pedaled up and took pictures on WTB.  I think he's starting to figure out the fast biker/low forest light pictures.

British Chris flying.

Miiiii-gel, the sole other WaltWorks representative.

Greg during his first cross country race ever.  Apparently the last third treated him pretty rough.

Yours truly, sometime before I went careening off the trail while trying to go too fast down wet roots.

Good fun, good fun.  And the best part, the weekend is only half over.  More bikes tomorrow.

A 'mellow' ride

When it comes to riding the 1.5 trails in Boulder County, I have a love/hate relationship with bad weather.  Bad weather keeps the crowds away.  Bad weather can very quickly ruin a perfectly good ride.  But the threat of bad weather is the best...the universe smiled upon us this time around.

Jj came up to B-town for a quickie of a ride before PhD's slide show.  We opted for Walker under stormy skies, hoping, praying, that the weather would hold.  Jj claimed 'out of shape' and asked for a mellow ride.  I, being one of the more lazy people in the sport of bike riding, happily agreed.  I spent the entire ride glued to her wheel, gasping for air.  Mellow ride, right.  Watching her float over sections of trail that I wouldn't even consider riding made me want to come down to Evergreen even more and play on her backyard trails.

Then I discovered that if I used the excuse of taking pictures, I could get her to slow down enough that I could breathe.  Good trick. :)

The weather held.  And during trail rush hour on a Thursday afternoon, we saw a grand total of 3 people.  I've seen more people than that mid-day on a normal workday.   

It was glorious.

Sneak Peak

Sneak Peak at show tonight at Neptunes.  Fish made the tunes.

Trailer for Neptune Show from chris miller on Vimeo.

-chris

Be thankful

If you're a squirrel, be thankful for the windowpane.

If you're lucky enough, be thankful that this isn't your commute.  I have to do it once a week for a month.  People do this everyday.

Be thankful that even if it's 90 degrees out, it's nowhere near as hot as the yoga studio your mom dragged you into.  Yes, I was one of those.  I rode my bike with a yoga mat sticking out of my backpack.  And it was good.  I think.

Semi-Solo Mission

I generally try not to go mountain biking alone.  I have this semi-irrational fear of crashing, breaking my leg, and getting eaten by a mountain lion before anyone can come and find me.  But, on Sunday morning, when the boys suited up in full body armor, full-face helmets, and full-squish bikes, ready to go ride the lift all day, I figured I'd take my chances with the mountain lions.

I reasoned that if I stayed on the mapped trails of the Winter Park valley instead of our normal convoluted route of social trails, I'd have a better chance of getting rescued as I lay bleeding on the ground.   Instead, I ended up getting lost.  A sense of direction is not one of my selling points.  I also saw a whopping one other person for the entire morning, but on the plus side, he was willing to ride, and get lost (at least a little bit), with me.  

And he thought I knew where next weeks race course actually went...funny.

Met up with the boys for lunch.  They were grinning ear to ear, talking about clearing table tops and slaying berms.  Boys are funny that way.  We ate RedCoat's peanut butter and cheese (no, I don't understand it either) sandwiches and watched with some amusment as beginners tried to get down the resort trails.  I feel for them, we've all been there.

We agreed to ride together in the afternoon.  They rode the lift up, slayed berms down, and rode the lift back up while I painfully relived about the first 1480 feet of last weeks hill climb.  Then we raced down the hill together.  They dropped me, but I'm okay with that, I'd feel invincible with a full-face helmet too.  It was still the most anaerobic I'd been all day, even without idiot insurance.

Chris wins the style points contest.  He rode in his BCA button-down shirt dutifully tucked into the pair of thrift-store pants that he wore to both Liam's and Bama's weddings last summer.  Classy.  RedCoat could only pull off the oversized hoodie and free prototype shorts from Domino.  Weak sauce.

And now Monday.  Normally a day to lament that the weekend is over, but today, a good chance to sit on my rear and let the body recover from the weekends festivities.

A day in pictures

A simply divine day of riding bikes.  A nearly 3000 foot single track descent link-up worked out (finally) .  Two new trails spied and on deck to be explored.  Every single weekend of the summer already accounted for.  So much to do, so little time.  Is the pass clear yet?

Pictures from RedCoat on this damp, east coast-esque day, timed to perfection to be home before the rain.

Getting eaten alive by mosquitos while waiting for Chris to try to find the trail from the top.  He failed.  So we rode down the road, climbed back up the trail, discovered where we were, and went back down again.  The link is easy when you know where to look.

Chris: Why did we get him this bike again?

If you twist the camera just so...RC getting artsy with the camera.  I've failed with the camera, 3 weeks running.  I'm glad I have friends who I can steal pictures from.

Glorious.  Absolutely glorious.

What was I thinking?

A bunch of us got together last fall and pitched in for a new Waltworks for Chris.  I think I've created a monster.

As if the boy didn't spend enough time airborne on his rigid bike, now this.  Lordy lord.

This picture was taking by British Chris after we regrouped at the bottom of a long descent, and with very little arm twisting, the two Brits convinced Chris to go back up and re-ride this section for the camera.  Twice.  I couldn't even bring myself to watch.

Come and See Dr. Miller @ Neptune Mountaineering!

Aaron is giving his second show at Neptune Mountaineering.  Last year was a good time with I believe 150 back-country ski enthusiast.  It is free show focusing mainly on spring skiing.  Oh, and B.Y.O.B.  The show is @ 8pm next Thursday the 25th.

The Doc this past Saturday.  

We'll be busy putting slides together and s short film for the show.  

For those that are interested I took a shot of Mt Alice from the top of Taylor Peak Saturday-

so there is plenty of snow left up high.  Recent cool temps and precip have kept the snowpack good.  One heat wave and it is over.  Word is Aaron skied Torrey's in a foot of powder on tuesday... not bad.

cheers,

chris

Thanks Walt!

Enjoying the new ride-

bikes are real fun when the wheels are not touching the ground:)

photo courtesy of RC.

-chris