Gooney Riders

C'est Fini

I woke up this morning to the sound of hushed voices talking downstairs of the Cat and Matt Mountain Chalet outside Durango.  I could smell the coffee.  I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow when it dawned on me: I don't have to put chamois on this morning.

Of all the hardships of the Tour Divide, the worst part of each day was getting out of the sleeping bag and putting slightly damp, handwashed, filthy chamois on.  This morning I put on a pair of pants, wandered downstairs, ate three bananas, half a tub of yogurt and waited for Chris to make me breakfast.

 

It was an amazing trip, one which I'll recount here once I sleep some more, eat some more, and process some more. 19 days of highs and lows, one day spent entirely in Bonkersville, hypothermia, heat stroke, bears, badgers, elk, rednecks, pie, Swedish Fish, washboards, more washboards, views, and more views.

 

Pretty much the most rad bike ride I've ever been on.

Redcoat Went and Got Hitched

Was in Loveland for a wedding of a very close friend. Wish you could have made it Eszter! 

Baby Waltworks 

The Brits and the Coloradans 

Great singletrack just down the road 
Cheers!

Chris 

Canyon Creek

A favorite.  One of the longest descents in the Gunnison Valley.  

My seat broke on the climb... guess I need to loose some weight.  I slid it forward in the clamp and cranked it down.  Sketchy, yes, but it worked.  

Alone, riding across the sky 

Last year this would have been under snow at this time.  This year, the flowers are already out in the alpine 

 

A twenty-mile downhill pumptrack.  It does not get any better.  Here is 2 seconds of it.  

Cheers,

Chris 

Update

 Pedaling around the valley thinking of what Eszter is up too.... 
Eszter called in from Helena, Montana with a mouth full of watermelon.  She sounded as chipper as ever.  700 miles in and she is a pig in mud.  Her ankle has been bothering her from her previous bikepacking race however.  Apparently Josh had a bad crash on a descent and was pretty banged up.  The other night he was snoaring so bad that she almost sprayed him with bear spray because she thought he was a bear. Not sure what would hurt worse, a crash or bear spray.  

Everytime I sit down and crack a beer, I realize,"Wow, Eszter is still pedalin right now."  

 cheers,

chris

Go Eszter!

I am currently in Nevada for an Enduro race

Strange place.  There is nothing for hundreds of miles... except this town.  The riding is sweet though! 2000 foot rowdy desents straight to casino land.  

Anyways, looks like Eszter has gotten a great start.  Cross your fingers! Beat those boys! 

Cheers,

Chris 

 

Summer is Rolling

Eszter left for Canada with Jarral and Josh en route for Tour Divide

I have been doing some landscaping along with some photo/video work.  Currently homeless.... but its not so bad in Crested Butte during the summer.  The new office

The sweet

Tricky with video work finding fast wifi when homeless, but I am enjoying less time on the computer.  I did a quick video for drunkcyclist.com before Eszter left...

 

A vid on Fly Fishing... 

 

 

Off to Nevada for race coverage.... 

Cheers,

Chris 

 

 

Back on It

Homeless, working, riding.  It's good.   

Eszter leaves for the TD tomorrow.  Should be an exciting month. 

Cheers,

Chris 

Calm before the storm

I leave for Banff tomorrow.  It feels a little bit weird.  The 'To-do' list has shrunk from something seemingly insurmountable to a shopping trip at City Market for some batteries, toothpaste, and antidiarrheal medicine and laundry.  I also need to find myself a plastic spoon.  The bike got a clean bill of health this morning.  As far as I can tell, my body has a clean bill of health.  I did not curb my caffeine addiction.  Working at coffee shops didn't help the cause.  I'm working hard to contain my excitement.  

 

I did my final gear check this morning laying out every piece on a sleeping pad before putting it back in it's place.  Then I went for a final ride.

A ride that ended at Long Lake which was just warm enough for a swim.  It felt good to linger knowing that for the first time in the recent past, I had nothing that needed doing.  It was time to just be.  To enjoy the green, the views, the company, the trails.

 

And I have to say, while I'm not even going to try to express my excitement and anxiousness to get on the road tomorrow morning, I'm leaving with a profound sense of peace that when I come back, I get to come back to this.

Singletrack Post Office Run

I was waiting for something from the post office today.  From where we're camped (yes mom, I am officially homeless, I cook in the dirt, I sleep in a tent, and I watch the moon rise at night instead of checking Facebook status updates.  I love it.) there are a handful of routes to town, which as the crow flies, is about 8 miles away.  There's the highway that I rode every day this past winter. By far the fastest.  There's Hunter Hill and Trail 400 which would have turned the ride into something just short of an epic, and then there's Trail 409.5.  Straight up, to the point, with a wicked descent down to the Strand Hill area.  

 

The fact that we're camped right at the base of the climb made the choice a no brainer.  The fact that there's a spring a half mile up the road alleviating the problem caused when my camel back bladder spilled all the water I'd hauled in to camp (and ride) with helped the situation.  

There is nothing better in the world than cold, fresh spring water.  Seriously.  

Except for maybe high altitude singletrack.

Whose last visitor was not human.  The bear must have been headed to a similar place because I followed his/her track (aside from the part where s/he took a shortcut across the revegetation area) for miles.  If I were a bear, I'd hang out here too.

I added some bonus miles on to the bottom section of my ride because...well, because I could.  For a year when none of the streams are flowing, the canal was solidly deep. 

When I got to the post office, my item wasn't there.  It was probably coming with the afternoon shipment of mail.

I guess I'll just have to check again tomorrow.