Flumes in the Fall

This past weekend was about as classic as it gets in the high country, with the leaves starting to turn and perfect sunshine with 65 to 70 degree temps, I had to get up there for one last ride.  Hopefully I will get one or two more high country rides, but we are going to Moab this week for 5 days and once October hits the high country riding can be shut down anytime.

Destination was Breckenridge and some more exploration of the Golden Horseshoe and the many flume trails hidden all over.

Flume....

Looking up towards French Pass....

Flume....

Looking back at Breckenridge Ski Resort....I would eventually make my way through the resort via Toad Alley to the Peaks Trail.

A little further up.

There are all kinds of old cabins and mines in this area.

In the resort....

Almost back to the car....

A Golden Weekend

Great weekend of riding and no driving.  Spent the entire weekend in Golden with one mountain bike and one road ride for about 80 miles in total with a stop at Golden City Brewery.  Heard a new term to us from one of the employees at GCB "IPA Wasted" sort of happens at that place.

For the riding I did a mountain version and road version of the same riding this weekend....just so many options right from our front door.

Orange is the mountain biking version and blue is the road version.  

You can string together many parks in Jefferson County which is what the ride on Saturday was with 37 miles and a painful 5,200 feet of climbing.

A couple pictures from the ride.....the first is the last of 6 really nasty switch backs that took me 3 years to clean.

Looking towards Red Rocks where I would eventually start heading back to Golden.

Red Rocks Trail.....

Pretty nice weekend and a really nice two weeks with 305 miles and 31,000 feet of climbing.  Starting to feel really strong again and looking forward to a few more big rides to finish out 2011.

The last two weeks on the bike....

Winter Park/Fraiser

Made it up to Winter Park again for some more adventuring over Labor Day weekend.....I am continuing to figure out the "local" trails in this network.  There is much more than meets the eye or map riding up here....and the weather was amazing.  Nice 40 mile ride with 4,100 feet of climbing.

USA Pro Challenge

This was a great even all over the state with the final day going from Golden to Denver (with the top three finishers from the Tour of France.  We were able to watch the riders pass through town three times and there was a big screen set up in the park to watch the live feed of the race.  Turn out for the entire week of racing is estimated at over 1 million with the Golden to Denver stage drawing well of 250,000 people. 

I have never been to a road cycling event and this was really one of the cooliest things I have been to.  Really hope Golden gets a stage next year.  So much Colorado pride shown all week....we really do live in a cool state, can't imagine being anywhere else.

Some warming up....

Colorado pride.....

 Here they go....even on the "slow" roll out these guys are going fast.

 Team busses heading to Denver....

 Big screen in the park.....

 Third pass through town before heading to Denver....

 Bike parking.....

 Downtown Golden start.....

 Another from the park towards the end of the race......love our town!!!

Crested Butte

Yes we love this place....unfortunently this year our trip was cut a little short with Sarah's broken foot.  We still got some great riding in, some relaxing around camp, and some hiking with Lakota.

First day was a 40 mile ride......

Some hiking around camp just before Sarah broke her foot.....it was a really nice evening.

Let the healing begin....this process has not been so good, Sarah is not used to sitting around and considering we were supposed to be in Durango riding for a week over Labor Day......well.