June 22nd, 2011, between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park on the Ashton-Flagg Ranch Road with a considerable amount of snowpack still lingering. At around 9:00pm last night, I was rolling through downtown, when a drunk dude threw something at me.  I’m not into this.  I quickly locked my brakes and came to a screeching Continue reading…

    Yesterday, I was researching untested terrain to ride my bike up to. I was looking for mountain roads I have yet to try out, which is slim pickin’s in the winter time, as road conditions are going to suck anywhere with surprise! ice on the roads and inclement  weather means a snowstorm, not Continue reading…

Mon: ~35 miles ride around Cherry Creek Res. Wed: ~15 mile hike up Sobo/Bear/Green in a snow storm The rest of the week was quite a wash. Had a trip planned for Winter Park and a hike, perhaps even up to Parry Peak (which would have meant doing James and Bancroft – and again on Continue reading…

Plans to take on Sniktau -> Cupid -> Grizzly were defeated before they started – my ride fell through, sadly. Thems the breaks when you go carless and rely on the kindness of other people to get you to pokier parts of town. Like I wrote before, it seems the rule, rather than the exception Continue reading…

Currently, hanging out in Breckenridge, enjoying a quiet Christmas, getting my leftover mimosa on – getting up early tomorrow to hike a few mountains. Perhaps something like this:  Sniktau -> Cupid -> Grizzly (with a very small chance of Torreys, but time is a factor). The trailhead starts at ~12,000 feet, which feels altogether cheating! Continue reading…

“So where did you come up from?”, the lone other person on Bear Peak inquired. I thought for a minute, but I had no real good answer. “Hmm. Over… uh, there”. I pointed basically North of us, which points to a rocky outcrop called Nebal Horn. “When you go back down, you’ll see my footsteps Continue reading…

My most awesome and patient LBS was helping me with an out-of-true wheel the other week. We sort of went overboard on the thing and the mechanic decided to overhaul the whole damn thing. Once we tuned up the White Industries Dos ENO freewheel, replaced the bearings and replaced the track nuts, talked about adventures Continue reading…

It’s been about 5? months since the 2011 running of the Tour Divide and I’ve been quite quiet here this site. Kind of want to apologize, as my intention wasn’t to show you how I trained, do the race and then: disappear.  5 months is a long time to recap, so I will barely try Continue reading…

In the Gila National Park, holding up the broken pedal I’ve been “riding” with the help of some found rope used to tie it to my shoe Kent Peterson, Bike Wrenchin’, Randonneurin’, Fixed-Gear Ridin’ and Positive Bike-Advocacy Guru was kind enough to interview me with some questions fielded by the curious about my Tour Divide Continue reading…

One of the final parts of my entire Tour Divide kit that I got together was my photography equipment. Like the rest of my gear, it had to fit some fairly extreme constraints: not too big, not too heavy and able to survive the trip. I settled on the Olympus PL1 PEN, which also has Continue reading…

I have literally just touched down back in Denver, but while I was racing, there was an intense interest in my race, no doubt because I decided to take the standard, completely snowed-in route – and completed every part of the race that was rerouted because of snow. To find out there was so much Continue reading…

Below is the Tour Divide Race Map! Find my personal page here to see how I’m doing. There are a TON of alternative routes because of snow, but I intend to tramp through as many as I can via snowshoes and pure, unadulterated will. And foolishness. I may be dead last, but one of the Continue reading…

Four days, 420 miles, 4 continental divide crossings, 9 hours of snowshoeing, two days of minstrel headwinds,snow showers and over-caffeine-ation. “Well,” said the shaggy man, “let’s start on, or we won’t get anywhere before night comes.” “Where do you expect to get to?” asked Dorothy. “I’m like Button-Bright. I don’t know,” answered the shaggy man, Continue reading…

A beautiful Sunday in Colorado. A nice 80 miles riding to White Ranch to Golden Gate Canyon State Park and taking Golden Gate Canyon Rd. back to Golden. Find some new-to-me trails to ride around in Riding feels strong, I’m about 5mph slower loaded than unloaded, a little worse on the climbs. Pretty pleased at Continue reading…

Having covered our plains with highways, factories and cities, having subdivided our hillsides into suburbs, having deepened and dammed up the rerouted our rivers to make seaways or sources of electric power, we have left only the ocean and the mountains to remind us of what we cannot do to the landscape. — Isabella Bird,  Continue reading…

A short tale of overdoing it. I decided earlier last week that I should join the Colorado Randonneurs on their 300km on Saturday. “Haw haw”, I thought, “I could polish off a 300km ride no sweat” In fact, my plan was to ride the 20 miles to the start of the ride, ride the ride Continue reading…

White Ranch Open Space Park, clear skies Snow Squall moving In Snow still around at the top of the ridelines in Golden Gate Barker Dam, Nederland Public Sculptors of a former professor of mine in Boulder I spotted a dirt road from Golden that seemed to go all the way North to Coal Creek Canyon Continue reading…

Rode 105 miles on Wednesday, far more than I intended, but happy nonetheless to cover the miles. The original plan was to ride fairly directly to Idaho Springs and follow the, “Oh My God” road to Central City. “Oh My God” is, I think, simply an old dirt road first graded during some gold rush,used Continue reading…

A Tercel is a Young Male Hawk Falconers used to believe that the third hawk egg in a clutch would be a male. So they call a young male hawk a “tercel” from tertiius, “third.” Who knows why carmakers name their cars the way they do. Taking the gas cap off            stick it in my Continue reading…

Sunday: Rest? Mon/Tue/Wed: total of 73 miles Thursday: Rest? Friday: 94 Miles Saturday: 43 Miles Total Mileage: 210 Miles Except for Friday’s crushing 94 miles, this was a pretty chill week. I had planned much more epic trips, but they didn’t quite materialize, if not for me not being ready, because the weather last week, Continue reading…

I recently grabbed a SPOT II GPS messenger to play around and get familiar with, before the big Grand Départ. Here’s a tracking of my ride on Thursday: You can kind of tell that I left from my doorstep, went through downtown, took the Platte River bike path to Bear Creek Lake, fumbled around some Continue reading…