Actual winter was nice, but May has been a rough month with constant rain and snow, a wrecked back to start, and a week-long cold to end. I am ready for June!
Trained well all winter and didn't gain twenty pounds for once. Lots of running through the cold months then got on to the bike regularly starting in March.
My daughter was born happy and healthy on March 27th and fatherhood has been amazing!
By the time April arrived I was sure that the trails would soon melt out and we would enjoy a long summer riding season. But then it started snowing in late April and has refused to stop. Finally today, May 30th was the first beautiful and sunny day that I can remember.
Threw my sorry back out on April 30th simply riding my hardtail around the rec path and was completely out of commission for two weeks. My wife and I had a roadtrip planned and I was scared I wouldn't be able to ride at all.
Luckily by the time I got to Sedona I was able to gingerly get back in the saddle to enjoy several rides on the trip without ruining myself further. While in Sedona I took a lap on the Hiline trail and had my mind blown. I did walk the terrifying chute into the creekbed at the bottom, but rode everything else... one of the best trails I've ever seen.
Hit the Continental Divide trail outside Silver City, New Mexico and damn, that is some fine trail too. If you access the CDT from the Little Walnut picnic area and head south you will hit a wonderful two-mile flowing descent down to Little Walnut Creek. That section was even great fun on the climb back due to the perfect pitch.
Here's some GPS on that one:
https://www.strava.com/activities/304698738
Visited my folks in Cloudcroft, New Mexico and did a thru-ride on the Cloudcroft Rim Trail. Based on the fact that noone else is likely to do something that stupid, I'm gonna claim a first completer on that until proven otherwise:
https://www.strava.com/activities/304699593
So I was glad to get some riding in on that trip since I was committed to the Gunnison Growler over Labor Day Weekend. My back was holding up but it was extremely tight and stiff (ok, normal) so I was paranoid about riding my XC hardtail, especially since I had only ridden Hartman's once before and still had never seen most of the race course.
Finally I decided to take my Yeti SB66c and focus on fun and not worrying too much about really racing. I knew I wouldn't be too speedy on that thing, but I wouldn't have to stress too much about the trail or the tech factor. So that worked, but yeah, I was slow. I got smoked on the neutral rollout to Hartman's and was damn near last to even enter the actual race course.
I did pick off about 60 people once I got into the trail so mentally it felt like a good race, but by the second lap I was pretty much auto-granny at the first sight of any upward slope in the trail. Did ride all the tech stuff though, especially second lap when I had a clear track. After cleaning the chute on Skull Pass the second lap (1st time was clogged) I got such a shot of adrenaline that I let it all hang out on the loose winding part after only to miss a turn and crash down into the ditch. Good times, no damage, climbed out and moved on.
So I have my time at 7:45 because I coulda sworn that they tell you that the neutral rollout is untimed, but that doesn't seem to be the case according to the results that put me at 7:59.
Fun, but grueling course, and if I race this again I will definitely bring my XC hardtail.
So all my summer goals listed in the prior post are still in play, but I'm stoked to add one more, and even more stoked that it is a bikepacking event:
The Dixe 200!
http://2-epic.com/events/dixie200.html
Rick Miller and I are gonna head down and give that one a shot. Much shorter than the CTR, but I need to get that DNF-taste outa my mouth and get my confidence back. I haven't done enough research to formulate an actual strategy yet, but I'm almost sure I'll ride my hardtail with flat pedals. I've got to find out of that can ward off the achilles problems I've been dealing with in CTR.
So that's what I've got for now..... I'll try to post up a Dixie Preview when I can.
