Another Skinny Ride

Life took me down to Denver for a few days and I managed to get a couple of road rides in during the weekend.  The weather was amazing and it was yet another great day to be out on the skinny getting in some mileage.  The plan is to put together back to back 'long' days.  The long days are still somewhat short in nature at this point in the season but the intent is to grown the duration of these back to back long rides as the season progresses.

I forgot all about the many many options around Denver for road riding and was pleasantly reminded of just how you can easily link loops together to make for long hill climbing days, or good rollers like this ride:

Obese to Skinny Transition

I am back in Denver for a few days and am soaking up the warm spring weather like a sponge!  The past couple of days have been in the high 70's and has made for some great riding.  I brought along the road bike and managed to get out both days this weekend.  Riding the skinny reminds me of just how much fun it can be when you don't have to worry about projectiles being thrown at you while riding.

It was good fun/pain to do some of the rides of yesteryear when we lived in Denver.  Lookout Mtn pulled me into its magnetic field like a moth to a bright light.  The climb up Lookout is always a good barometer of just how the legs are feeling - it is roughly 4 miles and about 1200 ft of climbing. My heart rate quickly hit its season high and stayed high for the entire climb.  As fun as the climb was, the descent was super fun and fast.  There is something to be said for having a local training hill like that in your back yard.  It holds back no punches and will always be honest with you relative to how hard you are willing to work and how 'in shape' you are.  It is definitely a love/hate relationship....

Livin' La Vida Gorda

The latest video of phattie fun:

Wanoga Sno Park Pix

Pix from the snow bike ride at Wanoga Sno Park outside of Bend, Oregon:

nice groomers....

lots of options....

 which way to go?

Bend Snow Biking - Wanoga

We loaded up the car and drove 11 hrs from Montana to Bend, Oregon....our future Home Sweet Home.  We are only here for a few days and the wifer is working so it leaves me up to my own devices to see what kind of trouble I can get into during the day.

The 9zero7 was loaded up in the rental minivan and the plan was to put it to use here in Bend.  The big question mark revolved around just what kind of opportunities exist for snow biking in the area.  As it turns out, quite a few!  There are many many miles of groomed multi-use trails that are just about perfect for riding the gordita tires.

I ended up at the Wanoga Sno Park area which is about 13 miles from town and has an extensive trail system out there with multiple loops.   Some of the trails look like they are groomed fairly frequently so it makes for some fun, fast riding that occasionally give way to great views of the Cascades, most notably of  Mt Bachelor.  The possibilities are fun to think about and it was a good day to be out running into different trail users who were a little mystified by some silly biker riding a bike in their playground.

Below is the ride summary:

Vid Stoke

I can't really tell is this is a Lezyne commercial - since they are pushing their product.  I guess you have to let is slide considering DM is ripping it up as usual.

Pipestone Conditions

Most of the flat and south facing areas in Pipestone are riding well but that soon changes to a mix of mud and snow when hitting some north facing slopes, especially once you hit around 5,700 ft elevation.  There is still plenty of riding to be had with most of the trails on the south side of the road (think 4 corners) riding relatively well.

Pix from the last trip out this past Sat: