the grinder

Summer's winding down and it's been incredible...besides the surgery and longer-than-expected-recovery, of course. It's been awesome getting back on the mountain bike. My legs are starting to finally get some sort of cycling shape. There's just so many trails around here and nobody on them. Yesterday we rode the Galena Grinder race course. While everybody was downtown boozing and watching the Wagon Days Parade, we spent the afternoon on a mellow ride up in the mountains. Back in the day, there was always the motivation for racing, racing, racing. Always training and making everything count come race day. Fuck that now, man, I'm old and broken down. These days it's all about struggling up the hills, checking shit out, not being completely spent afterwards, and having fun. The course we rode isn't super long, right around 17 miles. But it's one of the most fun rides I've been on in a while. Everything from big banked corners, to mandatory uphill hikes, to high speed decents and power switchbacks. There was some winding trough smaller ponderosa pines, tree roots and rocks to pop off, and several creeks crossing. After one gigantic, back breaking ascent, there's a long cruise at the base of the Boulder Mountains. It felt like bears and wolverines were everywhere. When China invades the US in 2012, that's where I'll start the revolution. Until then, I welcome fall and can't wait to get really muddy.