Author: Mike

Kenosha Pass Mountain Biking and Leaf-Peeping

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On Sunday, I finally made it up for a ride I’ve been wanting to get in for a couple years – Kenosha Pass during the height of the leaf-changing season. Hans and Tracy (of The Best Muffin Blog fame), Chris, Lauren, and I met on top of the pass early on Sunday to find 31F-degree temps. It was the first cold air I’ve experienced since spring, and I’m eager for more. Not a whole lot of words to go along with this one, just some photos of beautiful scenes.

Getting ready to head out:

Nice singletrack through the aspen:

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Grays Peak – Sophie’s First 14er

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

A week ago at this time I was exhausted, after waking up at 2am to run Sophie up Grays Peak from I-70 (about 13.6 miles, and 4,600′ of climbing). The forecast was calling for an undercast at about 10,000′, which unfortunately didn’t materialize, and which would have made for some great photos. Regardless, it was a fun time. I put together a quick video from the run, which you can view here or click through to the Vimeo page to view it in HD.

XTERRA Curt Gowdy

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This is a few weeks late, but better late than never. A few weeks ago I raced XTERRA Curt Gowdy, put on by Without Limits Productions. They put on great races, and this was no exception. There’s nothing noteworthy about the pre-race – parking was easy, packet pickup was easy, setting up transition, again, easy. The biggest problem of the day was the heat. The late start combined with the June heatwave made for a painful day – and waiting in a wetsuit to start was rough. My goal for the day went from crushing dreams to just making it through in one piece.


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Mt. Elbert Sunrise Bike Descent

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

I’d hoped to do this last summer, but schedules just never worked out. Everything came together this past weekend though – no one was busy with other plans, good weather was in the forecast (save a bit of wind), and there was a mostly-full moon.

Originally, we were going to start pretty early in the morning and finish up mid-day. I half-jokingly suggested to Andrew that we just do it overnight, summit at sunrise, and finish up early. After thinking about it for a minute, the overnight plan made a lot of sense – not having to wake up at 2am is always nice, and we’d miss the hordes of mid-day hikers by being off the mountain before most of them even started.

Photo by Brian Pearson
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Mt. Elbert Bike Descent Video

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Yesterday, I pushed my bike up and rode down Mt. Elbert with Andrew and Brian. Photos and words will be up in a day or two, but the video is ready now. If you’d like to watch the HD version (strongly recommended), click through to Vimeo’s website. Enjoy!

ITU Cross Tri World Championships

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

Last season was my first season dabbling in triathlon. I did four races – a full IM, an XTERRA, a half IM, and a sprint. I enjoyed the XTERRA far more than the rest, and did much better in it than the rest to boot – second place in my (less than competitive) age group – and decided that off road tris would be my focus for this season. A few months ago, I learned that the southeast regional championship, held in Pelham, AL each year, would also be an ITU world championship race, and that I’d be racing for Team USA should be accepted. I jumped at the opportunity, and received my acceptance letter a few days after applying. A few months of good training went by, and following a very long drive, Lauren and I found ourselves at Oak Mountain State Park.

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Bike Season’s Here!

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This time of year is normally for long days climbing peaks and skiing back down, but this winter has been anything but normal. With the statewide snowpack below 50% of normal, I’ve only been on skis once in the past month. Unless something drastically changes, the skis are probably hung up for the year, with the possible exception of closing day. I’m in full-blown bike mode, and put together a little video of my first few rides of the year. Click through to Vimeo’s site for better video quality.

Uncompahgre Peak Ski Descent

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After last month’s unsuccessful attempt, Carl, Marc, Eric, Rob, and myself again made the painfully long drive to Lake City to give Uncompahgre another go; a photo posted by climbers who were up the weekend before showed that our one point of concern was no longer an issue. After much deliberation on the drive down, we got started up the road at 2:30am. Unfortunately, our nice smooth skintrack had been wrecked by snowshoers, requiring a bit more effort on the approach. A little over two hours later, we were back at the summer trailhead and took a break to regroup and eat. Before 6am we gained the climber’s-right side of the gully, climbing up the (now bare) spot we dropped in to it last time. This was the first indication of how much had melted since we were here last. I saw some runnels adjacent to our trail, but it was hard to tell the extent of them – later in the day, we saw that it was quite significant. We stopped here briefly before pushing on.

Photo by Carl Dowdy

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FOBP On-Snow Days

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This past weekend was a busy one, as it was time for the Friends of Berthoud Pass on-snow days. I was again lucky to have groups full of enthusiastic, competent people who were ready to learn a bit of snow safety.

Things started off with breaking out in to groups and going over gear for an hour, before watching a staged burial scenario put on by a couple more-senior FOBP members.

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