Steve Tilford

We got out to Denver just in time to ride over to Golden and go up Lookout Mountain. It’s a couple hour ride from Arvada. It was amazing how many people were riding up that hill. It was nearly a traffic jam. The air is so dry here it feels almost creepy. Creepy in a good way though, if that’s possible. We’re going up to Silverthorne today for a few days. Right to 9000 ft. plus. Altitude dreams, here I come.

Old Coor's Classic photo Tom Moran sent me. Benard Hinault and Ron Kiefel are the other riders. Nice glasses.

A snapping turtle I helped off the road a couple days ago. They are very, very mean.

We drove past Tradewind Energy's first wind farm yesterday on the way out to Denver. It is so huge.

I sealed up some new 29'r wheels for my Eriksen. I got them to try out from Joe Houston, Ellsworth. They held air instantly.

The Ellsworth wheels came with extra spokes. That is such a great idea!

I hadn’t been on a MTB bike since February. That was for 3 days. And not since October before that. It takes awhile to get back into the flow. Maybe a long while. I never got into it yesterday. But I was riding a fully ridgid 29’r on rocky trails. It wasn’t working that well. So, today I spent 3 hours putting my YBB back together. Just when I thought I was done, I tried to pedal and the freehub was way too free. Like free enough that it wouldn’t propel the bicycle forward. So, I thought I was SOL, but somehow I managed to rebuild the rear hub and free up the freehub.

We went over to Breckenridge and rode the Colorado Trail for a few hours. There is no air at 9000 ft. Let alone at 12000. I was unscathed until about a mile from the bottom. I was descending through some of the dead pines and caught my forearm on a dead branch sticking out. It ripped a deep hole in my arm. Like a few stitches deep. Vincent’s wife, Lisa, is a doctor, but didn’t have any stuff to sew it up with. I usually carry that with me, but didn’t. I made a bunch of phone calls, but finally decided to just piece it back together with Steri-Strips and the cover it with Tegaderm. As long as it doesn’t get infected, it is fine with me. I have so many scars on my body already that one more doesn’t really matter much.

Everyone should come up to the mountains sometime during the summer. The daytime temperatures are in the upper 70’s and at night it gets down below 40. Perfect for mountain bike riding. We’ve been eating out on the porch for dinner every night. It is so weird having to put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt because it’s chilly.

Tomorrow we’re thinking of riding over to Vail. I guess it involves a fair amount of hike-a-biking. Riding is humbling enough, so pushing my bike uphill can’t be any worse. I haven’t been missing Nature Valley as much as I anticipated. Is that bad?