Too Busy to Articulate....

Perhaps once the temperatures drop, I'll have more time (or interest?) for me to "use my words", for I do love words.  But for now, my noggin' is all about the visual. And the smells.  And the feels of wind and dirt and alpine air and pine needles and even of the branches as I slam into them in my clumsy descents of sweet so sweet singletrack.  But today it's all visual...all that I can muster to convey in this post. As such, all I have to offer are some pics today, and the subject matter....divine!

Or, is it a laugh that you seek?
Wanna hear a mountain joke?

Sure, but you won't get over it.

Badampbambam....


Speaking of mountains, some wholesome ones were romped around this summer.  So on w/a few pics to hopefully spread the stoke...

Colorado Trail....ahhhhh....

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Amazeballs. Alpine lake @ 12,400'. Ummm....cold!
(Pic: by uber cool chica @tooley )

Looking south into the Weminuche, the high CT winding thru and some old ruins. And Lil Donkey125 is parked down below at the pass (road, right).
Oh, and some views.

All days aren't bluebird skies and rainbows. Montrose mud.....sucks.
Bikey no likey.

Cool cool uncle showing me a "trail"....yah right.

Fun lil independence wknd shuttle w/the baggie shorts crew...fun!

Watched these lil guys from the day they hatched til they flew off. 

 Speaking of new ones, loved this sunny high-elevation walk with my favorite new mama, her baby chica and of course Turner-dawg!

Yes, in July.

Snuck south to the roots for warmer temps and some family time! Me and the mama on the Gulf.

And for some bike rides w/the mama and aunties.

Then, back up toward the sky about 13,000 more feet.....

Miss @tooley getting ready to JUMP IN that ice cold water! 

This guy knows some stuff!

One of my favorite spots. Zoom in, scroll around, pics never do these places justice.
Can see a lot from here...lots of CT to include those "flawless" switchbacks;  Weminuche, 
Lots of 13ers and 14ers, basically 360d of ooolala.  Meh :)
Schilling, et al, we shall ride (errr HAB) this, 2016.







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Slide Fire

Quick post and a few pics from my tiny lil optic/experience w/the recent devastating Slide Fire up Oak Creek Canyon.  I was on the other side of the globe when it broke out and started getting bombarded by friends' emails asking if my house was ok. (Yes, mi casa is surrounded by far more pavement/urbania that I'd like.....hopefully the market will improve soon so I can get my bootay farther off-grid.)  

Knowing/loving this unique area intimately (see two links below* for some recent pics/adventures), knowing some of the local firefighters, remembering the tragedy last year of losing those fallen 19 FFs at the Yarnell fire, and already constantly annoyed by the tourists, their "need" for campfires and cigarettes, it was driving me nuts to hear about it -- the safety of the people working the fire, the air quality for my friends nearby, the wildlife, and of course preserving the gorgeous land itself.  

I finally got back into town late in the afternoon, with sight of the huge plumes of smoke filling the sky visible from miles away.  See this fantastic pic taken by my local insta-bud Drtjump....  Pretty much sums up the grandeur and what it looked like rolling back in town from the south.  Urghhh....

I was happy to be home and to finally sleep in my own bed, but at 0330 woke up feeling like I was going to suffocate because the air quality was so bad. In town, we were getting this weird atmospheric inverse(?) each night/morning which pushed most of the smoke/ash down the canyon to us.  It had somewhat cleared up by midday, but after another night of that, I decided to just pack up the truck/bike/sup and hit the hills for a few days.  Headed up to unaffected perches of the Mogollon Rim to camp, fend off some jetlag and reacquaint myself w/AZ.  

Much respect to those working the fire (the work continues) and to those still trying to find the perpetrator.  

PSA: 
Please don't smoke in AZ. 
Please don't feel the need to have a campfire just bc you're sleeping outside.  Wear a jacket.  
Eat normal food that need not be charred.  
Plan ahead. 
If you must have a fire, do so responsibly.....in a "safe" area, conscious of wind/etc., have a shovel/ax, don't leave it unattended, and don't leave the area until you know (for hours!!) that's it's totally out.  
It's like clearing a weapon -- check it once, twice, friggin 10 times!

Anyway, the fire is contained up to about 90-95% today and the air is clearer earlier in the days now.  

A few pics always trump words....


Base camp elsewhere for a few days....

Once back home, still nursing a tender knee, I thought early the next morn would be the best time to get in a road ride assuming the air quality wouldn't be too bad . . . up the canyon to spin the legs and to see the carnage.  (The road would otherwise be closed for the next month since they're doing construction at the switchbacks/top anyway....meaning less traffic too...an added perk!)

Taken from just north of town looking up the canyon; you can barely see Midgley bridge here.

Below...as I posted on IG:  "Expecting the worse but found some of the best: still lots of green, no traffic, songbirds and ravens flew alongside, two herds of deer, a few skunks, lots of chipmunks, rested firefighters, clean air by 0830, oh and an un-achy knee.  #makinglemonade #slidefire #sliderock #cycling #pleasedontsmokeinaz#pleasewearajacketnotacampfire #ijustwannaride"

(Slide Rock....a little over an later on my way back down the canyon...wind had picked up and much of the smoke had lifted. First time I've EVER not seen hordes of people playing in the water...it was awesome to say the least!)

There was definitely some carnage up there but with all the green foliage in full bloom, it was hard to see.  (But you can scour the internet for pics the crews took of the burns; personally I didn't leave the pavement....still not allowed to anyway as the fire is not 100% contained.) Surely the carnage on the eastside of the ridgeline (west of road) will be more exposed in the winter.

Please burn responsibly.

* Links: 
 - Schillingsworth's tale of our recent traverse of the top of the canyon along the rim which btw during the fire was all totally closed off and perhaps burned (definitely the Woody area); 
 - Half-Dirty Century  - an old post of mine.




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Makin' Lemonade Outta Injury/Recovery...

Well, knee surgery has come and gone. 

I was on the bike the very next morning.  Of course it was just a stationary trainer at the phys therapist's office, but I was surprised (and excited, and scared) that they'd wanted me on it so quickly. Seven whole minutes.  

I was pretty optimistic the first week.  But it's been three now and it still hurts.  The worst of the pain is gone (the bone fragment that had gotten lodged in the joint), but the bone-on-bone dead front/center of the kneecap....ouch.  Trying to be optimistic, trying to be patient, definitely being conservative.  I realize this is NOT one of those times to "suck it up" and push through it, as doing so would just fracture the bone further. I've been super lucky to be in the hands of the team at Athlete's Performance, although they can't help when it comes down to my impatience, my "wear and tear" and now travelling again.

Was so hard to go from all day of riding/playing this summer to nada, zip, zilch.  All that altitude/base/climbing work...gone.  The positive, however, though is that AT LEAST I GOT SOME AMAZING RIDING IN THIS YEAR!  Keep having to remind myself of that!  Colorado multiple times, Chile/Andes and home sweet home Arizona.  Definitely earned some good dirt this year (and a few podium spots somehow).  I'll savor that, but we all know it's really all about TOMORROW.  So, I'm hopeful I won't have to rely on past memories.

And not that I like lap-swimming (hate it!), but I was really looking forward to getting the stitches out and at least getting back in the pool. Was craving getting my heart-rate up again.  The the Dr said "no"...wait another week for the ports to close/heal up.  Ughhh.  

So, I loaded up the truck with my bike/trainer, all the cold-weather clothes I own and my buddies' dog who I was supposed to dog-sit for anyway (I love me some Turner!), and headed back to Colorado.  I figured I could sulk at home or sulk at 9500' elev and w/a new view; also knew I would never go there if I weren't injured as I hate the cold and feel limited in snow.  So, this was a perfect time to see its awe, pedal in place and try something new. 

In the interim, some random shots of what kept me occupied before/during/after surgery.  Thank goodness for good friends and amazing canines! :)

Buddy Jen & me. Two desert rats trying out some SUP (paddleboardin'). 

Looking for wild burros out on the paddleboard the night before surgery. (A redrockchica "tradition" it seems.) 

One of the several loose bone fragments Dr pulled out.

36 hrs later on trainer. John/Jen's back deck...w/loyal ol' Kelly-dog.

Loaded up and heading to the Rockies. Turner-dog in tow.

Of course, a blizzard hit immediately. Turned out to be kinda fun.

Vid - Turner lovin' it!

The next morning.  Ooo la la.

Then back to AZ...

My first "real" ride.  My buddy Schillingsworth gave me a tour of some of the canal routes and hung back at my snail's pace. Flat but at least outside!  Happy to have wind in my face again. (Don't mock the kit, I was out of practice and it was surprisingly freezing down in the valley. Whatevah!)

Extra big thanks to the crew who put up w/my injured ol' bootay and who cut me some slack on me being jealous every time they talked about their adventures outside!  Especially thanks to Jen, John, the girls, Dredd, Ed, RE, BP, Matt, MB, JZ,...gracias!!

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Rambling...

 Looking up toward (and longing for) Four Peaks.

for those with whom i've been slack on comms recently....sorry.  no valid excuses.  just some insight....

w/this injured hinge, i'm living inside a body in which i'm not familiar, not at home.  it doesn't do what the rest of it wants to do.  it wants to sprint up a mountain, pedal over a crest, a million other things that it doesn't even yet know it wants til it gets its urge.  

but now it's just a shell that the girl inside is trying so hard not to be mad at, trying to stay loyal and thankful because that same shell -- and broken hinge -- is pretty much solely responsible for the best days of her life, biggest/hardest lessons learned in life, and surely for some of the biggest grins ever.  

the heart and soul and legs and lungs and wild eyes want to run as hard as i can, but the hinge won't have it. that little millimeter of "ouch" is a meteor-size NO!   so while i have all this time on my hands, it'd seem easy, practical actually, to just take advantage of doing other things, and perhaps to get to know someone/something new.  but it's not that easy.  i dont want someone learning this version of me.  i dont even like this version of me.  it's foreign.  it's so far out of my element and comfort zone.  it's a lot to handle up in the ol 'nogin.

spoiled i must sound, and spoiled i surely am.  my life has been about movement about freedom about doing what the body wants....and now the emergency brake is on and i dont want it to be.  time is ticking and i've got to relearn a rhythm...hopefully a temporary one in hopes that this is fixable, that I myself will be fixable.

i rely on no one but myself for contentment, for fun, for grins, for satisfaction....and right now i've let myself down.  but i can't be mad at that little worn-out hinge.  i've surely abused it, and i'm sure it's already given me, in my short lifetime, far more than most would ever dream of.  so woe is me and my spoiled rotten little pity party, haha.  i'll survive.  it's not cancer, i realize. life is not over.  but it is a big deal for me and showing myself in this light is ill-advised.  while yes, it's the real me, it's not the best me, and it's really not even a passing grade.  i'm too distracted w/HEAL HEAL HEAL...

in the interim, there's a big ol purty world outside and i need to admire it...and figure out how to either get me running on its ridgelines and/or just exploring it while letting the lil hinge heal up.

And finally, the sun setting upon Four Peaks....a special few moments of pure chance that I was able to see the sunkiss upon the peaks in the one saddle where the peaks peaked through.  A sweet ending to a sweet day....

Rocky Mountain Dirt & Unplanned Bliss

After my early summer adventures/races, I feared I'd blown my knee for good.  I've known (via several surgeons and my own foresight) that my knee's lifespan is limited.  I went 3 weeks not even being able to squat 20deg nor even sleep face down because the kneecap was protruding forward so badly.  "Fortunately" (?), I had to travel for work for a few weeks so (a) was preoccupied with work, and (b) wasn't tempted/depressed by seeing my mountain bike & trails to run on nearby daily.  I'd tried a few times to get on a spinbike, but frankly even 15-20 minutes of easy spinning killed me.  I just tried to justify it as needing time for the swelling to go down and that maybe it was the size of the cranks on the bike (too long).  So, I just did some maintenance stuff for a few weeks to stay somewhat fit and reluctantly wondered if my running/riding days were over, and hoping that when I returned home, a miracle might happen.

I finally made it back home and reunited w/my bike.  The first day was a goatrope.  I rode for about 30 minutes before collapsing on the side of the trail - likely a combo of jetlag (50+ hours straight of sitting on planes, trains, automobiles), heat exhaustion (rocky trail near my friends' home in Mesa, AZ) at sunrise,  a newly busted hand and sheer lack of fitness.  But then I tried again the next day.  It still hurt, but less so.

I was scheduled to race at Beaver Creek, XTERRA, that weekend, and simply knew that I had no personal governor when it comes to racing and I feared that if I towed that line, I would likely kill my knee forever.  Plus, all those colorado girls would kick this sealevel girl's bootay! Ha!  So, after much internal debate, I opted not to race.

I still wanted to ride in Colorado.  I get to go/ride there so infrequently and figured why not just go explore all those epic trails -- without a race, without a stopwatch, for the sheer joy of RIDING a bike.  Maybe the absence of "training" and a "clock" would help me to rehab my knee. Of course, coming from an early summer at sea-level, it might be a challenge, but typically, I handle the altitude pretty well and figured it beat sulking in hot Arizona.  And, frankly, while I ADORE the red rocks of Sedona, I wasn't in love with the idea of fighting rocks and techy trail this summer.  Seeking big mountains, huge climbs, aspen, long and fun descents.  Rocky Mountains!

So, I loaded up the truck, the bike and some camping gear and hit the road.    I'm lucky to have a flexible calendar and wanted to exploit the summer to its fullest this year.  I hit up everyone I know who KNOWS Colorado singletrack and got tons of 411.  Biggest shoutouts to the Turner fam -- Matt & Timoni -- who between the two of them pointed the lil' carbon caballo on most excellent dirt several times.  Super appreciative!

Love crossing the rez at sunset...magical sunset glow.

So, I eased into it, first stop Telluride, rode w/some friends.  I felt the knee, but less so.  Then again the next day, riding easy, the knee was ok.  Wha???   Not sure why I was suddenly better.  Back to my shorter cranks? Better fit on the bike vs a standard spin bike? A few days off from running?  Colorado? I never figured it out.  Rather, I said a few thank yous (to God, Allah, the bike, etc.) and promised to not take it for granted! :)

Of course, I didn't get to ride ALL the trails I'd hoped, but heck yeah a lot of it.   Lots of the epics.  Telluride, Crested Butte, Almont, Fruita, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt, Cortez, etc..  Big mountains, flowy dirt, chunky rock, jeep passes.  Most of my days were above 8000ft elev, and several times above 13,000ft, well above the treeline.   I handled it pretty well.  My legs definitely lacked some needed punch several times.  Found I had to push the bike a few times in places I wouldn't have had to were I a mile lower in elevation.  But I loved it.  Found myself grinning a lot!  Definitely bliss.  Looking back at some stats, looks like I rode 1-2x a day on NEW dirt, pedaled about 250 miles and a glorious 40,000 in about 10 days of riding.  Yes, less than Coconino250/La Ruta/etc; but again, this was for FUN, for EXPLORING, and while yeah hitting it hard at times, I definitely stopped to smell the roses, and mock foxes, and oogle black bears, etc..  (One of the rides was about 5500ft climbing in a mere 20miles, and up to 13K' which kicked my bootay!)

A huge perk was that I even ended up getting to ride w/some friends along the way.  Few of those joint rides were planned, but popped up as great opportunities along the way! :-)

Even some of the best riders find themselves having to push "easy" pitches when nearing 14,000ft.
Corkscrew gulch, near Ouray.  

Jess, leading the way for Patrick, Jason and me, near Telluride.  

I'd recruited a buddy to do some bikepacking and traverse one of the best sections of the Colorado Trail (CT), but being in the midst of monsoon season, it became too risky to get stuck up there on a certain long exposed sections during lightening/electrical storms -- which that particular week was seeing many of.   Of course, my impatience tried to beg borrow and steal to convince him to just go for it, but in the end and after a morning "recon" session, we opted out -- and nearly suffered hypothermia from the experience.    I was bummed but knowing how I have no tolerance for wet/cold as it is, it was probably good I avoided a melt-down...and death by lightening of course.)

Wet rat on the Colorado Trail.
Cold, soaked, off-route and realizing that my hopes for the full-passage the following day was not going to happen...due to the weeklong summer storm in the San Juan range.

Pics never capture moments precisely, especially when the actual vistas are so pungent of vast space, vivid colors, crisp air and the magnanimous appreciation of good health and insanely happy lungs and legs.  Yet, I'm glad to have photos.  For soon, I will be back at work, with no time.  No bike.  No mountains.  No freedom to go go go.  No imperfectly angled climbs.  No glorious deep breathing.  No options for quads to argue for more.  No irrational fear of mountain lions stalking.  No sweet anticipation of what's around the next ridgeline.  No cramping hands and triceps from sweet descents (e.g. Doctor Park!).  No laughing, chasing, freezing, sweating, suffering, alongside riding partners in crime.  No passing out from sheer exhaustion and exhilaration only to wake up and saddle up again.

So, these pics will remind me of my summer stoke - and maybe inspire others to just pack up and go hit the trail (or whatever your equivalent is)!   It's somewhat hard for me to see these pics now, hard to not be bitter that I can't go back tomorrow today.  But hopefully I'll have next summer.  And the next.  And the next.  En sha allah.

Or, as a friend pointed out, this little globe we live on always has summer somewhere on it.  So, for now, I'll try to stay drunk off the summer sweetness and start hatching the next lil excursion.

Ideas???

Birthday morning ride to above the treeline. Near Silverton.

Between Ouray and Silverton...California Gulch I think (via Corkscrew).

Happy camper, climbing to the moon!

The MTB diva Tina on her SS pony...showing me the spectacular colorado trail above Durango.

Ol Black Bear seems to be going where I was planning to go.  Thank gawd for Johnny Cash songs aloud, and my persistence to tuck into that aspen forest anyway.  Near Aspen.

Morning venture. Near Crested Butte.

Perfect for soaking the legs between the am/pm rides.  Near Almont.

Wrapping up the snodgrass trail. Fast fun look, near Mt. Crested Butte.

Singletrack discovery near Cortez.  Amazing circuit of Anasazi ruins along the way.

At around 13000'.  

A solid riding partner. Just say "go" and the boy can "go". Turns out he can climb bout as good as he can DH.

           Pushing up a (sorta) steep pitch...way above the treeline....loving it! Red Mtn, Imogene, etc. in the background.

              Lars, leading the way along the Colorado Trail -- pre-rain/hail/slopsoup fest.  What a day!