Quick Update

I added some picks to the second days post on the touring ride. Enjoy, that is all.

Adventures in Baby Sitting and a Fargo update

Adventures in Babysitting!

Emily and I had a chance to babysit Tobin for Brooke and Steve, he's 9 months old and pretty cute little kid. It was Steve's Birthday, so they wanted to head out to Oktoberfest. When we showed up Tobin was sleeping. So we chatted with them for a while got the low down on the procedures and how to take care of the little guy for a bit. Then they took off.
With Tobin asleep, and making out on the couch seeming to be a bit immature we turned to the TV. We could keep an eye on the little feller through the security system they were using as a baby monitor with audio and video with an infra-red lens so that you can see him in the dark, so it was easy to keep an eye on him. Our first major challenge was to come.
The TV was on BBC, or something like that, and we didn't want to watch it with there being College Football on but, we couldn't work the TV. This was a major stumbling block. They had a universal remote so the buttons were a bit confusing. I was pretty stressed out at this point. After some relocating and playing with the remote we got it figured out! We watched TV for a while then Tobin woke up.
He was a little confused when we got him out of his crib. He's met us before but wasn't 100% sure of us. We played with him on the floor with the stack of toys he's got. Helped him chew on some books. He was pretty entertained by the squeaky noise that a straw makes in a soda cup. He was giggling pretty good every time Emily would make the noise. Check it out!

Told ya he is cute. Sorry about the poor video, it's only a cell phone. We put him in his little push cart on the wood floor. He could move that thing at a pretty good clip! Had a diaper change and played some more but he was worn out and getting ready for bed. We got him into his jammies and around then Brooke and Steve got home. We let them put the little guy to bed and we took off. Pretty good time, Tobin is an easy kid to watch.

Fargo Update

I've been trying to get a front Proteur style rack on the Fargo and I finally got it all figured out. The fork on the Fargo isn't quite like most other forks and the racks I'd had weren't actually working out. So I finally started really rigging something up. Here is what I ended up with:


Looks pretty good and is pretty solid. The crux of the problem with the rack/Fargo interface was that they were both threaded and different diameters. So the post on the rack didn't fit the hole on the Fargo. So I had to rig something up. I ended up using the mount for the front fender. I ran the post on the rack through the mount and bolted them together, you can see that here:

Then I used a mount for an SPD cleat and bridged down from the back side of the fork to support the back side of the post, as you can see here:
The threaded post was angled more downward than where it hit the cleat part, so ther spacer is loaded in tension, which I think is good. I tried to put a spacer in there, but due the rivets on the fender it didn't fit. Then I used some clamps to mount the bottom of the rack to the fork, see:


It is also really close to the head tube, yikes!


It isn't the cleanest of mounts but it seems to be working. I'm gonna try it out and see how it does. My only concern is that I'll shear the fender mount, then I won't have a rack or a fender, fun stuff. Thanks for reading talk to you later.

P.S.
Went for a quick test ride, looks like it works!

mmmmm hoptoberfest. September is one of the better months for beer.

Touring Ride Day 2

Welcome back!

I know you are all anxiously awaiting the report of Day two of James and I's touring ride. We got up and made some breakfast the next morning. I had a new device that allows me to make coffee in my Nalgene bottle. I've got an old BPA filled bottle that since I'm gonna start making coffee out of I should replace with a BPA free one. But, the coffee was good and helped get us started. James cooked up some Oatmeal and I had some dehydrated eggs. This may have been a bad choice for me. Once we were all packed up and ready to go we headed back down the hill, replaying all the free rides down hill we'd enjoyed the day before in my head. I rode a bit of the dirt road we had hiked up, seeing as how the Fargo is like the coolest bike ever. But I didn't ride it all as I wasn't in the mood to find out what I couldn't ride the hard way. Then it was a pretty easy ride up and out of the campground. Just past Deadmans hill, hidden in clouds we stopped at the top of this hill.

Deadman Hill's Summit is hidden in these ominous looking clouds. I think this is the storm that was creating all the wind we fought the day before. At this point, sadly the battery in the camera died. Not like the battery light came on and I stopped using it. Like DEAD, the lens wouldn't retract or close. So I packed it away for the trip. I'm working on getting images off of cell phones and will fill them in when I have it figured out. But, there was a sign at the top of this hill that warned of 12% grades ahead. So that explained part of why we were tired, I guess!

We dropped down the 12% grade ahead all the way back into Masonville. At Masonville James and I agreed that 11% grade is probably the limit for comfortable descending fully loaded with out braking. Also some where around 42 mph, as I hit 44 max through there. All the excitement from the day before activities had cleared out leaving behind only the porta-johns, which I appreciated. We pushed on after giving a lost motorist some direction to Estes Park.

We had made plans to stop on the South side of Longmont to get lunch and pushed on in that direction. We ate and drank and chatted the miles away all the way into Longmont. Having not enjoyed our earlier route through Longmont we navigated a new way. Using some multi-use trails around a lake. All the way around the lake. We didn't know the trail very well and had to turn, we guessed wrong. But are very familiar with the trail system there now. We did manage to come out very close to our intended lunch stop. Which upon arrival was obviously not open. Not like "closed on Sunday", more like we are still building the place and unless you're a contractor with a brown bag lunch, you'll be eating else where. So we trotted back into Longmont and finally found a Wendy's. It was pretty good, something about a Coke in the middle of a long ride that always tastes good. We got a few looks wandering into the Wendy's in bike gear, all be it baggy bike gear, and loaded bikes. We wondered what the people there thought of us seeing as how other cyclists look at us like we are crazy...


*** UPDATE

This is what our bikes looked like. Such a pretty image I put it into sepia tone as well.

***

From here we headed back to the house. Simple ride with good weather. Although, my stomach started to bother me a bit. About 10 miles (40 min) from the house I made James bust a U turn to get to a gas station. My stomach decided I NEEDED to stop, NOW! The bib cycling shorts altered the time line I had in my mind upon entering the gas station and seeing the bathroom door making the whole situation a lot closer that I would have liked. Considering that James and I had eaten almost exactly the same thing, except the eggs, I won't be eating those eggs again.

It was a tentative ride home for the rest of the way but I made it. James and I had a really good time as well. James and I will definitely be doing this all again! If anyone would like to join us let us know and we can plan a great weekend.


And now for something completely different.....

First off, sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this. I had nasal surgery on Tuesday. I was pretty busy getting ready for that and then trying to recover and get caught back up from it. For those of you that didn't know, I pretty much got a roto-router for my nose, open things up a bit. Hopefully I won't be waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air. For the folks that missed out on my recovery period, I had to wear this lovely thing to keep control of all the gross stuff coming out of my nose.
I only had to wear it for about 24 hours, so not terrible. It's a self shot, can you tell?

Emily and I also got to see one of our favorite bands in concert. First we had to sit through taking back Sunday. These guys weren't great. But, you can see the beautiful view out the back of Fiddlers Green Amphitheater of the Front Range.
I'm not even gonna mention how bad the band that came on ahead of them was. Also, if you aren't concerned about the youth of this nation, you better get to a pop band concert. Emily and I were there to see Weezer! They came on next and for the next half hour rocked the house and had everyone signing along in front of this sweet gold banner!


We had a pretty good time. Blink 182, the headliner for the show, played next and were pretty medium. Very "Meh". So we managed to act like old folks and not stay for the encore and beat the traffic. We'd seen what we payed for.

You are all mostly caught up on our lives for now, been pretty boring as I can exert, bend, or lift for another week. Did get in some Wake Boarding, 2 parties, and a Union Ceremony Reception over the holiday weekend before surgery though!

Also, if you didn't on the 11th, take a few moments to remember the 3000+ people who died and the 343 FF's who ran headlong into danger on 9/11, 8 years ago.

Thanks for reading talk to ya soon!

Hey All,

So I'm gonna give this blogging thing one more try. Mostly cause I went on a cool ride and would like to make everyone as jealous as possible.

Here's the gist, James and I rode from my house up to the Roosevelt National Forest and camped for the night then rode home.

Here is a link to the GPS Data that I collected along the way.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8704098

You can click on the images and get a way bigger one, if you dare.......

Dad gave me his old GPS unit. A Garmin Etrex Vista. I was able to plug the route into the GPS from the computer and follow it right up to the campsite. I mounted it to the handle bars with a mount that James gave me. It was great! I've used it for the various hut trips as well, it has been killer for that stuff. The display is going out and will disappear after hitting bumps and you gotta give it a whack to bring it back I perfected an on the bike whacking technique over the miles. Until it dies completely, it works for me! I really like it.

So here's the story

James came up Friday night and we finished some final things and got packed up. I had to teach James how Handlebar Bags worked. He had some crazy stuff going on but we got him all squared away. He also helped me get rid of a bunch of stuff I didn't need to take. We left Saturday morning. This is the two of us all packed up and ready to go on the left. I'm a little dark in the picture so here is a close up of MY bike, on the right. I managed to cram everything into the two rear panniers so I didn't need to use the front ones. I can pull stuff out of the two little pockets on the front of the rear panniers while I'm riding, like snacks and the camera. So I didn't need my handle bar bag either. All of which was given to my by my Dad. THANKS!

Basically we headed up 95th street to Loveland. However, we had to detour over to my work to get a lock, I left it locked to the bike rack at work, oops! From there we took the toe path to the cut off across the rail road tracks and back onto the road. This got us onto 95th St., basically. We hit our first obstacle at 95th and Valmont road in Lafayette. 95th was closed! Supposedly the bridge over the creek on 95th was out, so churned the Louisville Fire rumor mill. Well, we went for it, it wasn't too far up to the bridge as you can see here from my on the bike pic:

We are already past the closure signs but you can see the construction is the light part at the "end" of the road. Turns out the bridge is still there, so we road through some dirt, across the bridge and through more dirt, back onto the road. I accidentally took a quick video, check it out:



It turned out to be a non-issue, as the road was still actually open to cyclists. I spotted a runner who must have come from the "closed" bridge that emboldened me to "Go For It". It actually was really nice cause there was no traffic on a large section of this road which doesn't have a great shoulder. To the LFD rumor mill's credit I wouldn't take a fire engine across it!

We took 95th up to Longmont. In the planning this was one of my worries....Longmont isn't a big town but there is a lot of traffic. We also noted the new Oskar Blues Tap House and Brewery at the south side of Longmont, where we would be the next day conveniently around noon. We made it about half way through town on 95th and gave up and took to the sidewalk. I hate riding on the sidewalk, but it was better than the alternative. Once we got out of Longmont things got a lot better.

95th was a lot less busy and we didn't have any issues with traffic the rest of the way. We weren't in any city areas for the rest of the trip. Because of that we didn't find a very good spot to stop for lunch. So we just pulled off the road at a private drive. Plunked down in the grass and had lunch there. We sat in the grass at the front of my bike and ate, it was good!

Here is James making some adjustments to his bars, you can see how far from the route (the blacktop there) we were willing to go.

We got back on the road and headed up toward Masonville. Masonville was our planned stop to water up for the campsite. Off we went. I think we managed to wander into Masonville on the coolest day of the year for Masonville. Here is what we saw:













Turns out there was a bike festival in Masonville this day. They had music from a Bluegrass band and port-a-johns, and free beer. James had a Dales' Pale Ale and I went with the Gordons' IPA, both from Oskar Blues Brewery. We missed the race, but got to see the award ceremony. Can't argue with free beers and live music in the middle of a beautiful bike ride.


The steeds got a rest as well.From Masonville we headed up into the Mountains. You can see them lurking in the background of the two pics earlier. This next section certainly taught us a lesson about touring rides. Turns out, a bike is a lot harder to ride up hill with a bunch of extra gear on it. James and I did the Copper Triangle, you can learn more about it here, together. We climb a decent amount, we were surprised. Ther ride was generally rolling up hill all the way to the National Forest. Here are a couple of images from our ride up into the National forest. It was a beauiful day and the area to the West of Fort Collins is amaizing. Here is one hill:


Here is another hill:


Even though it was slow going we were still having a great time, as you can see.

We anticipated hittting a dirt road once we got into Roosevelt National Forest. Then another fire road, or jeep road to an area where camping is allowed. The main rule is to be 100 feet from the road and you can pitch your tent where you would like, for free! The dirt road in the park was pretty much what I would expect. The fire road was more like a jeep road than I had hoped. Here is what we found.


To give you some perspective on it, here is James pulling a little Hike-a-Bike action up the hill.


Needless to say we didn't go to teribbly far up this road. It continued on like this for miles.


This was an open spot we found to pitch the tent. Lots of space and only one couple on a four-wheeler came off the road into our camp area. Hung the clothes on the bikes to dry and cooked some dinner. Dehydrated Jamacian Chicken and Rice, we both picked out independently, was the dinner of choice. After a decent aount of reading we hung a pannier full of food from a tree, by linking our tie down straps togehter, and hit the sack. We borrowed a lighter 2 man tent from a friend. The 2-man part of a 2-man tent is a bit over rated. We were in there pretty tight. We opened the rainfly to get some extra ventilation and enjoy the cool night air. Moments later, it started to rain. Rainfly got closed back up. But rain passed quickly and the fly came back open and we got a good nights sleep.

You'll have to tune in soon for the rest of the story of the ride home. But we got in 56 miles and over 3000' vertical feet in gain. Good day for sure with another one to come!