12 Hours of Mesa Verde 4.12.13

12 hours of Mesa Verde continues to be one of the toughest races I have ever taken on. This race consists of a 12 hour 2 person team relay on a physically strenuous course. Every year I have done this race I get devastating cramps despite my best efforts with a solid hydration/supplement strategy. Regardless I love this race and there is nothing like a really good beat down. Plus its always fun to race with Mike.We finished midpack somewhere but that didnt really matter because we had an excellent time.!

Pre party the night before

Paul Chen’s gf Rachel catching frogs. I think that is her dog buster in the background. That dog is a character.

Mike taking the start of this race! First lap is always crazy…

Kristian probably getting high in his tent..

The best part of this race is you finish with a cow trough of ice cold Ska beers!! Modis is my favorite along with Mexican Logger.

And a great sunset to finish the day.

Our lap times.

Great Day at Lake Pueblo Trails 3.10.13

What a great day rocking the Lake Pueblo Trails! This bike is so much fun to ride and I love my JPaks!

Wednesday Night Ride 1.30.13

Another great time with the Inflexibles. I convinced everybody to ride the Pulpit Rock trail system and we ended up having a really good time as always. Weather was good except for some wind and the snow was nice and crunchy. Trails on the North side of the park were mostly clear. Thanks Kuhn for taking the pics and vids.

The pizza and beer at Il Vicinos was the shit, love that place!!!!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786

Wednesday Night Ride 1.23.13

Great ride in Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Got some good shots on this Wednesday Night Ride. I have been feeling really strong in my riding lately (even though I have been riding only one day a week). This night I barely kept up with Kip who is a professional cyclist and could keep him in my sights. Although Kip did ride in Pueblo earlier that day for about 6 hours and he was pretty tipsy on the trail after our beer break….

ERMAHGERD!!!!

shot credit Chris Kuhn

Emerald Valley Backpacking trip 12.2.12

I have had a whirl wind of things going on lately and decided it would be a good time to fit in a backpacking trip to trusty old Emerald Valley. A backpacking spot about a 30 minute drive from town up Old Stage road. There is a quiet little camp spot along the creek side with a nice seating and a big fire ring with plenty of dry wood abound. The trail is nice and mellow and about a 3 mile, 45 minute non stop hike.

A cool little water fall not to far after you start hiking the trail into Emerald Valley.

The trail is a nice grade like this for almost the whole way. Makes for a relaxing mind numbing hike.

Fire wood is gathered and camp is established.

This ole 4 season tent of Mikes now Seths is amazing in cold weather. It really stays warm when the temps drop well below freezing.

Beer was brought along and stashed in the freezing cold creek.

Not bad trail food.

I had a nice fire going and it got dark at 5:00pm so needed somthing to make staying out side bearable. I think I still went to bed around 9:00pm and slept really good.

Pictures from around the campsite

An old mine that you pass by.

emerald valley from Jaydude on Vimeo.

I managed to squeeze off a few rounds of ammo as well. Shooting is such great therapy..lol

Backpacking the Great Sand Dunes 10.21.12

I have been to the dunes many times as a kid and even took Seth there but backpacking in the dunes for a couple nights is the best way I could ever imagine experiencing the dunes.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves……

Ring the Peak 9.9.12

So I have done the Ring the Peak in sections and even incorporated a couple interesting multi day rides using part of this fairly large trail system. If you havent heard of it the Ring the Peak trail system is a series of single track and road that make up a 70 mile loop that circumferences Pikes Peak. This trail has a great variety of terrain, steep descents, tough hike a bikes, and lots of twisty fun singletrack with amazing vitas.

For both of these rides I started from my house which is located central part of Colorado Springs. Starting from my house made the total distance about 100 hundred miles.

Here is the rig all loaded up at the spring in Manitou Springs. My new J-Paks worked out fantastic. A shout out for Joe for making such great quality custom frame bags. I got a early start this go around and made the trek out o Ute Pass Trail Friday night.. It rained a nice warm rain this evening and ended up getting some pizza before hitting the trail at a little joint on the corner of Ruxton and Manitou Ave.

The UPT was not a highlight of the route. It has been widened from the fire roads that were cut during the Waldon Canyon fire. And has a nasty hike a bike up the first section of the trail and loose dirt made for a slow going section of the Ring the Peak route.

Getting some water before the nasty Hy 24 section.

After a cruise through Chipita Park and a steep road climb then Hike a Bike you attain the top of the range. This is a great place to stop and refuel gather your thoughts and know from here good time and many miles will be attained.

Follow the signs!

Great little single track connectors litter the route.

My J Packs Ruk Sak.

Water refill spot.

Dirt road crusing for a while.

North Catamount Reservoir

Trees are starting to turn.

Up the road past the Crags campground. There is a fun single track section from the end of the road all the way to Pancake rocks/Hy 67

Its starting to get late in the day and this is a nice relaxing descent to Hy 67 down this valley full of beaver dams.

So as quickly as I can I scramble to get through the Highway 67 section, which is the scariest part of the ride for me (I do not like road riding especially highway riding) Once you get to gold camp you can make good time to the

The day is getting long and my rig keep crusing. I covered a lot of distance this day. I rember thiking on this section of Gold Camp road how nice the 29er is for this type of multi day riding/touring.

This picture shows the outside of my bivy after a chilly nights sleep. I camped at the Clyde area off Gold Camp road right before you turn of for FR 379

There is a long road climb up to higher elevations on FR 379 up to the watershed area.

There is a nasty hike a bike up old seven steps road. Watch out for Jeeps and 4×4 comming down this steep and loose 4×4 trail.

I end up having lunch behind Amagre.

After a nice travers across FR 379 you take Pipeline trail, one that happens to be very familiar to me, for a nice long down hill run back into the springs side.

Crossing Bear Creek on trail 666

Your not done yet! Same some energy for Palmer Trail, Section 16 and Inteman trail.

And what a way to finish other than a fine beer in the shade!

Dam it feels good to be Bikepacking!

Yesterday was one of those miracle days where you felt like your legs could last forever and some how after several hours in the saddle it still feels comfy????

This trip basically ended up being an out and back from my house to the top of Almagre/Baldy Mountain. Lots of vertical and a good bit of miles made for a fun route. Most of the ride ended up being on dirt road and jeep road because my plans of riding single track in Jones Park and camping an extra night were thwarted by a broken spoke that popped just as I reached the summit of Almagre. So after reaching the top I decided to take Gold Camp back down (the way I rode up) and ended up coasting my bike, I am talking that sweet kind of coasting where you never have to hit your breaks or pedal for what seemed to go on and on for an hour and a half or more……:D

Got a late start and ended up getting out the door at 7:00pm.

A stretch of single track by my house on the way to the Santa Fe trail

On the Santa Stinky down by Colorado College.

The worst part of the trip was hitting the lower part of Gold Camp road on a Friday night right at the time every major Dooosche Bag in the Springs decides to drive drunk up to the hills.
I made it up safely after enduring a bottle cap thrown at me and a few fighting words…. Later I pushed up past The Saint Marys trail head where I knew from here there would be much less people since this part of Gold Camp is closed to cars.

Tired and weary I set up camp and stopped riding at about 11:45pm. I ate a quick tuna wrap and slept like a baby. I haven’t used the bivy for a while but worked fantastic for this trip.

A picture of camp.

Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.

My bike packed up and ready to roll for the day. My J Paks worked out amazingly well. Tons of room, superb fit, and rugged. I cant thank Joe enough for the great work on these frame packs. The Snack Pak (gas tank) fits my exped sleeping pad! and the Ruck Sak is handy for a water bottle and a couple energy bars.. In my frame bag which could not have fit better, I had tools, rain jacket, spare clothes, tube lights etc, with room to spare.

Every thing felt balanced and light and was a great first time experience using frame bags. Typically in the past I would load everything on my back with my big Camelbak alpine explore but don’t see me bikepacking like that again. Thanks J Paks!

So after a good bit of dirt road it was time for lunch by Frostys Park. I ditch some of my gear here because I was going to head back down this way before heading towards Jones Park. It was nice to lighten up the load for the alpine section of the ride. I went packless and just used my J Paks frame back and Ruk Sak for this part of the trip.

Thinking of that song ” I wanna go Higher..”

Once you get to this gate you know you are getting close to the top.

There are two summits at the top of Almagre, and I have been to the south one before so decide to summit the one on the north end. Moonscape up here..

Beach like sand at 12,300 feet??????

You could see the Waldo Burn scar on the Ute Pass side..

Less than a tenth of a mile from the summit I was pushed back by a nasty little thunderstorm that just wanted to hang out on the north side of the peak. Thunder above tree line is a bit on the scary side..

So I turned back around and went for the summit on the south end. Looked much better.

So I reach the top in no time and the weather was clearing out. Unfortunately my last torkey pedal strokes to reach the top snapped a spoke causing my wheel to get out of true and rub slightly against my frame.. After efforts to get the wheel back into shape failed, I decided to rethink my plans of single track in Jones Park and just head back the way I came and get home tonight.

One last shot of me at the top (Pikes Peak in the background) I went back to get my gear that I stashed by Forstys Park and It was all down hill from there!

Time to get some more trips in before the season is over. Forgot how good bikepacking is:thumbsup:

Phantom Terrace: The adventures of the Comanche/Venable loop

Another great backpacking trip of 2012. This time was with seth and he as become a strong hiker over the summer. This was a beautiful route and full of adventure. It was a bit busier as far as people goes but its also a very popular route. The highlight of course is the terrifying Phantom Terrace. The Phantom Terrace is a small ledgey trail along side a high alpine cliff next to Venable Peak. It last for about 200 yards or so and most of the way offers terrifying exposure! Check out the video and writeup below. Try not to laugh at the video.

phantom terrace from Jaydude on Vimeo.

Getting to the trail head we stomped our way though the dark, to above treeline, camping at Comanche Lake. It was a tough hike but Seth and I made short work of it.

Here is me having a cup of coffer on a grassy strip by the shore. It was as calm as heaven.

Getting ready to head out of our first nights camp spot.

A look back at the lake before we leave.

Seth is the man!

This has been a great year down in the Sangre’s. This will be my third trip of 2012.

We start to hike up to the Comanche saddle.

Views of the lake below.

A good shot of the valley floor before leaving it behind.

Reaching the saddle I was a bit anxious to get to the Phantom Terrace!

Following the contour of the trail heading toward the Venable Saddle.

The start of the Phantom Terrace! It lived up the the hype!

Seth wasn’t scared! The Phantom Terrace trail gets its name since it can only be seen from above. Down below, looking up, you have no clue where it is….

Looking back at what we just crossed.

The upper Venable lake was good sized and above treeline.

Dropping down to the lower Venable lakes where we plan to camp.

After some rain and hail we found a really nice camp spot.

Nice spot to get water, huh?

Time to pack up and leave.

AND down we go….

Different climate zones.

And this wraps up another killer adventure in the Sangre’s!

Best of Europe 7.21 – 8.3 2012

I am very lucky to have been able to do this trip to Europe. Seth was able to spend over two full months backpacking to multiple countries around Europe. He has many great adventures to share and I was so fortunate to join him on the last two weeks of the adventure. The pictures of the trip turned out amazing. Both Seth and I had camera drama. Seth’s camera got stolen while running with the Bulls in Spain, where mine got dropped on the first day in France and smashed the LCD screen. I was at least able to still take pictures and through some good editing came out with some amazing once in a lifetime photos!

An amazing shot walking through Paris