I had figured it would be a pretty good day. Even though a few extra beers the night before had left me with a little less hydration than I would have wanted, I shrugged it off, put the frozen bladder in my camelback, and headed out to do a longer ride in Buffalo Creek with the Front Range Mountain Bike Patrol.
It was hot and unlike most times, we started this bad boy with a climb.
Well, not before taking a good look at the South Platte.
Buck Gulch can become pretty unforgiving, especially in the heat. Let this be a reminder to you, Don't play with matches.
The look on Stu's face says it all. Where's my Mommy? There wasn't even the slightest breeze as we continued the climb. For the first time, I was sucking down water at an alarming rate. What made matters worse is that most of it was still frozen.
Keith was sporting his new ride. I think a 29er suits him well. We'll have a chance to see that orange bike throughout this report.
Ah, the top! A chance to wait for our legs and lungs to catch up and get ready for the best part.
There were two long downhills on out ride today. This was one and Strawberry Jack was the other. The camera didn't come out for the final decent. There's that orange bike again!
At this point we headed back to the CT up 543 and then Tramway. The hurt was on for me. Dehydration had taken it's toll and I was out of "non frozen" water by the top of Tramway. H2O was my goal, so I headed down the CT while the boys climbed Green Mountain. I filled up my belly to the point it would explode at the Meadows Campground and then rested in the shade
Water definately is the elixir of life and I felt totally revived. Once regrouped, we headed out on the CT to ******* Creek trail, then up Gashouse and homestead to the mind numbing downhill of Strawberry Jack.
If this was the end of the day, it still would have been perfect. But, I did get the chance to do some night patrolling for Jefferson County Open Space. It was cool to be perched off trail out on the hogback. There was a concert in Red Rocks and you could hear the music while watching the jet cars and dragsters at Vandemere.
And the firewroks from an eye level vantage point were spectacular!
There's something about this shot that I really like. Yeah, I know I didn't keep the camera still (no tripod), but the movement added a really cool effect.
Great show that went on for 40 minutes!
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