Reptile encounter

I initially perceived it as a stick and rolled right past, luckily just missing riding over the head of a big bull snake sunning itself in the middle of the trail.

Big Sis, following a little behind, saw what happened and was less than interested in making a close encounter. However, she was brave enough to provide a cautious smile and pose for scale. The snake was approximately as long as the girl is tall, which is quite a big snake for our little corner of suburbia.

We later saw a small garter snake (alive), another small garter snake (dead), and a shedded garter snake skin, but none left quite the same impression. In all, it was a good ride and a pleasant Memorial Day.

Another trip around the sun

In the middle of July each year around here, it's usually hovering around 100 F. This year, it looks as though we'll have a much cooler respite for most of this week. Today, we took advantage of favorable temperatures to hit the trail. I'd been looking for a reason to take Big Sis on a real trail ride, and marking another year for her was a good excuse.

We started things off as any good ride should, tanking up on fuel. You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but this kid can put away the food when she has a mind to do so. Once energized, we were ready to attack the climb that begins the Hildebrand Ranch trail. The weather couldn't have been better, never getting really hot, and the trail conditions were excellent. We had a great time and completed our loop before the rain arrived. Here's to many more years and many more rides together.

Eating lunch at the beginning makes for more efficient food carrying.

Pointing out one of the talkative prairie dogs that populate much of the area.

There's no shame in pushing. Forward progress is cumulative.

Lots of butterflies and other insects were enjoying a variety of blooms.

Champion at the summit of the climb. 

This butterfly seemed to like the taste of sweat and sunscreen.

She was certain that pixies lived along this part of the trail.

Riding a swooping trail through this field made us feel like dolphins in a sea of dried grass.  

More prairie dogs.

This colony had some prime territory. We stayed a while to watch the prairie dogs yip and scurry.

This valley was a prairie dog metropolis, spanning the whole area.

The trail, edging along the hillside was flowing and scenic.

Just as we were about to close the circuit, the clouds started to appear.

A trail crew of high school students had just worked on this section.

Once we got home, a celebratory root beer float was in order.

A long line of pelicans

While on a ride enjoying cooler evening air, we were treated by an encounter with a string of pelicans slowly passing overhead in a flying v formation. Pelicans are rare enough to see in Colorado, and I've certainly never seen this many at once before. It was quite a memorable sight.

Tarik Saleh Bike Club Challenge Day 7

Scout, Pugsley and me.

Today's ride for the Tarik Saleh Bike Club Challenge was along park lands and trails adjacent to my neighborhood. It was a bit longer than what I've been able to do as of recent, ten miles or so of poking around and riding over various snow drifts and bumps and through ravines. It was not a fast ride, and it had no specific destination, but was a good way to spend part of the last day of the year.

Scout encountered a peacock who was seemingly unaware that it was being evaluated as prey.

Great flocks of Canada geese are present around here all winter.

One such flock of a couple of other birds.

This tranquil cottonwood grove is at the edge of a park.

Lots of good sniffing down among the leaves.

Scout is a trooper. She's up for any type of ride, but is happiest off road, nosing around exploring. The Pugsley and Scout seem to mesh together just about perfectly. I'm sure that I could ride far enough to actually tire her out, but I don't often get a chunk of time long enough to give it a try.

This past year, Scout went from being a nervous former stray to being a top-notch biking dog. In 2013, I hope to take her for some more dog bike camping. In November, we tested the waters, with solid success. I'm in the process of gearing up with appropriate equipment in order to make bike camping an easy possibility whenever the opportunity arises.

Tarik Saleh Bike Club Challenge Day 5

The word for the day was light. As in sunlight. Finally a day ride logged for the TSBC Challenge. As it turned out, I didn't take a lot of photos even though the light to do so was readily available. Instead, Scout and I concentrated on enjoying the weather and following animal tracks wherever they led us. The more I ride the Pugsley, the more its go-anywhere aura reminds me of that of the myriad random dirt bikes I had as a kid. Perhaps not coincidentally, on the Pugsley I find myself doing the kind of exploratory, no-particular-destination type riding now that I did back then.

Back in the old days, I didn't think in terms of long distance epic bike rides, as I wasn't allowed to go more than a couple of miles from my house in my small Wyoming town. Nowadays, I can ostensibly ride anywhere I want to go, but in reality, different circumstances set boundaries on my riding radius in much the same way. I have to seize chances to carve out rides close to home to best utilize my limited time. Something about the fat, omni-terrain tires of the Pugsley makes bounded radius rides on this bike very appealing. I don't have to go more than a few blocks to find inviting dirt or trails of opportunity that are packed with fun things to do and see. It's all a matter of perspective.

Waterton Canyon family ride

The girls at the Waterton Canyon trailhead.

We went out on a grand family outing today, lasting much of the day. This ride was originally slated to happen yesterday, but a few things cropped up to delay it until today. Apart from the fact that it takes roughly the same amount of preparation for a ride like this as it did for the D-Day invasion of Europe, we missed certain windows of opportunity associated with nap time.

In any case, we were all loaded for this morning, and got to the trailhead at a good time, for us that is. However, the little issue of one of my crank arms nearly falling off almost resulted in disaster. I had decided to ride my single-speed Surly Cross-Check, and in preparation the previous day I'd swapped some 130 BCD cranks with a 46 tooth ring for some 110/74 BCD cranks with a 34 tooth ring. This was something that I'd been meaning to do for some time, but the prospect of towing a trailer uphill for several miles spurred me to action. Yet, apparently I had insufficiently tightened the non-drive side crank arm bolt, and the damn thing decided to mutiny on me after a few hundred yards. After a hurried trip to a bike shop for a wrench and a crank arm bolt, while I left girls temporarily stranded on the trail to have lunch, everything was once again in order. Off we went.

The shades are for speed.

My bean green, single-speed Surly Cross-Check as the tractor towing the Burley trailer.
Note the custom cowboy shirt sun shade. 

During the heat of the day, the shade of the canyon was refreshingly cool. We took our time, which, as anyone with kids will know is the only really viable plan of action, and stopped whenever we felt it necessary. It's a slight, but consistently uphill ride all the way to Strontia Springs Dam, and I new that maintaining positive morale among the ranks was essential if we had any chance of going all the way. Luckily, spirits remained high and muscles held out. It didn't hurt that the scenery was terrific and a light, pleasant breeze was working in our favor. The miles rolled by under our tires.

Rolling past ancient rock.

The Cross-Check tugging the trailer under a full head of steam.

Waterton Canyon is idyllic this time of year.

We had a bit more extended break at the bridge, where we snacked some more (thanks for the gingerbread, Oma), threw a few rocks in the water, and took some photos. It's easy to get used to being out of town with some dirt beneath our feet.

The convoy taking a break.

A rare photo of the whole crew captured in one shot.

Me and the girls. I'm happily Semi-Rad today, and actually living up to it.
For what it's worth, I'm definitely in favor of doing over watching.

This can be taken at face value.

The girls. Yes, we're living the dream.

We made it to the top with everyone still smiling, with the exception of the baby who was happily snoozing away. It seems like she's always slept a bit better with a little bit of jostling, whether in a stroller or in the bike trailer. Big sister showed her climbing prowess by sprinting the last several hundred meters just before we stopped for a little rest at the turnaround spot near the dam. Then she got off her bike and climbed any rock she could find. This girl is a climbing fiend.

The whole crew assembled in the complimentary self-portrait mirror thoughtfully installed along the trail. 

A friendly little flying beetle of some sort. Can you I.D. it Tarik?

A couple of sisters having a good time.

Getting down the fundamentals of drinking out of a bike bottle.

Boulder, conquered.

The girls in front of the Strontia Springs Dam.

On the way back down, we got to enjoy the fruits of our labors, alternating between coasting and pedaling for miles. Initially, big sister sought out any ruts or washboards she could find, because as she noted, "I like the bumps." After a while, she concentrated on speed, finding the smoothest parts of the gravel road. She also discovered the 'aero' position by crouching behind her handlebars. I must say that she can scrunch down into a pretty small profile; not much of a target for the wind to hit.  She really cooked up some speed.

Coasting.

Speed demons.

Just when you're least expecting it... 

...she springs into attack mode.

The views along the canyon continued to be impressive, even more so into the late afternoon. A few clouds moved in and diffused the light in ways that neither my camera nor limited photographic talent could capture. When we were most of the way down, we encountered a small group of bighorn sheep grazing along the banks of the South Platte River. A little further down, we saw several mule deer crossing ahead of us.

It's hard to top views like this...

...or this.

This sheep was sporting a radio collar.

They seemed not to be concerned with the human users of the trail.

On the other hand, the deer remained more aloof.

By the time we got back to the trailhead, we had logged about 12 miles. This was a milestone ride for a lot of reasons. It was little sister's first trail ride and longest ride ever. It was her's longest ride while riding on her own bike. It was Julie's longest ride in probably about 10 years. In addition, she also acknowledged that it wouldn't be bad to have a bike with fatter tires for these types of rides, so I may have a to put together a mountain bike for her.

As for me, it was my first ride in which I packed up the whole family in the van to go to a trailhead, as opposed to just leaving our house on bikes. Ordinarily, I am not strongly in favor of driving somewhere to ride. However, in the end, driving was worth it. We've got great places to ride immediately adjacent to our neighborhood, but it wouldn't have been feasible to leave from our house on bikes and get to Waterton Canyon. Perhaps in a few years things will be different. In the mean time, I foresee quite a few more rides like this one, where we are able to explore more of the family friendly trails in our part of the world.

As a postscript, after we got home, we encountered another milestone. Lil' sis did a number of perfect, stiff as a board, Marine Corps pushups and seemingly tried to figure out how to coordinate her arms and legs in a locomotive motion. She is likely only a short time away from crawling. We're simultaneously excited and frantic about the prospect of a self-mobile baby in our not yet fully baby-proofed house.

This kid will be crawling in no time.