Today we ride! Woohoo!
We’re going to try the Foothills trails, and see how it goes. The Bear is walking ok now, and her ribs don’t hurt too much, so the only question is how the thumb is going to do with shifting.
This is Junior at the trailhead parking lot:
And a cool cactus nearby:
And this was the actual trailhead:
This shows that someone has a sense of humor:
The trails were fun! We did the flattest ones (such as they are!), and only got a few miles in, as The Bear started hurting. We did better than we thought – when we went out, it was slow going, but we figured out later that it was because we were going mostly uphill … of course, what that means is that the way back was a lot faster than the way out. Took a wrong turn on the return, but that ended up being a good thing – so good, we’re going back tomorrow, to do some of the higher trails. and amazingly, the altitude didn’t hurt us as much as we had thought it would. Remember, Palo Duro is only at about 2,500 feet, and this place is around 6,500, and we’ve only been here a couple of days, so not much time to get acclimated. We did well, so I’m just gonna go with it!
There were a bunch of cicadas in the area, and the noise is LOUD! Every now and then, I’d get hit by one, and it was really weird, you’d her them go PING-weeeeeeeeeee, as they hit and flew off. My camera did not pick up their noise, just me cussing them. Most interesting.
After the ride, it was time for lunch, so we went to the first place recommended by the guys at the bike shop – El Pinto. Here is the outside:
And this is about half the patio:
The food? EXCELLENT! What a great place to eat! It’s a New Mexican food restaurant, and it was very, very good! So good I forgot to get a photo – bummer!
Well, that was it – time to go home and rest.
Just checking in to make sure you’re both alive, evidently you are… the Bear I’m not so sure, what are you doing to the poor girl! I bought a map of Colorado yesterday (yeah an old fashioned paper one) it’s going to get me in trouble… I keep looking at a town called Fruita… thinking about camping at higher altitude and riding down in the valley. Other must do trails in CO?
Take care, rubber side down and all that…
Oh and I saw you got a tailgater, will be interested to hear how well it works, looks like it could be a sweet little setup for in the road.
We are both alive, thanks! The Bear, yeah, not so much, but she is doing better … sort of.
Fruita is a WONDERFUL place to go. If you end up going, let us know so we can meet you there. We can show you all kinds of places to ride! BLM camping right where the trails are out by 18 road. Look up Zippity Doo Dah and Kessel Run somewhere. And there are a lot more where those are. Serioulsly, let us know!
The tailgater … ah, yes. Works great, at least on day 1. Next day not so good, but we called Dish and the gal resolved it. I have a suggestion for you – if you can aim your own dish, I’d probably go that route. The problem with the tailgater is that it knows where you are (so it can aim itself), so therefore knows not to give you your local (DFW) channels. I THINK you can call them to tell them where you are so you can get THOSE local channels (that you should be entitled to receive), but I have not investigated yet. The Bear says they don’t like doing that. Of course, if you’re near some town, you can use your antenna (yeah, right!).
Well, yep I need to get serious about some travel plans….. I will call you sometime very soon, I see you’ve made it up to AF. I was also looking to Crested Butte as a destination as well, I need to look at your prior blog, I would like to do some Alpine style riding if I’m going up that way.
The only think I wasn’t sure of with Fruita was summer heat if tent camping. I’d seen that Grand Mesa NF is about an hour from Fruita, but 8000 feet up, so I could get the best of both worlds and enjoy some cooler temps. Rode Oak Cliff yesterday with Zak and was out at RCP Saturday. Staying cooler, high 80’s but humidity is way high, which just sucks it out of ya.
On the locals, yep, I think under the FCC license I think you’re only supposed to receive them in that geographic area.. when we would put our dish up it didn’t know we wasn’t in TX anymore.
We’re in Durango, be here for eight days. After that, it could be Fruita!
In a terrible cell phone spot! I’ll try again during the day today, great pics btw!
I’m waiting ‘moderation’…. I see how you are… censored…. what happened to my free speech 😉
Wait, you’re expecting to be approved the SAME DAY? Really? With the crappy internet out here, you’re lucky you’re approved the same WEEK! And yes, I’ll gladly censor you, Richard! What happened to your free speech? It’s still free … I won’t charge you for it until I get back!
Oh, by the way … you could be someone special, you know. Everybody else, once I approve their first message, they’re pre-approved for all subsequent messages. I can change that for you, if you’d like, to where I have to approve EVERY.SINGLE.MESSAGE. Would you like me to do that for you? No, really, happy to!