May2, Lions to Troy Built Trail, Fruita CO.

Back to Kokopelli area, one freeway exit West of Mary's off I40.   Rode Lion's and Troy Built to make a ten mile loop.

May 1, Butterknife Trail, Grand Junction, CO.

Brand new 8 mile singletrack that is on the East edge of the Lunch Loops.   Part of a motorized area, but didn't seen any motorcycles on the skinny Butterknife trail.   Unfortunately trail starts high and finshes with an 4 mile jeep road back to the top.  Definitely worth doing.

After the ride we hit Sonic Burger and refilled.   Then part two of the day, headed back to do Mary's and Horsethief with our friends Bill and Renee who drove in from Boulder.  Grand total of 20 miles for the day.

April 29. Sovreign Trail, Moab, UT.

With rain clouds blowing over Fruita, we headed West until we hit a clearing in the weather.  The Sovreign Trail had been on our hit list since our last trip to Moab.  We finally hit it, and it was probably our favorite ride on this trip.   The weather window lasted just long enough to keep us dry.  The views of the La Salle mountains, with fresh snow, were great.   Highly recommend this trail!  We did an out and back with a little figure eighting on some connecting trails.   Did 12 miles, but could have continued further out on the trail system if we were more motivated. 

April 28, Highline State park, CO.

With winds gusting to 60 miles, and Francine's shock getting rebuilt in the morning, we tried something different: Highline State Park 6.75 loop around a lake.   Site of the annual Fruita 18 hour race.   Very little elevation gain with smooth trail.   Nothing to ever go back for.   If you do the race, drink lots of beer  and ride a singlespeed to make it interesting.

April 27, Lunch loops, Grand Junction, CO.

Day 2, Up Pete Ekes/ Pre-nup, and down the Gunny loop.  12.5 miles.

April 26, Kokopelli Loops, Fruita CO.

Day 1 of our Colorado/Utah trip. Started the trip at the kokopelli area with a ride guaranteed to bring a good time. A true classic of the Fruita, Co. area. Rode Mary's to Horsethief, Steve's loop, then Moore fun back to the start. Hooked up with a couple of Canadian guys from Vancouver island. Ride was only 14.5 miles but the climb up Moore Fun imparted a good leg burn.

Francine with the Colorado river below.

                           

April 22, Fringes of Red and the Kendall Katwalk

Crispin prepares to slide into the unknown.

I had a plan.  Do something new.  How about a circumnavigation of Red?  With new snow firmly bonded to old we made excellent time to Red Pass (2hr).  Unfortunately our luck ran out at the pass.  A persistent gray layer was obscuring our 1,700 foot descent into the unknown.  Our chute was firm and hard and we could only hope it went through.  In a moment of caution we decided to retreat.  We made turns back down to the SW edge of Red then climbed up the drainage between Red and Kendall.   At the ridge we headed North in search of the famed Kendall Katwalk.  We found it cloaked in a layer of snow, except for a small patch where we had lunch.  The turns back down were the best of the day, and all agreed it was a good way to spend the day.

Crispin

Brandon

Kendall Katwalk

April 19, Rat Pack, Roslyn, Wa.

Rat Pack is snow free and in excellent shape!  Get it before it gets dusty.  Ran into trail creator Michael who was busy tweaking the trail for optimum flow.   Also, the trails above Roslyn are in excellent shape.  The newer trails built by Norton and friends in the last couple of years make the climb up to the ridge a lot more interesting. 

April 9, Sage Hills, Wenatchee, Wa.

Francine crosses a canyon draw with groovy sand formations

Headed home from the hills

Headed back to the East side of the mountains for more sunshine.  This time we went to Wenatchee and rode right out of town.  Parked at the end of Fifth St. and rode up into the Sage Hills area.   The trail was smooth and buff, with the challenge being some of the steeper climbs and a few narrower trails as we ventured higher up.   A great ride for the cardio, but not very technical and only about 12 miles of trail. 

April 5, Cowiche Canyon, Yakima

Headed East for more sunshine.  Cowiche Canyon was in perfect shape with smooth trail and lots of wild flowers.

April 3, Kendall Tree Skiing

Northwest Avalanche rates danger at HIGH above 4,000'.   HIGH means natural and human triggered slides likely.  Travel in avalanche terrain not recommended!  Thanks to dire warnings, our crew of 6 had the entire Kendall area to ourselves.  With new snow in last 24 hours reported between 13" and 24" we were in a good position for some extremely good powder skiing.   With our crew of 6 rotating breaking trail, we quickly busted a beautiful skin track up to treeline in the Kendall basin.   With abundant energy and great snow we made mutiple 1,000 foot runs.   After four laps I was cooked, but Seth, Crispin, and Jon stuck it out for at least one more run.    Didn't get many ski shots since the skiing was so good, it was hard to stop and pull out the camera.  Not to mention it was hard to catch someone before they flew by.

Greg

Crispin enters the white room

Seth                                           Kevin

The crew, Ian, Seth, Jon, Crispin, Kevin, and Greg took the picture                     

March 24, Ancient Lakes

Went Mountain Biking with Francine at the Ancient Lakes area.   It is due North of the Columbia Gorge amphitheater.   Very cool trails and small lakes above the Columbia River.  We did a nice 20 mile loop.   This could be a classic spring ride.  Hit it early while there are no bugs and the soil is still firm.  Stole this shot of one of the lakes.  I brought my camera, but forgot the battery.  Bummer, lots of great scenery.

I snagged these images off MTBR.   For the ride we parked at the North end, then rode South above the river, we diverted up the first canyon to Ancient Lakes and back, continued S. skipping the Dusty Lake canyon.   We were worried about time and distance.   At the South end of the map you come out right below the Ampitheater.   Hung a hard left and climbed up to the top of the Mesa and headed back North.  Passed a couple small ponds.   Eventually hit the gravel road by some bigger lakes, passed signed trail to dusty lakes, then after much searching found the trail that drops back down into the ancient lakes canyon.   Nice ride, good variety.   Only the gravel road section was kinda lame.  Also we did hit the road fairly far South to avoid some hike a biking sections.

February 27-March 5, Jackson Hole, WY.

Francine and I were  invited to spend winter/spring break with my sister's family at Jackson Hole.  We enjoyed four days at JH and one day at Targhee.  I also did a solo day at Teton Pass.  Skinning at 9'000 feet really made me appreciate chair lifts!  Unfortunately we did not get any storm cycles, but the sunshine was very nice and JH had received a foot of new a couple days prior to our arrival.

The Webers; Lenny, Maddie and Jack below Tower 3 Chute

Jack negotiates the rocks, trees...

Maddie

Jimmy carves up the softer snow of Targhee

 Kristin, Leonard and Jimmy check out terrain park videos on the flip

February 23-25, Big Sky Montana

This was our first time at Big Sky.   Unfortunately their snowpack was about 80% of normal, and much of their South slopes were lacking good snow coverage.   Primarily intermediate runs with a few steep ones off the top.   Managed to get the heart rate up on a couple of the steep face runs.  Had a great slopeside unit and really enjoyed the feel of the village.

Francine heads for our slopeside unit. 

February 17, Mattawa Moto Ride

Had the itch to get out on the motorcycle, so headed to Mattawa.   It's located South of I-90 on the Columbia river.   Desert Riding.