11/28/09

tackarific

we are all lucky little creatures, aren't we...

singletrack in november. sunshine. happiness beyond words. riding into the sunset.

strong day. beautiful day. tackarific trails (thanks mc, for the perfect word).




















full set of pics here.

ed, my darling, didn't even bring his camera ... so you'll have to just deal with these ;-)
jj

11/27/09

cravings

me, my wheels, my pony, my everything: craving dirt in a most spectacular way ;-)

so we packed up the ponies and headed west!












day one of three: blissful.

jj

11/22/09

sugar and dirt

or is it dirt and sugar?

or perhaps dirt for sugar? yeaaaahhhhh...

Sunday ride-date with Ez: ride from Boulder to Ned ... (40 miles, 6,100'up, 4.5 hrs, November 22... buuurrr) ...for SCONES.

Ssssssccccooooooooooonnnneesss.... of the raspberry variety, with frosting. And a Coffee Chaser.

Will Ride For Sugar. ;-)

From here:


To here:


Via:
...here...

...here...


...here...


...and here...
(and everywhere in between)...

And home to Boulder the Sugary Way:


Couldn't possibly be happier.

2 quotes of the day:
1.) sitting with my mother, on my way home from the ride ... as we sat to chit-chat, I was messing with my curly-chaos, post-ride hair.
jeny: "maaa..... what's in my hair, is it mud? it feels like mud."
ma: "no, honey, it's some kind of FOOD."

hahahahahahahahaha

2.) Ez: "jeny... it's November. it's time to build capillaries."

jj

11/15/09

star-light, star-bright...

... snowy stars, taking flight!

Saturday, November 14th, 2009: The Annual Hut ride (+ engagement celebration)! Mateo hosts the yearly late-fall/early-winter ride, usually in the loveliest cold and snowy weather, always to end up back in the Hut, eating and drinking and laughing our souls silly. This year lived up to our cold and snowy dreams of succulent BuffCreek singletrack.

The crew:

John, Mateo, Me, Ez, Chris, Chad, Erik and Maddie, Steevie -- and Ed, my starling, took the pic -- and all pix in this post.

This year we flew UpHigh and OverYonder and back again. However, despite flying, we somehow managed to stay out in 30 degree (and snowing) temps for almost 5 hours. How on earth did that happen? We managed that by accidentally skipping from one Magical Universe to another -- taking our darn sweet time between each. All in all, I think we managed to inhabit 9 different worlds of Enchantment.

9 Worlds of Enchantment:
1.) Pre-Game Special Trail.
9 ponies strong, all linked together, inches from tail-tire to front-tire, the pebbly, red dirt-earth crackled underneath, stones tinging the down tubes. Fog loomed heavy in the tops of the gray-green pines, I could hear our hearts all a-twitter, with the beat-beat-beat ricocheting off the rocks and trees as we meandered up and over the ridge line. We entered the magical universe of the day though this doorway.

2.) IndianSummerClimb:
A few Pony and Rider blasted up IndianSummerClimb without wait. A few lingered behind to snap-shot Ice Flowers in the red sand. Ez and I dug in and held a steady pace, trusting the nature of the terrain, following our bliss through the tall, wet, golden grass, sticking faithfully to the red ribbon of trail that unfolded beneath our tires. Steady pace, steady talk. The Summer Climb spirits gave us wings as we rose up, and up, and up to meet the line of frozen fog, awaiting us up in the trees far above.



3.) Upper Rim Coaster Trail:
The Upper Rim Coaster Trail boasts beastly boulders and tall-fallen timbers ... pebbly corners and roller-bliss to the SSers heart-content. Ez and I pumped the rolly s-track and followed the magic call into the high-fog and silent trees.

4.) Upper Ewok Trail:
With tight-trees whizzing by, we galloped up the perfectly fast-pitched climb. Pine needles and pebbles, streams and icy roots kept the dance lively. Upper Ewok never fails to disappoint, and it's distinctly blissful, fast-forest trees and swoopy s-track ribbon lured Ez, Chris and I to the top on a magic carpet ride.

5.) Enchanted Ice Forest:
With frozen breath, we twisted our way around the shadowy trees and tender-needled trail, hearts giggling, we were hootin' out loud! And suddenly,we emerged, in a frozen silence of delight, from the dark forest into the Great Open Enchanted Ice Forest: flying through the White-Crystalline Golden Grass scape, the the Zen Rocks, and the Black Spear-Trees. It was a whisper of a flight ... through Heaven. A Blessing.



6.) Moon Palace:
Again in our pack, our 9 Ponies galloping across the high-moon-ice-desert, smiles on fire, our warm breath billowing. We caught the beginning of the snow storm as it covered the trail and blessed us with fresh tracks. The crackle of the pebbles gave way to the crunch of crisp snow. The Pony-train flew by (Erik, Chad, Steve, Chris) and left Ez and I to chase. Ed and Mateo shot ghostly pix of the white moon-scape and chased us all down ... meeting us up at the Cloud Castles.

7.) Cloud Castles:
The Unicorns live here. And we enjoyed the magical fog as we danced upon the rocks.



8.) And Back:
We had fresh tracks the entire 15 miles back to the start. We enjoyed each section in a new, crystal-fog light. The 9-pony-train broke into pieces, as Ed and Mateo got their Camera-Shots ON. Erik had bolted to save Maddie. Chris disappeared into the fog, leaving ghost tracks for us to follow. Ez and I wheeled and dealed and rode with hearts open wide. Somewhere on the return trip, Ed and Steevie and Chad found new lines down old trails. We could hear their laughter echo through the little valleys. We all galloped through snow and ended the Pony Play a nice 5 hours later.



9.) After Party:
The Ninth Realm of Heaven on this fine day found us up at Mateo's house and Hut, with a fine, fine spread of food and wine ... and CUPCAKES!!!!!

(what else!!??) Ez and I ate far more than our fair share. Period.

At the Ninth Realm, we also found the magic snow circle pony pump track:



(not my pony ...)

A HUGE thanks goes out to our hosts and hostess, Mateo and Kim! Thank so much for your fun and games and love!


Jj

11/14/09

my lucky shooting stars!!

off --- for the ride of a lifetime!!!


Thank you, my beautiful Starling!

jj

11/8/09

sublime sunday

Something is terribly wrong with my camera (see pix from the previous post). I'm about to give up on picture taking entirely --- and rely on ed's magic lens and talents to supply images for this silly excuse for a blog.

Annywaaayyyyyy...

Original ride plans for sunday fell through (all my fault -- sorry girls). However, my failures in that arena allowed for a great and unexpected opportunity to ride with ED, EZ (AGAIN!!!!!!), Chris, and Mikey! We all converged at BC to drag each other around some super-succulent-singletrack.


Photo credit: EDE
  • Ez re-re-re-fell in love with her rigid-SS pony. All I heard from her all day long was: "GOD I LOVE THIS BIKE!!!!" (The other thing I heard from her all day was: "Are there any Unicorn cookies left!?!?").
  • Chris was in super form and somehow managed to fly over obstacles that really weren't even there?? WTF is up with creative-catching-air? I MUST learn how to do this. I think I might hit him up for a lesson.
  • And MIKEY --- well... MikeyPoo had the best cornering-form Ed has ever captured on film. Nice way to lay-it-over, Mikey. And nice job fixing the blown-to-pieces brake with athletic tape. That's some crazy skills there ;-)
  • My darling Ed, of course, got to play sprint-ahead and catch-up all day long... so he could get more interval training in... you know, because he really, really likes that kind of thing ;-)

Ed took pix of the day. The rest of us slacked off and just rode the ponies all OCD and junkie like ;-)



jj

11/7/09

sunny saturday sojurn

had a lucky ride date with Ez and Ed on Saturday!!!!

THE BEGINNING:









THE MIDDLE:






THE END!!!!


Yes, that is Pony, Unicorn, and 2 enormous and delicious DONUTS. You know that Ez and I ate those, and Ed just rolled his eyes.

jj

11/5/09

pony!!



Brought to you by the brilliant and masterful, TVC, who rescued her from a happy meal box in order to bring her home!! Thank you, M... for saving her from the hands of some tiny child who would most likely just chew on her.

Now she gets to fly along succulent fall singletrack with me!!!!

jj