Had a fantastic time hitting the open roads/spaces last week with my friend and tandem teammate Bob Kauffman.
On our first day, we biked in Red Mountain Open Space Park, breaking in our cool new Blind Stokers Club shirts (compliments of club founder Dave White), then we hauled north to enjoy an evening of music and more single track the next day in Wyoming.
Red Mountain is just outside Fort Collins on the Wyoming border and I love the diversity of land there. The area is home to this deep red, almost crimson conical-shaped rock interspaced with rolling grasslands, sagebrush, sandy washes, and plenty of paddle cactus crowding the narrow trail network, just waiting to thrash us. We covered 26 miles, climbed 2500 feet, and remarkably, saw nary a soul in the prairies. It was the best kind of grind.
Afterward, we rewarded ourselves with a drive to Cheyenne to catch Joe Bonamassa in concert at the Civic Center. Joe plays an amazing electric guitar that’s both beautiful and haunting. His keyboardist is also in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and at one point they had dueling guitar/keyboards going on. It was pretty awesome.
For our second ride of the trip, we explored a series of trails east of Laramie, called Happy Jack. We definitely inhaled some smoke there due to the wildfires out west and although we only rode 13 miles and climbed 1300 feet, we still shared plenty of laughs and broke a good sweat because the trails here were a bit rockier and slower going than they were in Red Mountain.
All in all, it was a fun adventure and a nice change of pace. I hope Bob and I get back to these spots soon, but for now, my focus is shifted to making next week’s What’s Your Everest event and No Barriers Summit smashing successes.
