SpaceCowgirl

inspiration slap-in-the-face

2012-02-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, I needed a big dose of inspiration. So I conned Michelle into disappearing to the SouthWest with me, to visit my dear Jen down in Santa Fe. I was quite certain that hanging with these two uber-special angels was going to knock some play-sense into me and set me STRAIGHT on the path to daily bliss once again.

I couldn't have been more RIGHT in getting these two together.

Happy Angel #1:

and her luggage:

Happy Angel #2 (and her hubby who returned home late in the long weekend - having just sped thru the Antelope AZ endurance race):

We spent the entire weekend trying to match TRAIL choices to SOCKS choices. Yes, Michelle showed up with $175 dollars worth of socks to choose from. why? Why NOT!???

KOI socks for the suuuuuper sweet swimmy-turny trails:

Definitely the Roller Derby Socks for the roller derby trails at White Mesa:

And how about a pair of Ninja Bitch socks for the schizophrenic spastic rider who is too over-excited to settle on just one state of being:

Regardless of sock choice (tho it really did matter), we spent the entire weekend eating. drinking. RIDING. went to the spa. ate the most mind-blowing cupcakes every single night.

How did you show up ???? BuZZY ss boi. you could have smiled more!! gaahhhh!!!! maybe if you had better socks.

end and i got married here:
href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bDHzABDUSeGfCMh0rqBeXdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite">

OOOOO!!! PERFECT! Let's ride here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't worry, honey. it wasn't that dangerous... it just dropped into a little canyon here:
but this one: has much larger (and more painful) consequences:

Happiness. See what you two did to me!
For the record: no, we did not just ride at white mesa. no, i'm not mentioning the other trails. yes we drank too much wine -- but it was the end-of-the-wine-drinking-season blow-out for at least one of us. yes, jen is still healing from a wicked broken arm and no she didn't harm it in any way this weekend. but yes, she rode better than she claims to have been able to. yes i flipped out at least 3 times due to over-excitement-exhaustion. and no i have not learned how to control that just yet. but who cares, right? right.

Thank you, girls. I'm so deeply honored by your friendship.

JJ

2011 Archive: Stuff Found On Trail

2012-01-18T20:39:00.001-07:00

In an ongoing attempt to catch up on the blog posts... how about a little ACTION from the end of August.

Ed and I were blessed with a very sweet visitor for a handful of uber-lucky days... This special visitor is particularly (and easily) charmed by: Stuff Found On Trail.

And by Stuff Found On Trail, I mean alllll sorts of things.

One good moment:

SKKIITTLLLEESSSSSS!!!!!

mmmm!!!!!!anyone dare to guess who this might be?

Yup. None other than Mr. Morris.
YEAH!!!!

I think he actually might have been quite proud for NOT eating any of them. Instead, we made a nice little Skittles Sculpture, and carried on our happy Enduro-Tech way. (Enduro-Tech = 6+ hours of mileage + technically-focused-intentions. Ride it. Session it. Clean it.)

Scott and I spent this particular day finding every possible rock, log, SWITCH (and any other possible landscape-event) to RIDE, finnessseeee and skillKill.

From the Skittles point, he continued to entertain my no-dab, no-bounce game on My Mountain.There are FunRules that are directly tied to SkillRules, which are directly tied to CRACK!!!!! You know that, right?!

That is to say: the man is smoooovvveeeeeee as buttah. And he cleans lines on the first try that locals won't bother trying. My kinda tech friend!

There's nothing like moving from the Bergen Tech Fest straight over to A3s for a little MORE.

Nice work aligning THAT.... Funny thing: it's NEVER taken me that many tries to clean this one ;) WTF?!

Sighhhh... you kinda kill me, Scott... Mr. Smoove.

And. That was day 1.The other days all deserve their own posts ;)

That'll be enough tech for those of you (me) jonsin' for some real all day tech sessions.

Thanks for the Enduro-Tech Re-Stoke, SCOTTY!!!!!

jj

2011 archive: Hunter Fryingpan WanderLust!

2012-01-12T19:54:00.003-07:00

blogger hiatus. ;) DOH!

jeny has been deep in OCD-Work-Land. i don't like it when she's too much there.... and not so much in Big Happy Mtb Play Land ;( and thus, tails of mtbblissness have been sparse for a while. tails of light and rock have been on hold for the time being... i will share the 2011 mtblovestories in a short while.

i do, however, have about 6 months of pictures and adventures to catch up on here in blogger land -- if anyone is still out there looking in. (hello?hello?)

i thought i'd dig up an adventure from August. a little something i meant to share with you all, and simply haven't gotten around to it yet. we had an especially charmed spring, summer and fall with our camping trips last year. this trip, however, was one of the biggest and most rewarding of our adventures. we spent 4 days and 3 nights in the hunter-fryingpan wilderness, linking up a rather large set of trails, basins, peaks and ridgelines. i think i found a few of my new absolute favorite places to just BE on this trip. it was very special.

so, without further delay:

no real trails to/into this basin. one of my faves;)

lovelovelovelovelove this spacetimeandplace.

swoooooonnnnn....

see me in this pic? where's jeny?

see camp?

more soon! thanks for peeking back into this quiet little world!
jj

the perfect storm

2011-10-28T20:16:00.002-06:00

what do you do when the air is silver and wraps you up in itself ... when you know the amber of fall is about to be blunted ... when there are a few hours of magic left in a day and there's an extra bucket of desire burning a hole in your psyche?????

you go out and RIDE in the storm of it, of course;)

giddy giddy bang bang.

Michelle and i headed out into the magic light...

the light before the white

and basically ... lit a big, phat fire.

we only encountered 2 runners. one of whom decided they wanted to give the rocks a go. that didn't work out so well for him.

michelle, however,

cracked her game wiiiiide open.

and it was lovely.

and downright magical.

because it was PERFECT out. and we were IN it. WITH IT.

singing the song... of mtbDance.

that's what...

mf'er.
jj

giddy-giddy-frikkity

2011-10-25T06:14:00.006-06:00

less matrix, more natrix ... in the special sub-category of dirtrix.

my girls kickass.

i am a firm believer in not bouncing to make a switchback... up or down. challenge to you, all you ... finesse it ... finesse it ALL.

woot!!! (i don't know what that means).

jj

i swear!

2011-10-23T21:54:00.004-06:00

i have so many pictures, i don't even know where to begin. i guess i'll start with just a small hand full... dole it out one little bit at a time.

this could potentially be a hearty set of pix. take the time to look. ;)

let's start with a couple of liz, michelle... and collin (mr. pre-blog-web-guy, you asked for it) ;)

two session evenings out on Dakota, one week apart. wildly cracked out evenings, both of them... mind-blowing fun. enough to remind me how much my friends suffer through my verbal obnoxiousness. sorry. sorta.

liz:

michelle (with a few choice words to say about her favorite motherfer's):

collin:

the girls and i have been upping the ante just a bit. in so doing, we seem to con a few passers by into joining the fun and games. after all, it's all about the fun of challenge... of trying and doing... and screaming about it at the top of our lungs (foul language and all).

teehee!

jj

oops...

2011-10-22T11:54:00.002-06:00

usually i have great falling skills... one of my greatest assets as a mtn biker.

thursday, not so much. doh!

torn tendon in the right hand fingers ... but now i'm all taped up and ready to get this line next week.... or the week after ;-)

more to follow! it's been a magic summer and fall, and i have a few thousand pix and adventures to share... and now i have a little time to do so!

jj

Giggle Report #1

2011-09-05T20:27:00.002-06:00

it's been a wildly playFULL summer.

one of the absolute brightest in memory.

days on end of just playFULL

i can't find the beginning of the summer story

and so i'll just throw it all out there

one bliss-moment at a time

because, you know...

when you spend all your time, deeply within each moment

they tend to last forever

jj

HIT

2011-08-28T20:45:00.002-06:00

a quick hit of pix. of a not-so-quick, from-home, deep-loop of absolute fresh new.

the grobro doesn't record the inner bliss -- the big, explosive, panoramic soul LOVE that cracks the edges of the psycho-emotional-physical-spiritual horizon wiiiiiiiide open.

jj

truly wordless

2011-07-19T07:18:00.002-06:00

Eszter did a pretty fantastic job of relating to you our 'magic-cracked-out-blissed-out ride through the woods' from last Saturday. I don't really have many words to add, but I do have a few more pictures. In all honesty, we were too engaged in a rock riding, tree flying, ridge climbing, soul singing, river skipping, lake jumping, high-altitude-loving, ride fest to take too many pictures.

All in all, we had a wildly successful adventure ride. One that absolutely tops the charts for me.

To add perspective on the BlissFactor of this ride -- to share with you the extent to which this loop (and in particular the last 10 miles of uberduffy, jaw-dropping-flowy, intricately designed, nicely choppy, and wildly FREE singletrack) lit up our MtbSoulFires, you will have to imagine this: after nameless hours worth of talkitytalk, singletrack talk, ctr talk, trail talk, sky talk, pony talk, and quiet-introspective talk:

as we rolled down the last 10 miles, we got quieter and quieter and quieter. it was so full of magic that words started falling apart, soul-excitement-expression became an act of just FLYING, and nothing could possibly be accurately expressed with words...

all the universe wanted from us was a bunch of cracked-out-fly-pony-grace through the woods.

we got to the very end of the trail, and just hugged.

thanks, ez... for all of that WiiiiildMtbBliss.

jj

more ridgeflying...

2011-07-11T06:45:00.005-06:00

i am now officially behind on ride, hike, and rideflying reports.

so, pix from this saturday and part of sunday are just going to have to do. i seem to have misplaced my highflying ridgeline pix from the previous weekend. i'll get them up sometime soon.

jj

jj

Ridgeflying

2011-07-05T07:38:00.003-06:00

best backpacking trip ever.

ever-ever.

Thank you, Starling.

and... ever see a white elk?

More later... much more later. 550 pix of 3 days, 2 nights, summits and summits and endless ridge lines of grassy, rocky, snowy, mtn goaty, elky, flowery more worth of more.

Jj

HAWTTTTT!!!!

2011-07-01T12:29:00.002-06:00

i promised you more... so here you go!

Friday: 100 degree ride with the LW powerhouse. thanks for the heat-riding (heat-recovering) lesson, oh great-one!!! (see the very few evening pix in the show below).

Saturday: The Infinite Smile Day with Cat, LW, MyssL. (all the GREEN pix are from Saturday).

Sunday: A cracked-out mtbBlissSession with LW. Strawberries, grapes and blackberries in the shade at the far arc of the new-trail ride. Hot. And Hawt. And Happy.

Thank you, MyssLenore, LW, and CAT. For all the blisssssnessss...

MtbOn!

jj

honestly...

2011-06-23T06:15:00.003-06:00

honestly, i have been riding, and playing, and generally flying through this beautiful summer.

i've taken very, very few pictures... and i have not spent much time trying to attach words to the rides, the pix ... the anything.

so, how about a couple of slide shows!!!

6.18-19.11 saturday date ride, and sunday convergence-ride with Fred M:
as you will note, almost all of saturday pix (but one) pic were taken while recovering at the bar ... i mean, outside of absolute bikes while watching the river dudes do their river thing. the flowers were incredible.

our saturday ride was perfect. we had a nice ride from town, some serious climbing on a 2x road, some sOOOOOper fun contoury singletrack, and some other fun trail hunting bliss. ca-ching! nice way to come off of 2 weeks of solid WORK. wwwhhheee!!!!

our sunday ride was spectacarific, too! we escorted Fred up marshall pass and down starvation... all new to him. what a pleasure it was to ride and talk with this bright soul!!! his new bike is sssaaasssssyyyy!!! and yes walt, i want one. thank you, fred, for your company and your inspirations!!!

6.5.11 BliSS ride with Ez:
a few weeks ago i had the distinct pleasure of escorting eszter on a sparkler hunting ride. thankfully, she kinda found her sparklers the day before by crackin' out on her home-town trails, and taking the win at the SSUSA in Ned (yes, i called her Miss SS USA all day, and have visions of a nice little sash that i think she should wear).

anyway. as you will see from these very limited photos, i spent most of my day riding behind her. i had no little ring, and spent the day slow-pedaling in a whole new way. it was glorious. we had an odd day of fire-air. it was hazy, smoky, and otherwise WEIRD out. as noted in her blog post, she requested that we do this particular ride ... what i didn't realize was that she had very little recollection of what the whole loop included. we had a great day. we had a great long day. we were happy-happy-happy for most of the ride .. and happy-happy-happy at the end when she pulled out a huge steak and some roasted beets for post-ride recovery food. mMMMmm!!!

and, despite work being overwhelmingly intense, i've had the opportunity to blast out for a few quick and dirty rides.... and to hook up some super fun commuter loops on the mtb, linking up the various DIRT trail systems along with some linkage-bike-path action. i like creative mtb commute ideas.... i just wonder what a 4-hour mtb bike commute would do to the productivity of my day. thoughts.

and... that's all i've got. i should have more next week, i promise!

jj

one day, on day One

2011-06-04T18:30:00.008-06:00

a long post with mostly only pictures. who wants to read words, anyway?

in the beginning:

in the sea of bliss:

caption contest, anyone? crackhead 1a and 1b:

crackhead one-AAA1:

this one is funny, too. it makes me giggle. giggling is good.

may i re-introduce, the lovely, the uber-talented, the Goddesssss of Grace, MyssL!!

HA, MyssL ... i think i like that name for her ;-)

DynamicDuoCouple#1:

Heaven:

wait, no... THIS is heaven-LY:

with wheels ON the smoove ground:

HONEY!

BADGER!

Caption Contest #2:

the OOOO!!! and the LAALAA!!!

mmm...sswweett:

she IS, the epitome, of Zen.

LW at the HIGHCountrySpaGarden:

There goes my Starling, waaaayyyyyy up there. Ok, everyone, go catch him!

LuhShuuuus:

ohmygawdthisissoyummy!

OK. More later.

jj

MOMMMMY!!!

2011-05-26T11:49:00.005-06:00

I had the distinct pleasure of riding with a beautiful crew of calm-cool-collected, uber-talented and beautifully-masterful riders this weekend (LW, DH, MC and his L, EDE). I don't know how I lucked out. I promise a full weekend report at some point ... soon.

Until then, one little story from the Sprite of Over-Excitedness (me).

MC made sure to point out every last possible "roller line" on both of our rides this weekend. In my hyper-excited state of wanting to up my technical riding game, I put myself on everything that didn't require 'air time.'

Sunday, mid-day, MC pointed out a super-sweet, double-pitched, slightly-gapped rock line that was right at the edge of my 'steep' and 'big' experience thus far.

I lined up, pre-rolled the entry point a few times... while DH and LW looked on in complete horror. Ed could barely watch, and I'm not sure exactly what MC was thinking. But, I knew I had it in me.

So ....... Zen state locked ..... and down I rolled ....

And what word involuntarily sprang from my mouth in that first attempt, as I rolled in a little too hot and a little too over-excited???

"MOOOMMMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!"

Yup. Mommy.

I did not roll off the end of that line particularly "clean" the first time. The second time, however, I rolled it without a sound, and rolled away as casually as I could.....

Phewwww!!!

More pix and stories later!!! I promise!

JJ

sparkler hunting

2011-05-11T09:39:00.005-06:00

Anyone who knows me knows that my energy levels are not the most ... consistent. A lot of the time I'm flying HIGH. But there are times when the light from within is quite overwhelmingly mellow.

Siiiggghhhh....

So. When the uber mellow takes hold of my spirit, and I'm feeling and behaving dark, I have to really consciously and delibertely go out and look for my sparklers.

Yes. The sparklers can usually be found at the top of the mountain.

The thing is, usually just the endorphins from riding and playing hard will help to ignite the inner fires. But sometimes, a little adrenaline is also required.

Towards that end, Michelle and I set up a ride date so that we could hit my mountain before the next storm arrived. The goal was to suss-out a new 29er pony for her, to clean a rock she had to nail, and for me to find a box of stinkin' sparklers SOMEWHERE ... out there.

We found ourselves on the top of the mountain, and I was still funked and moody. WTF? Really? Michelle told me to stop thinking.

Thanks, M.

Our little sparkler-hunting route found us climbing in gorgeous light, and on empty trails. Really? Along our way up the mountain and through the woods, M found a whole BOX of sparklers!

She started by just showing up looking as Hawt as humanly possible,

... then proceeded to absolutely NAIL one of her nemesis rocks:

See the bolt of brilliance pouring forth from that soul?

Yeah, one happy woman! And yes, we scream a lot, and loudly, when we clear the challenge. Wait til I get the vid put together... you will fall over laughing.

Me? I've already cleared everything on my mountain, riding it in both directions. I've cleaned it up, I've cleaned it down, I've just not cleaned it all in one smoove move.

So, I decided it was time to up the game a little and take an 'alternative line' that was 'bigger' (i.e., more committing) than the 'normal' line. And no, I didn't have to make new trail to accomplish this.

Scott M, this is for YOU! I know you wanted this line last time you were here. So now, you have to come back and ride it ;-)

First, I had to stop and look:

My hands were shaking a little! That felt good. The fire had finally started.

Then, I had to figure out how to line up the front wheel, because the second that front wheel got committed, I got committed: there was no easy way out after crossing the line.

A step to either side would have sealed the deal for both of my ankles.

And, walla!

Screaming and hollering ensued. So much so, I had to calm myself down by riding it twice more. Truly, it's just a move that required commitment -- more commitment than skill. But still. It was a lovely moment.

My little box of sparklers found, we rolled back to the trailhead illuminating the shadowed woods, which, oddly, we had all to our happy little selves.

Thanks, M. For a lovely ride date and sparkler hunting ride. Much needed.

Jj

honestly ...

2011-05-02T11:45:00.003-06:00

... there really are no excuses for missing out on the gifts from the universe.

jj

Grace

2011-04-25T08:42:00.000-06:00

My man,

He is a world of power and grace.

And I love him. Endlessly.

jj

a darn Good Friday

2011-04-23T14:00:00.014-06:00

With a whole day of Free Friday time, why not go out and meander around on the pony all day long, eh?

The yellow line is the route, clockwise ;-)

Slide show at the bottom with descriptions ;-)

Started from the house:

Up Bergen Peak Trail to the top.
From the top, saw a fire that had just started over off of Parmalee Gulch Road, which I would be passing by later in the day. Didn't think much about it. See the pix for the fire shot!

Down Too Long.
Saw ONE rider. And he was taking a pp break right in the middle of the trail. Icky.

Connector trails, roads, and back roads over to the upper Apex TH.
Fun stuff, linking it all together.

Apex Trails
Started down the main trail, turned up Hardscrabble, up SleuxBox, down-around-up Grubstake, down PickNSledge, down the remainder of Apex.

Connector road over to Matthew Winters.

Matthew Winters proper: the mellow, enchanting, flowing way.

Connector road thru Morrison, up to Falcon TH.

Up the grunt of Falcon, to the tippy top.
For some reason, this climb killed me ;-) These were my internal implosion miles.

Connector road to Lair of the Bear (LOTB).
Ran into the fire-cops at the top of Parmalee Gulch road. Yup, the road was closed due to the fire that I saw earlier. Talked with the nice fire guy and he let me thru the line and onto the LOTB singletrack! WOHOOO!! That could have REAAAALLLY sucked.

LOTB singletrack in all it's swooping glory.

Connector road: Kerr Gulch back up to Evergreen.

Connector singletrack to Bergen meadow.
One of my faves. Too bad it's so short. Did the extra little loop at the top;-)

Blaze the Bergen Meadow back to the house.

A lovely, meandering 60 mile, 8,700'. A nice all day affair.

4.13.10

2011-04-13T20:50:00.015-06:00

730am: dentist. dentist chair. needle. drilling. joy.

845am: office. monitor. 3rd cup of coffe. it's the only thing with taste, so why not have another.

945am: starving. left side of face still falling off skull. more coffee.

130pm: FOOD. finally.

230pm: motivation extinct, completely lost in the univrese, somewhere. brightness down the drain.

330pm: start asking for help finding motivation and energy.

345pm: receive clear directions to The Place Of Motivation. and if it's not there, then i'm there, and that is all that matters.

500pm: 37 degrees. little frozen flakes darting to the earth. in the saddle, and begin. EMEast. fresh tracks.

530pm: first summit. huh,imaginethat - 20 mins faster than expected.

545pm: EMWest. fresh tracks. torched. hit the ranch trail.

600pm: hit the golden whisper trail. 615pm: switches. cleared.

627pm: fresh tracks still. fourth and final summit reached. have a little chat with the universe. wet, heavy snow starts pounding.

646pm: frozen hands, pony packed, heater full blast in the car. recoverite. grin.

730pm: mineral salt bath.

830pm: hot thai food. pajammas. tea.

jj

2011-04-10T18:30:00.014-06:00

I am not lost. I promise.

Everything below is a link... click it = get pix!

Click here for final WEDDING PIX!!!
this fine, wonderful work all done by jen, at jenjudge.com

All of the honeymoon pix i took can be found here!

a.) Ed will post his someday ;-)
b.) i lost half of my pix.
c.) i didn't take many pix to begin with.
d.) we enjoyed 3 hikes, 2 runs, 3 days of nothing but beach time, sunblock, boogie boards and books.
e.) we enjoyed at least 2 days of nothing but books and relaxing.
f.) we consumed more than our fair share of sushi. and wine.

In addition, I have had a few handfuls of ride dates between the wedding, the honeymoon, and now. Thus, a bucket full of pix. Click any one of the links below for albums full of ponies, rocks, and happy people.

Jason and M: The Day We Introduce M to 29er LOVE.

TechWork: The Day M Masters the 29er.

Entirely Way Too Much Fun.

Michelle put up a most masterful post HERE.

OK. Now that we're all caught up. What's next? What did I miss? ;-)

Jj

TimeOut

2011-03-23T17:15:00.002-06:00

This kind of place, with this kind of time, gives me a different understanding of ... TimeOff.

Sending all of our loved ones -- friends and family alike -- warm and loving light.

Peacing, Out.

Jj

Blessed...

2011-03-07T19:00:00.005-07:00

when Right-ness strikes,
the energy flows
-- freely, pure
--- and wild

from the heavens
to the earth
--and back
--- with grace

directly through the agent
of love
-- where spirit and body meet
--- deep in the heart

ed and i eloped this weekend. wwwhhheeeeeeee!!!

Photo Credit: Jen Judge

we escaped to the MagicalWhiteMesa, we met-up with our soul-friends Jen and Aaron, we prettied up ourselves and the ponies, and we all galloped across the land. we stopped in the middle of the desert world to honor the love and trust that unites our partnership ... with a soulful, sunlight ceremony ... and we rode on!

Photo Credit: Jen Judge

i WILL have a world of the most incredible pictures to share with you -- but i won't have access to THOSE until later next week.

meanwhile, i can give you a little teaser of photos (these photos NOT from our soul-friend jen who labored with deep love to capture our MagicalWhiteMesaMarriage on film), these are photos from Ed and I... our random, point-and-shoot, hyper-manic, camera-flinging point of view.

my starling, my husband ... on our way to the MagicalWhiteMesa...

and after The Big Kiss:

where we tied the knot... out there, on a ridge line, in the succulent desert light:

our soul friends: jen the photo-goddess, and aaron, our deep and poetic master of ceremonies, riding brilliant single track:

aaron was all business when he needed to be:

which was often, today:

ever need a pair of scissors, a rock, brute man-strength, and the sacrifice of a steel tool to change a tube? yeah -- that kind of fun!

it was a most beautiful day ... the most beautiful day i've ever had the luck to live through.

a quiet moment, before the ceremony ...

Jen worked INCREDIBLY hard, all day long ...

riding with her pack of camera and lenseS ... and other surprises and goodies...

not only as photographer ... but as my deep soul-friend and spirit sister.

Jen and Aaron surprised us with the most divine cake and champagne at the end of our ride. They made this cake -- made it and decorated it and completely managed to SURPRISE us with it all:

they also managed to completely surprise us by kicking us out of their house ;-):

I wish that I could share with you the depth of the love, light and energy that was flowing and aligned and brilliant ... as well as my experience of my soul-friends, my soul-mate, and the wildly graced world we inhabited this day... but i am finding that there are sincerely no words for these things. not a single one.

Thank you, my starling, my love, my beautiful partner in crime.
Thank you, my spirit friends -- thank you from the core of my very being.
Thank you, family, for your love and support and energy!!!
Thank you, Universe -- thank you for every breath, for every drop of light, and every ounce of energy.

jj

the long and winding road

2011-02-14T06:54:00.003-07:00

I've taken a rather huge break from riding for the last few months. Sure, there have been the random little rides -- but I've not taken this much time off the pony over winter in a handful of years.

So, Ed and I are back at it. Time to log the long smooth miles so the singletrack smiles are bigger, deeper, more magical when our world dries out. Unfortunately, winter has left a rather lingering, sopping wet blanket on all of the trails around. So, we take it to the back and dirt roads.

Not such a bad place to be on a 60 degree day in February!

Ed, leading us out. And up. And up. And up. He eventually dropped me -- in his freakin' little 14 tooth cog of a walt works commuter. The man is ... stronger than he will dare admit. Stinker.

Even Ed cheers when we top out on the last biggest climb. Wwwhhheeeee!!!!

And, of course, Ed ALWAYS drops me on road descents. HOW? WHY? I have no idea. I can pedal and pedal and pedal in my big ring, tuck all neatly into the tiny pony bubble -- and he just tucks in and rolls away like he's attached to some sort of vehicle pulling him down the hill. I just give up and let the camera take pix of the view. Not such a bad view ;-)

I know it's a dirt road, and I know it's relatively flat as a pancake... but I love winter riding this road. Today, we were lucky to have a few miles of velvety frozen-packed snow. We also had a solid 20 miles of muddy, slush-flinging fun. It was so warm today that the slush spray actually felt refreshing on my bare legs. In February. Hum.

By the last 10 miles, my sit bones were hurting SO BAD. I was really uncomfortable on the bike. And for some reason, when I pushed down on the pedals, I had less than nothing? Likely not a good sign on a flat, dirt road. Pooie. Ed dropped me like a bad habit and sauntered off to finish the loop in speedy and powerful style.

Me, I hung back, watched the river flow by, and put one pedal down, and then another. It's supposed to hurt, right? Right. And so it goes. Brilliantly.

Obviously, no one wants to watch video of riding a dirt road. Not very exciting -- not of me, anyway. I will say that the audio is quite hilarious. Apparently I had pressed Record on the GoPro -- only to completely forget that it was recording. What did it record beyond the flat and winding road rolling by? Well, as I finished the ride and I got slower and slower, this is what the recording captured (about 20 times): "really, team? really?" Apparenly I was so slow I could hardly believe it ;-) HA!

Ed:

We finished the ride and felt really stinkin' good about it. 2 days out on the roads is a good kick-start. I think I'll go run today.

Thank you, starling, for a lovely weekend of riding around in the sunshine. That's really what it's all about -- right?

Wwwwhhhheeee!!!

jj

random

2011-01-30T07:53:00.004-07:00

a handful of random blessings...

my new trailtech toy, from my blessed partner in crime:

a blessing from the sunshine:

a blessing of a friend:

a blessing from afar:

and, it's still SUN-SHINING -- so go out and roll around in it!

jj

Ocean

2011-01-27T17:44:00.003-07:00

went to the edge

just to sit there

and listen to the ocean breathe

jj

overdue

2011-01-16T18:59:00.002-07:00

pix from the previous weekend ... it would seem that i'm a solid week behind ... doh!!

jj

Serious Antics

2010-12-30T15:03:00.007-07:00

December weather here on the front range of CO -- up until last night -- has been downright balmy. Obviously, that makes for some wicked-fun single track at a time of year we're not used to enjoying it ... so much so, that Ed and I were in need of some different trails to play on.

So we packed it up and high-tailed it to Salida for the last two days before the storm. It's a classic "warm before the storm" sneak-attack of pony and dry trail stoke!

Ed and I spend a fair amount of time in Salida and the surrounding area, and most of that time is spent riding in the high country.

This time around, the high country was obviously buried in snow -- but the trails right around town... dare I say it out loud ... were freaking spectacarific! (We rode from the Shop both days: Little Rainbow area one day, and then the trails right out the back door of Absolute Bikes shop the other day:).

The Ride and Rally stoke was HIGH. The expanded trail system that Salida Mountain Trails has been working on is bearing some super succulent single track fruit.

I spent the better part of my mind-time on the pony trying to come up with words to describe how much FUN these trails lure out of an experience.... I fail. Period. This is as close as I can come to doing it justice:

Whimsical and Sprightly

Spirited and Rollicking

Flirtatious

Mischievous and Teasing

We were up to some serious antics playing out on that sublime single track.

In other words: the trails are spectacularly playful! They roll and undulate and rock and twist... they are a rollicking good time.

And now, we're getting pummeled by a snow storm. Yeehawwww.... I have honestly misplaced my ski stoke --- anyone seen it around?

Jj

chickadeeeee date!

2010-12-27T11:06:00.006-07:00

Woke up December 26th, and hung out in the PJ's all morning. Hot Mama sent a text, saying that she and the Princess were meeting for a ride date... so, the chickadees had a fancy little meeting of the ponies.

So, on with the ride clothes, and out the door to meet Liz and Michelle for a little play time in the Heat of December.

UP we go, girls!! Giddy UP!

photo credit: Michelle

And then down down down....

photo credit: Michelle

And last, a quick celebration of BlissFULLness....

photo credit: Michelle

Back home just after dark, showered, and back into the Pajamas.

Perfect day. Thank you, girls!!!

It's still nice outside --- so go out there, and roll around in it!

Jj

a little of this... a little of that...

2010-12-26T10:48:00.003-07:00

... and a whole 'lotta sunshine fun!

snowy fun days up high early in the week ...

Ed droppin' into the soft and luscious

papa about to huck it!

warm, dry days from home...
Christmas Eve:

Ed, floating on ...

beautiful sights everywhere

December in CO, REALLY?

Ed

an old favorite, favorite spot -- totally rediscovered.

the usual scenery ;-)

siiiggghhh... i'll take a winter with this weather and these dry trails... yup!

Christmas Day:

can you believe?

that i was able to...

get Ed ...

to session!!!!

splash!

the thing about getting ed to session ... is that he breaks stuff... ;-(

my sweets...

Christmas Night with the Family:

Stellah little Ella!!!

While the mountains are covered in deep, deep white, we're basking in the warm sun and dry trail bliss ... something we're not accustomed to in December. Well, not historically, anyway. Maybe it's a sign of what's to come? Who knows.

Welcome past the holiday season, and into the wrap up of 2010. I hope that everyone is out and about and making merry ... and getting ready for 2011!

Alrighty... onto days 3 thru 10 of the 10 day vacation. Sunshine here we come!

jj

BooBoodieCakes

2010-12-19T08:12:00.003-07:00

Yup, time for another BooBoo post... before we head off into the mtns for some turns...

ma... make the boat go around in circles again ... ppllllleeeeeaaaasssseeeee

ma... ok, now that we've parked the boat, go away. i want to take a nap under the tree, in the boat.

ma... you can't see me... where's booboo!!??

here i am!!! and i'm so cute. don't ya think, ma?

he slept there for over an hour...

additions to our growing tree-critter collection:

BooBoo says he hopes that everyone is out playing hard enough to warrant taking naps under the christmas tree afterwards...

go do what booboo says. booboo KNOWS.

kk

Hey, M ...

2010-12-14T06:20:00.007-07:00

I just want you to know ...

That I think you and your light-filled soul ...

kick some seriously brilliant ... a$$!

Thanks for all your light!
You are the Angel of LIGHT!

mwah!
jj

Naughty and Nice

2010-12-10T18:51:00.007-07:00

Speaking of Weather, of course;-) (well, mostly).

We'll start with NICE:
Nice weather brings all day affairs out on singletrack with blissful buddies and bountiful sunshine.

While Naughty weather brings 15" of powder for pure tele bliss -- destroying the body like only tele skiing can do.

It's been a lovely, lovely nicely naughty week.

Jj

a month in review

2010-12-05T16:53:00.006-07:00

so many different things to get up to.

i think booboo expresses it the best.

i'm hiding from you, you cannot see me.

why are you invading my teepee space, woman!

you're not looking at me. you do not see me. i am not in my teepee.

other fun things we have been getting up to:

nice soft in-bound snow...

and perfectly wonderful singletrack ... in December.

life is good. even booboo thinks so.

jj

brewing

2010-11-08T19:08:00.005-07:00

chasing through luscious sunshine

head in the clouds

following wisps of dreams trailing across the sky

rolling through the sand and long shadows

for a glorious day of traillove.

followed by a day in the high country,

basking in early day - late season - super warm sunshine...

lingering in the pristine clarity ...

and piercing light ...

until...

the storm absolutely

let loose!

and of course, it totally cleared up by the time we got back to the trail head.

one heck of a lovely, lovely weekend at play!

jj

awakening

2010-10-31T18:33:00.006-06:00

hibernating

in familiar patterns,

and accustomed landscapes.

together we fly

across these old stomping grounds

to drum beats,

ancient,

strong,

and fresh.

savoring

and transcending,

traipsing

across the boundaries

of the trodden

into the unknown.

i have awoken. with a fresh new view.

(thank you starling, for a day of edventuring;))
jj

wedneSSday's weakSSauce mitigation ride

2010-10-28T18:48:00.005-06:00

simply put, ez and i froze our butts off.

but not before we got out and got after some SSaSSy-singletrack-IT first.

we both know that the conditions weren't THAT cold...

but that didn't keep us from getting really cold, really fast.

so i did what i knew to be the best thing for shaking the cold...

pedal harder, damnit!

i miss having my riding partner near ...

so i fel extra lucky to get her at the end of the cold windy day.

just we, and our single speeds, and the frickin' wind.

high-tailin' it out ouf the great back and beyond...

back to the car ...

and straight to some hot thai food.

wwwhhhheeeee!!!

winter.peace.

jj

MWM

2010-10-25T18:54:00.003-06:00

Magical White Mesa

This past weekend, I took the opportunity to escape the Front Range. It was time to bask in the enlightening and inspiring presence of my dear friends Jen and Aaron ... and visit them in their newly built home ... and to bask in the light of soulful Santa Fe.

Thank goodness I escaped. Even tho Jen and I had originally planned on working out our respective "Creative endeavor kinks" (visiting a number of studios), we ended up playing all day in the sunshine on the ponies instead. Hum. Wonder how that happened? ;-)

So after our first leisurely breakfast, we loaded up the ponies, and headed South -- then West. We visited the land of the enchanting and magical White Mesa.

Aaron promised a 2 hour ride with spectacular views, no people, and one rock thing to roll with a wee bit of adrenaline.

What we got was a 3.5 hour ride, with spectacular views, people we passed in the first 15 minutes with no people thereafter, miles and miles and miles, and playful, powerful vertical feet worth of absolutely PERFECT singletrack Bliss. And yes, one adrenaline-inducing rock pile to boot. Yesssir, I love my cake with frosting and ice cream .. and cookies and donuts and a cup of essssspresssooooo, too.

And the best part: my brilliantly beautiful friends.

I lent Jen my TiNy dancer pony, and I continued on my WeakSSauce Mitigation plan by riding my Ss humblePie pony. I still have a lot of work to do ;-)

We rode and rallied and basked and brilliantiatied and blissed our single-track starving souls to a most perfect state of contentment. I'm not exactly sure what else to say about it.

Afterwards, we made a quick pit-stop at a yummy place for a "quick bite". We entered the establishment, and were greeted most abundantly with the largest display case full of pastries I think I've ever seen. Not a bad place, post-ride.

Upon careful deliberation, I decided to re-introduce my fine friends to one of the best foods on the planet: Macaroni and Cheese. Ohhhhhhhh..... (please don't send me emails telling me how horrible this food is for me. Thank you in advance).

We also indulged in Red Velvet Cake Cupcakes, and some sort of ChocolateBliss Cupcake that is beyond words. So much for the 3,000' of climbing.

We ended the day back in Santa Fe. We lounged and chatted and discussed and looked at pictures. Then we headed out to a lovely late night dinner of tapas and wine. (Don't ever let me get used to this lifestyle. Please).

Sunday morning I was treated to the best Waffles I've EVER had. Aaron made them out of some sort of sourdough stuff that he had to prep the night before and finish in the morning. Something about fermenting. With the added delights of syrup, nectarines, strawberries and ...... whipped cream... it was a breakfast heaven.

Since breakfast was so divine, there was absolutely NO sense in hurrying it.

So, we missed the ride time, and headed into Santa Fe to check out a few of the things I was looking for.

Most of the things I was looking for were unavailable. But that is ok. I found things that I wasn't looking for;-)

And, to boot, we had a casual late-lunch in the center of an atrium with the soulful Santa Fe light pouring down on us.

The Malbec + White wine we chose didn't disappoint. And we all marveled at the occasion.

Why? Because it just NEVER happens like this -- when you're out out out playing playing playing hard hard hard.

It was a nice time for stillness and reflection. Peaceful in yet another way.

After lunch, it was time for me to roll back Northwards. Siiiggghhhh.

There was a half hour space of time in there - between the lunch and the final launch back North - that I seriously considered calling in ... for the WEEK. But alas....

jj

WWWHHHHEEEEE!!!

2010-10-22T09:25:00.003-06:00

lovely evening with my (missing) riding partner, ez! she hopps into town, we hop on the ponies!!!

it was a GORGEOUS night!!!

and the the chain fell off. no tool, either ;-) hummmm.... oh-hey! look at this! it broke near the 1/2 link! we can fix this!

ta-daaaa!!!! and 5 bucks says it's going to stay just how it is for the rest of the year ;-)

onward and outward...

thanks, ez... for the super lovely evening!

jj

weaksauce mitigation ride

2010-10-20T07:04:00.004-06:00

eSSense-ifying.

snappy little ss ride into the dark -- nothing but soul smiles.
found myself up on the rocks, dancing around in the sunset -- and forgot that i had no lights with me! doh! fun ride back ;-)
jj

ten.onesix.ten.

2010-10-18T19:34:00.003-06:00

experiencing nature,

emotionally.

it's a thing,

out there.

and it's a reflection,

of what's inner here.

wandering - breathing - that space in between.

dancing.

reveling in the dimensions.

time to fly-foot and pedal winged ponies...
jj

all pix:

weaksauce mitigation, day one

2010-10-15T19:43:00.005-06:00

what am i saying here?

less than flattering -- but that's ok.

obviously, yesterdays ss beating lit a bit of a fire. so today i saddled up the ssPie Pony (as in, humble pie pony), and headed to buff creek.

splendid idea. god i can be so smart sometimes.

24 mi.
-2.5 hrs.
2,050'v
10.8avg.
ZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! happy me.

buff creek is good for gettin' comfortable in that floaty part of the turn. why? because it's all pebbles on fluffy loose pebbly stuff. it's good for the turning soul. best to make sure you're tires are at the right pressure -- -and that your brakes work how you expect them too. i suck at speed in the floaty part of the turn. must.get.better.

the ss Pie Pony feels awfully stiff compared to the TI-ny dancer pony... i was all over the place. uncomfortably so. it still had me grinning. and laughing. and singing out loud.

but it was GOOD. and by good i mean, it was gorgeous. and beautiful, and bright. and speedy. and flowy. and 20 different kinds of brilliant. and, best of all, after a solid hour of warming up up-hill... I finally hit a solid stride and felt GOOD again.

feeling good again means a lot to me. perhaps i've just been tragically lazy ... for MONTHS. hum. there's an idea ;-)

i think i'm going to have to go out for more. of course, i could hardly hang all of my clean laundry this afternoon (tired arms) ... but that is ok. i can live with that ;-)

brilliant weather on tap for this weekend here ---- go make the most of it!

jj

weaksauce

2010-10-15T09:07:00.002-06:00

There was a time, a handful of years ago (6), when this was my pony:

She was my black stallion, and, after my first 3 rides with her, this is about how ridiculously hooked I was: click for a quick bit of a read.

She was one heavy pony. And that fork had what, about 6" of travel. And, best of all: I was running a 32x17 on that little ... Beast. (26" wheels).

I was riding her in all my favorite climby places: white ranch, indian creek, falcon, breckenridge, nederland. yeeehaaawwww.

Point being: I could ride my heavenly little beast, 32x17, up the worst the front range trails had to offer. And you know what, I was riding it all, and feelin' good, strong... and powerful. I cut major time off each of the trails/routes that I'd normally ride with the gearie (a FS Truth). I felt SO GOOD. (Bear in mind that after a few months of this I subsequently damaged my back to the point that riding my SS was no longer an option. gee. I wonder why).

Hum.

Fast forward to the present day.

My current SS pony:

Now, a 29er, not too much lighter, but at least the fork has relatively normal (little) travel... and I'm running her at a 32x20. (no, I don't know how that compares to the 26" ratio -- but regardless, it ain't even close ;-))

Anyway, point being: last night I took her out for the first REAL singletrack jaunt (not including the handful of dirt-road forays this spring) since, oh, April 2nd, when Ez and I went out and beat the pp out of one another...

... and holeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee kick the the stomach. And I couldn't ride ANYTHING. Bergen obstacles -- ALL of which I can ride with the gearie: NADA on the SS -- not that I could even get a 1/4 of the way up the mtn to begin with. Sheesh.

That explains a LOT. Guess I've been a bit of a spinn-princess ;-) So much for POWAAA!

I've got a lot of work to do. So I'm going to go get after it.

;-)
jj

ten.ten.ten.

2010-10-12T18:18:00.004-06:00

walking meditation

turning light-foot

sneaking betwixt metamorphose, walking the line,

holding space for the breath between the seasons.

startling, stark and bone chilling, home.

a long-lost familiar ground, a place always reserved for reflection

and pending aspirations.

spirit and muse

touching the jewels of faith and imagination

wide with vision.

fierce.

luminous.

essential.

hungry.

somber.

humble.

flawless.

all pix:

jj

the art of sharing bliss

2010-10-05T18:01:00.003-06:00

lucky ed and i. scott morris needed a place to stay for one night, and a place to ride for one morning.

such huge requests.

of course -- what trail would i share with him ... for a sweet morning roll from the house... why, my FAVORITE trail, of course!!!

up up and away, up bergen peak trail, into the fresh light of the day.

thought i'd wake the man up by making him ride up a bunch of big chunky rocks. on succulent singletrack. think it worked?

of course - my skills this morning were sub-par. my bliss this morning, however, was not.

scott's skills, indeed, are elevated (in general ;-). he cleaned the whole mountain, only needing to session a couple places. which was fine by me, it allowed me to catch some mtbbliss action photos.

the entrance

the first obstacle

we all know the feeling of clearing something that you've just worked hard to get, eh?

your exit shot, scott!

no bunny hopping allowed. it all has to be rolled smoove... and so smoove it was. i think that made him giggle just a little.

view from the top: clear blue fressh bliss day.

thankyou, scott, for sharing your mtbbliss with me!

down too long.

down it.

aw-heck, we're here: up it!

happy man. i think.

upon returning home, if scott's smile was any indication, i successfully shared my favorite trail bliss.

thank you so very much. glad you didn't get bored ;-)

all pix here:

jj

W.O.W.

2010-10-04T19:46:00.003-06:00

Weekend
Out
West

originally, a west-bound rock fest planned for two. then three. then four. but then only three. and then extra sadly, just two. 23432.

so liz and i made sure to just ride enough for four regardless.

liz is still the tech queen. and we had ourselves a fancy-footwork kinda weekend.

we even had the pleasure of conning these two (dave and chris) out-of-towners into sessioning all that the fruita-singletrack-scape has to offer (yes, they had to listen to us all day long ... not sure what it was that kept them with us ... they must have had ear-plugs in ;-):

liz and i both had some really great mtb moments.

and then some not-so-much:

ham.

such lovely.

dork.

wrrrooowwwrrrr....

zing!

we had 3 full meals at the HAWT TOMAAATOOOO!!! and it was grand. highly recommended ;-)

FULL set of pix here:

the end.

michelle -- get ready for next time. no sicky beforehand next time, eh!!!

jj

a wish ...

2010-09-27T21:44:00.007-06:00

it's not possible

to soak in

enough of this earthen season,

this ambered season,

this season of chroma and soil

this piercing time of shift and evolve.

i want to roll around in the radiant. the earth. the gold. the rust. the grainy aroma of.

to soak it in more

to soak IN every last bit of it's wild essence

and get it all meshed in with my soul. this season soul and my soul. one.

to know it longer

to savor it every day in life

because it feels that rooted

and that intricate

and that enlightening.

this is where and when

the earth life feels most passionate. most undeniably phenomenal.

and about 100 more pix here:

hope everyone is gettin' all crazy within it -- out in it ;-)

jj

whatever it takes

2010-09-24T20:01:00.002-06:00

if it takes riding to the top of this same mountain every single day

to find the right re-set...

then that is what i'm going to do.

happy-er-ness up there. getting there. being there. and flying back.

makes me all dancy and manic.

jj

resonance

2010-09-21T20:31:00.004-06:00

too low to find my way
too high to wonder why

i've touched this place before
somewhere in another time

now i can hear the sun
the clouds drifting through the blinds
a half a million thoughts
are flowing through my mind

a satellite recalled your voice
sent me round the world again
all the night you dreamt away
sent me round my heart again

one touch upon my lips
and all my thoughts are clear
i feel your smoky mist
up to the stratosphere

too low to find my way
too high to wonder why
i've touched this place before
somewhere in another time

thievery corporation - the mirror conspiracy - lebanese blonde

jj

qualcosa di diverso: la cena

2010-09-19T18:45:00.003-06:00

per la cena stasera ...

FEGATO AI SETTE CANNOLI
Pumpkin Salad with Mint and Garlic
butternut squash, fresh mint, fresh garlic, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, pepper (ohmygawdddd)

AIGO BOUIDO
Garlic and Sage Soup

garlic, sage leaves, thyme sprigs, egg yolks, olive oil, bread, paremesan

grazie, caro

jj

participate...

2010-09-18T19:20:00.002-06:00

go outside... participate in the light.

anyone else find this particularly yummy looking? how about 5 miles, up hill, of this looserocklight? yeaaah. mmmm....

may the outside light get meshy with your inner light.

jj

OUT

2010-09-16T20:59:00.003-06:00

a lot of the the time, my biggest challenge is simply crossing the threshold of the sahara desert
that is my front door.

any time i can make that happen, it's a huge success. i need to remember this.

thank the universe for sunsets that entice me out and keep me entangled in singletrack well into the magical hours.

jj

vapor taper

2010-09-13T18:07:00.003-06:00

spent the weekend in salida -- for ed's 6th vapor ride... and our engagement anniversary ;-)

caught a few images from saturday ... ed's vapor lead-up...

a little pony-love

dirty pony

skylove

our lucky number

smooovvveeee pony

a good luck tap!

and he's OFF!

zzzooooommmin' thru the night...

what a spectacle!

while ed was off traipsing thru the night and the mountains, sarahpie and i saddled up the ponies for some monarch crest/rainbow action... and didn't take one single pic. DOHHHHHH!!!

good job, ed... for knowing when to say when. i'm so proud of you.

and huge congrats to all the crazies who started -- and the animals who finished!

yeehhhaawww!!!

jj

rock'n-roll ride date

2010-09-11T10:19:00.003-06:00

huge thanks to LIZ for re-igniting a bit of the mojo fire...

Liz is the lean, mean, mtb-tech-princess-machine:

oooo.... can't wait for the next pony party!

;-)

jj

inspiration ... for miff

2010-09-09T06:56:00.005-06:00

MIFF, starbunny, this is all for YOU.

see: the pony still lives!!!

shot some video. not a vid for creative video sakes. a vid for roll-play sakes. this is for you - to giddy you with a few rocks and more switches.... same place as the switches/bitches photos from a couple weeks ago (i promise they're all steeper and harder than they look ;-) in the vid they ALL look easy) ... this time i caught myself clearing everything... (there were 2 that had stymied me that day -- and now they've all been GOT all good and sassy).

just a bit of roll inspiration ...

off to go roll with liz in the morning light. we will send rock and roll energy your way.

weekend written

2010-09-07T19:42:00.005-06:00

what have we here?

why, it's BOOBOO, napping in the exact spot that the mama elk naps:

maybe booboo thinks he's bigger than he really is? he certainly is a lazy fuzzball.

that, too, was my state saturday. lounging on the deck, watching the clouds migrate and morph and dissipate. motivation was at another all-time low. all i could muster by the end of the day was packing the big pack, and planning some kind of plan - any kind of plan

so sunday found us packed up and ready to roll around sunrise.

we bolted into the wilderness area early-like, and spent a bit of time crossing the entire length of the valley pictured above. once that got 'boring' (and relatively populated -- all 7 people), we veered off the beaten path and headed straight up a ridge line in this direction (looking north, back down into the tip of the valley we just hiked through):

much, much more to our liking. not that the lower valley wasn't likeable. but we liked it higher.

so we followed the ridge line south-ish. and found our perfect little camp spot (11,900') just around this corner:

view from the tent, south:

we found spring water here, and hiked up to the liiiiitle pile of rocks off in the far right distance (south west, at 12,191'):

along the way up to that liiiiitle pile of rocks, looking back at ed, with the camp site in the trees at the base of the sunshiny little hill at the right/back of the pic:

see ed's corresponding pix by clicking here.

looking back from 12,191', due north.

ed, glowing ;-)

i sat in a field for a bit, watching the tall grass get it's golden glow ON. ed was in the woods geeking out on picture taking.

after the water recon and extra hike, we settled in for the evening:

that night, the wind was HUGE. the thunder storm a HUGE SURPRISE. i slept very little.... very, very little. but it was lovely listening to the weather wreck absolute havoc.

sunrise, and we shot up for the goals of the day: 12,191' again, then 12,900', then 13,323'.

from atop 12,900' looking south west

from top 13, 323' looking southeashish

retrospect: we hiked the one on the right

and then picked a ridge line and descended alllll the way to the valley floor -- and back to a real live trail. hours of pure creative genius.

and finally, looking back at the 13,323' summit (the big one in the middle/back), and the rolling, beautiful distance we put between us, and it

here are LOTS more pix of different light pouring into my eyes -- and lens:

another EdVenture -- written into the soul.

jj

thursday morning sky fire

2010-09-01T20:02:00.003-06:00

the sky was on fire yesterday morning

so M and went out to fly thru it

well ... fly can be a relative term, eh? for me, more like clamor through it:

regardless, the outside light was firey -- which made the inside light firey... and that is a good thing.

go find some firelight -- inside and out!

jj

Wildly Lost Creek

2010-08-30T19:03:00.002-06:00

note to self: if ed has an edventurous idea, follow him ... without too much question. have faith!

view from our camp spot, evening light

hike along the valley floor in the morning

route finding ... many hours and a lot of glorious and mind- blowing this:

ed's view

edventure route finding complete, and now for the long glorious haul to complete the loop ... aaahhhhh the views

ALL of the pix... phew!

i definitely feel like we found a new-to-us paradise, one we'll be visiting often.

most repeated conversational topic:
question repeated at all serpentine singletrack places (remember, we had 21 miles of this):
"is this rideable?"
answer: "hell yes ... gloriously yes ... blissfully yes ... ohmygodnoway ... oh my god, can you IMAGINE the route we could put together, yes!yes!yes!"

if only.

jj

seeing the light

2010-08-27T21:46:00.004-06:00

play date with michelle always proves to be full of light and wonder. i've decided, quite simply, that she IS Light and Wonder. period.

since the burners are ... burnt ... i thought it best to cool the jets and go play on some rocks and switches. michelle and i opted for a sassy little pitch that is usually traveled in the downward direction. cleared them all down ... now time to clear them all going up!

thank you, michelle, for another morning of enLightening bliss.

jj

for my girls...

2010-08-23T18:00:00.002-06:00

... who keep me inspired and filled with light...

bright and early thursday with michelle

sat and sun with Eszter

miff, these are for you, too.... to keep you rollin' in happy singletrack style, and to let you know that happy-place hunting-by-pony is still the name of the game (and actually, the answer to everything).

for you, and thank you.

mwah!

jj

new, in a new way

2010-08-04T07:22:00.003-06:00

pardon the absence! i've been geeking out following all my pals on the CTR!! if you've not checked it out, you need to. seriously now.

so for last weekend: neither ed nor i have donned a BIG pack for a hike and camp adventure in TOO many years. we're both a bit 'burnt' on the mtb-fire, so we set pack to back, foot to wilderness trail and headed up for an over-nighter right at treeline.

here are the pix! feel free to create captions for any of the pix of ED -- because his beauty and nature makes me giggle in some of the pix!

we set out saturday for a short but very ascending hike up to 11,500'. we camped on a ridgeline right in the last set of trees, with a view of 2 14ers. it started raining about 10 seconds after we started our hike! it was a lovely cleansing hike ;-) it stopped and cleared up for a few hours, and then, just as we got the tent set up, it started pouring again. and it continued to do so for the remainder of the night.

sunday's morning light dawned, and we were blessed with a handfull of hours to continue our loop. we scrambled up another 2 ridgelines, and summited Rosalie at 13,500'. thunder started to roll just as we topped out, and we had a 6 mile, 4,000' descent back to the car, with very minimal rain. we reallly lucked out.

hiking like that, up high, and straight up ridgelines and mountains: my feet have some catching up to do with my legs ;-) sore feet were the only issue --- and i had big fat squishy shoes on to try and mitigate that potential issue... but alas. however, recovery has been quick.

i/we foresee a lot of on-foot overnight adventures in the very near future.

that said: i keep dreaming about my bike at night. each dream consists of BIG desperation to get out on the pony and ride, while the story of each dream (places, people, things) hampers my momentum. HUMMMMM....

jj

aaahhhhhhh...

2010-07-29T19:41:00.003-06:00

splash!

anyone know what this is?

jj

fire on the mtn

2010-07-27T07:25:00.002-06:00

mighty fine display of color and fire before 6am today.

rolled as lightly as possible this morning...

but jeny is cooked.

time for rest;)

jj

oooT and aboooT ...

2010-07-26T19:02:00.003-06:00

... on empty trails, watching the flowers parade ...

jj

rock candy for breakfast

2010-07-22T18:54:00.004-06:00

sometimes, it takes a little 'extra-sumthin'' to wake up in the morning.

thurs morning, it took a hearty meal of rock candy to snap out of sleepy-head mode, and into I'M AWAKE AND READY FOR LIFE mode!

nothing like heading out with a tech goddess to get the schoolin' goin'.

Thanks, Liz. for another masterful morning ;-)

and last, for GIGGLES, lizzzz caught a quick clip of me dropping the zorro staircase. such fun.

it's friday. i hope everyone's got a hearty set of play plans for the weekend!!!

jj

resuming the breakfast rollllllls!!!

2010-07-20T23:15:00.002-06:00

lucky morning laying fresh tracks on fresh trails. lucky morning riding with an icing of fog and cool air --wrapped around a dense cake of singletrack and forest. scrumptious. a blessed breakfast ride, if you ask me.

the only real pic from the breakfast roll this morning:

liz really rocks it.

oooolaaalaaa!!!!

thanks liz!

more please.

jj

reintegration

2010-07-18T20:00:00.002-06:00

reintegration week has been... challenging. at best. i've taken a little time off the bike. (mistake?) work has been the focus. (another mistake?) it's so ... not like riding bikes all big every single day.

but alas. we must. and we must. so we do.

this is kinda what my psychic energy feels like:

boom! poof! sshhhwiwigghlle!

thank goodness for sweet little bunycakes like this to brighten up the world:

world, meet Ella. she is a supataaaahhhh!!!!

that last pic, that was taken on wednesday.

in the pic below, taken today, ella says: "Ed, I SAID NO PAPARAZZIIII!!!!"

she sure is a sweet cakes. we went on a hike today, after my ridiculous ride.

we saw a world of beautiful things

but stellah ella ....

she is the most beautiful, by far.

thanks sissypie, for sharing your beautiful baby bunny with us today!

jj

grand finale

2010-07-12T08:07:00.003-06:00

no better way to wrap up 9 days of riding than...

... to go big.

so that is what we did. 9 hours worth of dream chasin'. we basically hit star pass twice (once from each side), with a nice extra very full loop of pass climbing-streamline descending-pass climbing again in the middle. whooie!!!!

thank you, honeybear.

jj

pause

2010-07-08T17:50:00.002-06:00

nice hike today.

we napped in a basin between here:

and here:

my honeypie:

aaahhhhh...

go get some sunshine in your soul. now.

jj

wednesday's wonderland

2010-07-07T16:45:00.003-06:00

absolutely and completely riding myself into the ground here.

and lovin' every last single second of it.

for ed's pix from today go here.

today:

we started out with a spectacularly pleasant 3K climb to here:

then scrambled, bikes on back, another few hundi feet to here:

ed, starling, loving every single step:

and then proceeded to ride the very edges of the wide-angle ridge line, total vertigo moments included... (see ed next to the edge!!!!?)

... scraping the blue ink of the sky, all along the edge ... for EVER.

in the pic below, we bombed down from where we were, then up the faint singletrack that heads up the right side towards the ridge, rolled delicately well beyond that, and then some, along the ridge line that goes straight right out of the right edge of the pic.

life is grand.

felt surprisingly well, and cleared more climbing that i ever would have thought on day 5 of our little bender. i know 5 days is a row is nothing too impressive. neither is 27 hrs out on the ponies in those short days.

but still. jeny is ti-ti.

i love our bender.

jj

tuesday's treasure

2010-07-06T17:57:00.003-06:00

or, i could have named this post: why god created the granny gear. thank you god.

;-)

jj

spectacle

2010-07-05T22:02:00.003-06:00

welcome to monday's view...

jj

the high life

2010-07-04T21:50:00.003-06:00

my new favorite happy place is right here:
now THAT is some sweet, skinny singletrack. mmmmmm....

not much to say other than: tired now ;-)

more tomorrow!

yehaw!

jj

the story of the walkabout pony

2010-07-02T20:17:00.003-06:00

when i laid down to sleep last friday night, i was EXHAUSTED. it took half a second to collapse into the feather bed, under the down, and disappear from existence.

the day consisted of a 4 am wake up call, a 4 hour drive, a brilliant 4 hour ride with the wedding chicks, a 4 minute rehearsal, and a scrumptious 4-kinds-of-pizza rehearsal dinner. oh, and a 4 pound piece of triple chocolate raspberry cake. can't forget that.

the 4 am wake up call and the 4 hour ride kind of did me in. well, not the 4 hours of riding specifically, but: most notably, during the 4 hour ride, my pony and i had a moment.

pony and i rarely get chances to hit straight-line choss at any impressive pitch. last friday, we did. and straight out of the gate, i had one interest: FLY!!! no interest in brakes. no interest in thought. just GO. that was a mistake.

about half way down, i found myself pinned to the earth, pony on top, rocks underneath. no clue what happened. the pony bucked. i ate crow. DOH.

that hurt the skull. the back and hip. and my right arm. (the ego, for sure). but all was well. no blood. just deep bruises, and a really, really odd sense of confusion.

pony didn't feel right. and i had subsequently yakked poor all afternoon and evening about questioning the size of my dear pony, and therefore the match of our dance. bad mouth jeny.

anyway.

lying down to sleep friday night, in that half of a second of remaining consciousness, i had a brief thought: unlock pony, bring her in, and don't make her stay on top of the car all night. and then i was GONE.

5 am wake up call! 530 out of the shower. i'm standing in the living room, towel on head. tip-toeing thru the dark house. and i stop to gaze out the window at the ponies outside.

and pony ... dear pony... my god, she was GONE.

i'm not kidding. ed's pony was locked and loaded on the car, and my pony... my pony was nowhere to be seen.

disappointment could not describe the black mood that descended upon ed and i. our spirits broken. the magic stolen.

but alas ... i had a bride to prepare, and a wedding to attend and celebrate! on with the dress! off with the mood. and out the door to Ez.

as noted, the wedding was heaven incarnate!!!

on the way back to the house from the wedding venue, we flagged down the marshall to ask him where, exactly, to file a missing pony report. he was sweet, and took us to the house, where he was going to take the statement there.

as we rounded the corner, parking the massive police SUV, i spied smack dab in the middle of the yard: my pony; blatantly HUCKED over a fence and a picnic table, strewn about in the grass and dug down into the dirt: Pony. Pony got hucked over a fence. but Pony was BACK.

and in good time, too, because the wedding sweet roll was only an hour away, and, well, i needed my pony to dance.

and off we went! and i have to say: pony and i had one long ride of a brilliant dancing moment. the connection made, the dance balanced. we were, actually for the first time, finally together.

and that made me rethink all my bad yakkity from the day before. and it made me think that maybe someone didn't actually STEAL her (and break/ruin my rack lock in the process), but that she needed to go walkabout a bit and ... let me get my head on straight.

thank you universe, for pony. i don't know what i would do without her.

jj

it's a date ...

2010-06-30T22:24:00.004-06:00

... with my two hawt chicks and a mountain full of switchbacks.

my hawt chicks:: michelle and meg-o-ramma!!!!

one goal today: session switches. that was the request. so that is what we did.

mmmmmichelleee!!

moi, photo credit michelle

moi, photo credit michelle

meg-O-ramma!

photo credit michelle

don't mess with this one. she'll rip yer legs off.

mmmm has a hankerin' for some rocks...

aaahhhhh...

gigglefest.
photo credit michelle

photo credit michelle (thanks, michelle ;-))

teehhee!! more!

and then. and then it was all down hill. and who wants to stop to take pix going down hill? not me. not today. not til the bottom.

the end.

jj

ez and chris' wedding weekend extravaganza

2010-06-28T19:33:00.004-06:00

omg.

photo credit: AmyH

too many stories to tell all at once. which one do you want to hear about first?

pre-wedding chika roll?
secret stash rehearsal dinner?
wedding ceremony location hunting?
private super sweet and fancy three layer chocolate cake desert hour
stolen pony?
the weeeddddiiinnnnggg!!!!!!
returned pony?
rolling wedding party pony extravaganza?
the 'how is it we know each other again' story?
OMG: you're going to want to hear about the Bluegrass Playground HopFest Reception party. yeah that was fun.

don't know. it's up to you.

meanwhile... i have pix from the pre-wedding chicka roll ONLY. that is all i have. sorry spacefans ;-)

the wedding was beautiful, soulful, perfect. SO happy for you both!!!

jj

SweetRoll

2010-06-23T19:21:00.004-06:00

something light and sweet to wrap up the morning singletrack feast

just the last little roller section... nothing fancy, complicated or difficult

just something simple and wonderful

thought it would be nice to share just a little ;-)

yes, this is exactly the music rolling through the head all through this morning's sweetroll

jj

early morning parade

2010-06-22T17:55:00.003-06:00

tuesday morning is elk morning! most of them have shiny new coats!

i like the little fuzzy, spotted babybunny!

jj

HighCountryHoneyPie

2010-06-20T20:31:00.003-06:00

sometimes, this is what the week day hours feel like for me:

cagey

so it's best to do the anti-that^^ whenever possible.
highhhhhhh.... mighty and...

pristineeeeee

aaaahhhhhhh......

and my sweet honeypie...
up close and scrumptious

speical ed. man of my dreams.

... he makes that our goal ... always:
biiiiggg and beautiful

ed is the EdVenturer -- and the Ed'sploration' expert:
gigglegigglegiggle

originally, i thought my sunday spirit and pony were destined for some finally techy-ffin' singletrack. ed suggested a far-away-forray on a dirt road. and i had to think about that a little bit... because i've had enough smoove for one season. but then i got to thinkin'... that i know honeypie, and i knew what he had in mind, and i was pretty sure that smoove had nothin' to do with it.

we go up now. i really like the up. up. up and aawwwaaayyy!!

and more up now. more. because we love it. moreup.

and, truth be told, my spirit wasn't looking for just a bit of ST techfest, it was looking for wheels on the ground at 7am, at 12,200' by 11am, 9-hour pony + hike play time, and sunshine for the duration. it was looking for an all day forray into new to us environs and some HIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHH countrayyyyy...

naaappppp here. for 15 mins. just because it's sunday. and just because i can. while ed takes pix ;-)

ponies at rest while we bag a ridgeline and peak

it was looking for an all day duration of whatever the universe decided was right.

of course, the universe provides, and the high countray means some messay and funkalicious jeepin' trails:

too much fun to take pix of the too much fun trails

soaking and lovely.

i was fine with that. that made me extra-extra happy. like i could possibly be any happier. any. at all.

this was the wheelie-pop onto the big snow drop.

yehawww!!!

thank you honeypie...... thank you thank you thank you. and, your pix ROCK! i can't wait for you to put them all up!!!
jj

friday morning flight...

2010-06-18T18:25:00.000-06:00

breakfast delight

mmmm... tassstttaaayyyyy....

jj

it's true...

2010-06-15T07:50:00.000-06:00

love...

jj

wednesday's delight ...

2010-06-10T06:37:00.007-06:00

... moved to the afternoon light!

it started off alright. smoove trail. saccharine sunlight. 3 sassy super ss'ers: jmb + cyn + moi (i faked ss and stuck the pony in one comparable gear and left it there)

oh... yeah ... this is off to a great start!!! first quote heard from another rider as we jumped onto the singletrack: "you all are missing the short-track races tonight, too, eh?" Helll yes.!!

jmb

super-cyn

we briefly picked up a 4th for a few moments

adjustments

jj is not trying to run the pony into jb. nope.

jj + jb making nice

jj + jb have a little conversation. can anyone guess what words are being said???

thanks super stellar ss bunnies!

aaaahhhhhh...... perfect way to end a day.

sorry about losin' the keys and having to hang out in the parking lot for 1.5 hours for the rescue dude. DOH! the margs at dinner were a good reward for waiting, tho ;-)

jj

dancing in the fog and drizzle

2010-06-08T07:21:00.002-06:00

morning time!!!

intro pic: this is a pollen pucker pod. they go pouff.

extra early today (thank you darling!). deep greens covered in mist and deep silvery clouds. a ghosty morning, begging to be experienced.

i can do nothing but oblige ;-)

stay flat, or climb? i cannot help myself sometimes. especially when the day is decorated in special silvery clouds. banked the left and started the rowdy wonderland ascent.

into the beautiful. into the clouds. into quietness. into happiness.

followed at least one set of tracks. catch them? teehhee... continue basking in silvery bliss.

scoping potential nap spots for future endeavors... you know, if miffy from aussie ever needs to come ride in these woods and nap.

silver solitude.

oo. future nap spot. what's that noise?

could it be? sounds. pony sounds. and male sounds? yup: other riders. lo-and-behold: TONY!!!!

Tony says: maybe best not to go that way: mama bear + 2 cubs!!
do they look like men afraid of bears? you decide.

turned around and proceeded to get my speed and mtbfunk freek ON!

and there are no more pix because of it ;-)

silvery downhill mad-fast thru funk is such succulent fun.

jj

Saturday EdVenture!

2010-06-06T06:20:00.002-06:00

... out the door by 6 am. this is becoming a lovely habit, weekend and week day. i love the morning fill of fresh sunlight.

on the ponies by 7, rolling up, trying to shoot the gap before the horse race, we caught the rare few days of spring-flower explosion in the high desert.

my beautiful partner in crime. today's EdVenture was his idea. it was a spectacular idea. and, true to form, something new *every* weekend.

my Starling!

it was a purple morning.

sweetness everywhere.

around 15 miles out. we stashed the ponies and donned the running shoes.

and proceeded up the straight-up yummy trail.

we gained altitude immediately, and it was glorious. (thank god we left the ponies behind).

more purple.

and the summit provided 360* views... we lounged a bit, and accidentally took a solid nap. drool and all.

we had such sweet company up there on the top.

did i mention that it was lush? the hike back down was a lot faster than the hike up!

3 hours later, we returned to the ponies, and saddled up...

... for the lovely 15 mile ride back to the car.

and home we went ... whereupon, after stuffing face for dinner, i promptly fell asleep before the sun went down.

lovely day, starling. thank you for your everything!!

jj

i heart whiteranch

2010-06-04T18:19:00.004-06:00

i just love it. loooovvvveeee IT. i don't care what anyone says about the climbs, or all the waterbars, or the trail work that's been done. i love to climb the trails. i love to descend the trails. i love to roll over all the funkalicious rocks. i love whiteranch.

especially in the morning.

cal, post chain-drop

heavenly skies and light, jumping out of my skin while climbing ...

oooo look! another nap spot!

mmmmm... yummyyy... i want to go to there....

cal ... poor cal...

and this ... THIS is the way to wake up in the morning... i'll have me some of THIS trail for breakfast every morning, please.... thank you.

off the top, sort of, kind of, not really...

when is it ever this lush in the FR of CO? only today.

calGone... wrappin' it up!

thanks cal, for the company on the morning ride bliss.... that was a spectacular hoot of a ride.

jj

wednesday!

2010-06-03T06:06:00.005-06:00

sweet, sweet morning out on the trails ...

me and my pony in the fresh light ...

with J (the maker of kick-a$$ amoeba lights and FIFO ring-leader)...

and the other J (local talent) ...

to keep me and the birds company. Thanx, boys!

Found this lovely spot. I foresee naps in this spot, someday in the near future.

gratuitous pony shot. because i love her.

in other news: lowering the saddle seems to have helped the consistent hamstring/knee irritation. healing now, for reals. WOOT!

go out and get some trail!!

jj

for ez

2010-06-01T07:49:00.000-06:00

saturday's hike:

;-)

jj

short 'n sweet

2010-05-31T08:20:00.002-06:00

short, sweet, sunday morning roll, thru a little slice of boulder's heavenly bubble...

with my sweetie pie, Ed.

happiness ensued

nursing the hamstring tendons, but between a nice hike, a nice ride, and the roller and the Ibu and the ice, it's not going as planned or expected ;-( must find a way for healing!

i thought the sunshine would heal!!!!

;-)

jj

cooling my jets

2010-05-27T07:06:00.003-06:00

i awoke blurry eyed and desperate

with heaviness lingering in my ghosty heart from the night before

and all i desired was to be at the deep, far arc of a dirt loop in a cool, magical-morning forest

so without delay i made a mad dash into the thick trees

so that i could let the song birds re-sing my heavy, meddled mind and ghosty heart

back into a smooth, whole, magical being ... into a magical state

the tiny pony was happy too, for a cool morning on smooth dirt trails

in the far arc of the magical forest

a tiny heaven of solace

cravings satisfaction
meddled mind and heart soothed

jj

bad jeny brilliant breakfast ...

2010-05-24T20:37:00.004-06:00

... but oh so good!!

... oh so good to swim in the freshest air and bathe in the glorious candied light of a bright new day...
i am SO in love with this funkalicious trail ... so in love...

... oh so good to simply hear the dirt under my tires... and the birds singing all their morning- songs; a bright, sweet serenade as i fly through their forest ...

... oh so good to just be rolling and rolling and rolling up into my favorite world ...

... thank you, bright day! thank you!

and the 'bad jeny' part:
tendons are still angry, apparently, and tell me that perhaps i should not yet be climbing my little tail up into the high spots just yet. D.O.H. ! back to the rest plan.

jj

Fresh Bliss

2010-05-21T07:46:00.002-06:00

Good morning, SUNSHINEEEE!!!

The mind-body-spirit is in need of some inspiration adjustments.

I think I have found a whole new ocean of Fresh.

Enjoy the day!

JJ

the freedom to choose

2010-05-16T17:56:00.003-06:00

today,

ed and i hit the trail early.

first on the trails as the sun was barely warming things up.

33 degrees; stellar-blue sky; fresh coat of pristine all over everything.

we chose to climb sandy,

and then up and over to miller. we chose to play our hearts out descending charlies,

and slip back down the upper part of sandy, and then turn off onto homestead. we chose to thoroughly bomb baldy

and then saunter our way up tramway.

we chose to rail all the way down more CoTr and then to go ride our way along red skin. we chose to giggle our way all the way up gashouse. then we chose to meander our finagley way

over to the CoTr over by wellington. we SOOOO chose to descend the CoTr. but first we chose to stop and say hi to the riff-raff.

the riff-raff leader, spikeypoo, just HAD to get his paws on the tiny pony.

at mile 38, ed chose to continue on to meet his 50-mile goal.

and i chose to lie in the grass and take a nap.

it was a beautiful nap.

and there was much Joy.

thank you, starling, for the most lovely day.

jj

morning view

2010-05-14T05:48:00.004-06:00

Morning, SUNSHINE!!!

jj

CooCoo for KOKO!!!

2010-05-11T18:41:00.009-06:00

A few months ago Lynda and I hatched a crack-pot plan: PlayDate on the KOKO! I was in need of a little 're-do' action to try and get this beauty done, and she was likely in need of a nice spinn around the block. This last Sunday, our spirits converged, and we set out for a lovely, beautiful, soulful day out on the KoKo.

Quick note: I did not bring my camera. Again. (It's broken really, so why bother, right)? So Lynda took most of the pictures, except for when I had a mind enough to ask her for it. And, we took pix until about ... Mcgraw, sort of. Then we stopped taking pix, so that is all I've got.

Annyyywwwaaayyyyy..... lalaa!!

Lynda, Dave, Ed and I all met in Moab Saturday afternoon. With a little futzing and packing, we were ready in no time flat. I think Lynda caught a couple/few hours sleep before hand. I, on the other hand, was wide-eyed and couldn't fall to sleep to save my life. Energy is good, right?

Lynda and I suited up, and we were ready to roll by 2 am, sharp.

Ed snapped a few pix of us riding around in circles (for his entertainment) ... and we were OFF!!!

We rode casually up sandflats and chit-chatted the piddle-pedal time away ;-) We hit the singletrack that led to the top of the loop road and I was totally out of my skull giddy at getting closer to the true 'launch point' of this route (which to me feels like Beaver Mesa). We took our time, and we slowly glided up, up and up. It was dark and the moon made a magical appearance late into the climb. Lynda found a chain tool in the dirt, and we picked it up, in case it was an omen;-)

We quickly bombed the loop road, and started climbing again, making our way up to the high-point. Along the way, I could hear the stream running, and what else did I sense? The birds were slowly coming to life, singing their little hearts out as we snuck by in the deep hours. The black edge of the la sals silhouette had a faint light rim outlining -- the sun was rising, and we were feeding off of it.

We kept a steady pedal and a quiet conversation (well, quiet for me anyway) as the sun made it's quiet way to the horizon.

And then, as we hit the absolute summit, giggling, the sunlight forced it's way over the horizon and we were bathed in the most beautiful light...

SPLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lynda wears the sunshine on her shoulders (but you all knew that already, didn't ya).

And Jeny has a hard time containing her excitement (but you all knew that already, too).

We rolled along in the sunrise, and I was screaming with energy (sorry, Lynda;-)).

And Lynda was smooooving along in the brilliant morning air with the biggest smile EVER.

We bombed down the short, fast pitch. We passed one car coming the other way, and started to dive fast into the next corner, when Lynda said: "watch it" ... and another car crept around the corner with 10 dogs all peering out of it and standing on top of it ... she didn't even see it or hear it... she just KNEW it was going to be there.

And how did she know? Because she is IN TUUUNNNEEE with the KOKO...

And we danced our little in-tune souls right up onto beaver mesa. And life was Grand. And I was exploding with love and light and happiness. I was in my happy place with a happy angel and we were in heaven. I REALLY like this spot ;-) It's one of my favorite places to be... EVER.

SIIIIGGGHHHHHH.

We played our way on down the other side of the mesa, and HAD to stop for the mind-blowing earth-scape blooming in morning glory!

Here she is, the angel, with her wings:

And Jeny, hardly containing all that energy... I could have jumped off that rock and soared ... forever...

We rolled and rolled down all the rocky bliss. I was certainly glad to be going down this hill this time, as opposed to up it. I'm not sure what I was thinking last time. DUH. Much, much more fun in this direction!

And we meandered around in the desert. Giggling. Spinning. Soaring.

And then we got our selves up RoseGarden. We found a tupperware feast on the way up the hill. We chose NOT to pick this stuff up. Someone was going to want it;-)

And then I followed behind the angel for a long time getting up the hill after RoseGarden. Why did that one have to hurt so much? It shouldn't have ;) that is some FUN STUFF out there.

Yes, my name is Jeny, and I walked RoseGarden!

We filtered at a spot before Dewey bridge. I sat down to filter water and eat food, and I had the distinct sense that it might be a smart move for me to REALLY sit there for a while. This was roughly the 1/2-way point, and we had been out for a nice long ride thus far. I was trying to prepare my head and body for ... "another ride," basically ... because we had another 75+/- miles to go.

So Ii called a "rest stop". I laid back into the sand and grass ... and promptly passed out cold ... twice! ;-)

I awoke as if I had had a solid nights sleep! So we packed up the ponies and headed off.... only to see Dave barreling down on us, asking us if either of us were carrying extra.... SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! He offered to pay $100 for a pair of socks. Lynda, of course, gave him ONE and said he owed her $50 bucks... and then we took off.

Little did I know that Ed was waiting a bit closer to Dewey! So I got to see my honey (and get a kiss) before I started a section I was a bit afraid of!

Pic credit Ed:

DH got his one new sock on and danced off to follow us up Yellow Jacket. See how happy he looks with his extra sock?

And, with the nap, the DH, the Angel, and a kiss: I WAS STOKED to be going up YJ with ENERGY and positive thoughts!!!! Wwwwrrrraaaaaawwwwrrrrrrr.....

I was trying to play CUTIE to try and enliven all the spirits in the YJ canyon. I'm not sure it worked ;-)

ANNNDD ... then we stopped taking pix!

We rallied up YJ MUCH faster than I had expected, and getting down and thru the other side of it was delightfully playful!! SO much so that I blew a tire near the end. DOH!

So DH and LW took off and waited at 128. I threw a cursing fit at the Jones + Arch rim combo -- but I got it DONE and done right;-)

DH and Lynda don't know it yet, but I was REALLY proud of myself for getting that tire re-done. It certainly took a while (had to give them time to kiss), but that is ok. I got it done.

And we were off thru Mcgraw.... and the flowers were going off!!! And, surprisingly, I felt like going off, too! The singletrack light my fire a bit and I just wanted to rail and push and play! I'm pretty sure we were all giggling, madly.

Such a lovely, lovely wide-expanse of flowers in the spot I absolutely least expected it.

And then we hit what i consider MARS.

And we all started to really sink into our own music and our own pace...

And we rolled with a tailwind for a LOOONNNNGGG TIMMMMEEEE (thank GOD for all that tail wind).

In my mind, I was thinking that it was like there were 3 separate movies playing one screen, all layered together: Lynda's movie, my movie, and Dave's movie. Same landscape, different films. And yet, we stayed together as a pack, blowing our way towards West Water, totally in sync.

I'm a lucky girl to get to be out in the middle of nowhere with these two crack heads. That thought did not escape me for even a second. Not once.

We rolled into West Water to refill with water. I ate. I drank. I lied down. I almost fell to sleep. DH drank a red-bull, then passed out cold for a few minutes.

I ate some more. I drank some more. And I was feeling really dark in my head. I started doing some finish-time math... and promptly dismissed my pathetic math skills and conclusions.... until DH chirped in and gave his finish time assessment.

DOH. Confirmation can suck sometimes ;-)

I didn't want to be out that late, that long. Fear crept into my belly -- which was already having a horrible time trying to process everything I had just stuffed into it -- and I was filled with a deep sense of panic.

We left the watering hole and jumped back onto the route. My legs felt oddly good, and that felt like a wild success for me: to be mostly physically AOK after 16 hours out. That is really big for me. However, the belly was not processing the food. And the big one: the head and emotions were unraveling, rapidly. I had myself a solid, solo cry while I was riding in the wide-expanse of the middle of the two crack-heads. That felt really good. HA!

We jumped onto the dirt to head up the hill that would eventually drop us into Rabbit Valley... a place I've been riding a LOT already this season. And I was filled with a bit of dread.

Lynda and I stopped and chatted.... It was time to stop. And it was a good spot to stop. So we sent DH up the hill with the cell in search of service so we could call our Rescue Angel, Ed.

In 30 minutes we were all piled in the car and blasting back to Moab for the Best Pizza Ever (Paradox Pizza in Moab).

The ride ended with the following stats:

We did not make it to Fruita
105 miles (of 142)
12,400+/- vert
16 hours out
and get this last one: 4 HOURS of down time!! DOHHHHHH!!!!!! Oops. Sorry about that DH and LW ;-)

It was a FANTASTIC PLAY DATE! I'm pretty certain that we all had lovely, deep and beautiful adventures. I know that I came away from the day feeling clear and grounded and healthy ... and blissed out of my skull ;-)

I do have a lot more to say about the ride and the day -- but it will have to wait for now ;-)

And, since I do have a new pony, I can't leave her out of the story, right?

She carries well distributed weight VERY well ... something she's not used to doing very often:

For ALL of the pictures go here. And yes, Lynda gets all of the photo credit!!!!

THANK YOU, LW and DH -- for all your time, energy, playfullness ... and your MtbSpirits. I love you both so very, very much!

Jj

majik and much love

2010-05-02T20:28:00.003-06:00

i like the energy things

the big dark energy colliding with the flamboyant

the fresh and the expansive

and the earthy and the heavenly

the warm and the cold in the crux of change

the love of so many things all in one place

in one moment

one moment lasting

a lifetime

thank you, darling

for all the love and energy

(and the extra special ti bling)

jj

better late than never ;-)

2010-05-01T09:10:00.002-06:00

As a treat to myself for taking a solid 10 days off of riding the bike, I went out to ride some fun, playful stuff with my dear friend M.

We had a casual ride up Falcon and over to LOTB. We talked with EVERYONE on Falcon as we rode up, and it was so neat to see so many MtbSpirits all amped up and positive! What a neat thing. Then, we got to hit LOTB in all it's swoopy, flowing goodness. Everyone we met and saw there was also on a glorious MtbHigh.

Luckily for M and I, there are 3 little rock sections along the way that are just fun enough to play around on. Pix below are of those 3 sections, and they're really mostly just pix of ME, because my camera STINKS ... and I failed to get as many good pix of M as she did of me;-) Bad Jeny. Booooo....

Maybe everyone was in such a good mood because we ALL knew we were totally sneaking in a dirt ride just before the next spring storm showered us with unending sleet and snow. Maybe ;-)

Anyway. M had the patience to let me try and try again on a big thing that I've only cleared once in this lifetime.. and was not able to clear this day. ;-( Booooo... But ... that just leaves fun for next time we're out there.

And M -- I promise to either get a better camera soon, or to start using YOURS while we're out playing.... Thanks for the lovely, lovely evening in the dirt!!!

jj

just.keep.going.

2010-04-18T20:34:00.002-06:00

people are just SO much fun ;-)

even when i'm not so much ;-)

thanks for a rollicking, frolicking, climbingly blissful pummeling....

and the down-hill parts didn't suck either.

jj

yogi reflections

2010-04-15T07:31:00.003-06:00

I'm going to interrupt the As the Beautiful World Turns series of posts and stories for a brief reflection.

But first, a gratuitous pony shot... she's becoming the Tiny Dancer ;-)

My wandering, funny thought:

So I'm in yoga the other day.

Specifically, I'm in downward-dog, as much as my hips allow me to be in downward-dog. I'm all stretched out, sweating like MAD, shoulders pulled and head relaxed.

I'm staring at my knees and I find myself thinking...

WTF. I used to have really sexy knees.... now they just look beat to hell.

And I continue thinking to myself... why on earth would that be?

Yesterday, I finally put it all together. This is why:

Yup. I have a penchant for liking rock funk, uphill.

And liking such silly things, I find that I slam my knees into hard things ON my bike, like I almost do here:

photo credit: Michelle

I woke up thinking about this so much, in fact, that I woke up this morning with one thought: Up is the new Down! OH yes indeedy!!!

But anyway. Michelle and I met up for another Raucous Rock Date. I'm really lovin' these outings!

Michelle has such grace!

whereas, jj has ... to just LAUGH!

She's so SMOOOVVEEEEE!

I have a lot more pix, and a few more words in regard to riding this hill in this direction.

I think I've found my new Funk Focus. What a great way to school yourself over and over and over again.

THANK YOU, MICHELLE!!!

Such Bliss.

Alright SpaceFans... time for WORKEY!

Jj

Anticipation and Hindsight: Episode One

2010-04-13T06:48:00.006-06:00

westwater mesa view

Alright. I'm going to blatantly steal something from Ez ... something she said to me while we were driving for an extra bit of time on Sunday for our ride date with the Chickadees... she said (as per one of her brilliant yoga instructors: "use every moment, and every obstacle as an opportunity for adventure. Adventure doesn't have to be an 'in-hindsight' experience ... it can be a PRESENT experience. Every moment is an adventure, if you let it be so."

And how!

I don't know where to begin, really, because there has been so much adventure --- external things and internal (extra credit) things happening as of late. And by that I mean, fun things planned and lined up, as well as challenges, obstacles, and things I otherwise see as barriers for me to clamor over.

So, I'm going to start with a challenge. This is just ONE of a large handful of stories and topics I am excited to present to you. I am very specifically restraining myself to one topic today, as each and every moment deserves it's own episode and attention. I am merely starting with the one people keep asking me about ...

... The Pony Adventure! Yeah.... Remember in my last episode, I broke the HummingBird Pony, and was in desperate shape because of it? Well, let's just say that Jj gets a bit stressed about things like this. I had decisions to make, and a lot back-and-forthing between here, Salida, my mind, other pony dreams, and well ... other inputs... not to mention a head cold that completely took me out. I finally came upon the most efficient decision (duuuhhh) and WOW was I excited!!!!

ghost jeny

However, upon meeting the new pony, and heading out for our maiden voyage on local almost-ready trails, it was pretty apparent that either she didn't fit right, or that I no longer knew how to ride a mountain bike AT ALL. Sometimes, in my lows, I can be a pessimist. And the combination of those two possibilities sat in my stomach like a sack of potatoes.

Thus: in my anticipation and stress ... the evolution of an adventure.

So. it was in a state of fear and almost dread that I packed up the car at the last minute on Friday afternoon and just blindly bolted West with my road-trippin, mountain biking, partner-in-professional-eating Chika: Ez. We were destined to meet up with the Chikadees for their annual trip, and they were awaiting our arrival ASAP!

I stressed about the Pony and the Fit (and the potential end of my MtbLove) a LOT. So, after sleeping (not much) out in the open, under the stars, Eszter and I got to it: Between the "numbers sheet" I got from the last fit I did, and Eszters powerful 2-processor brain, we shakked and shimmied the new pony into a slightly different set of dimensions. And.... are you ready for this...........

My New TiPony!!!! SHE's a DREAM!!!! She's like a unicorn with wings (duuuhhh -- you knew I was going to say that, right?)! She is magic, and she flys!!! But no -- I have no idea what her name is just yet. She is SUPER smooth compared to the Scandium version of this bike. And she is ready to rock and roll!

Alright. That was a lot of build up, and I know you don't come here for the words, really.

So, for now I will just leave you with that, and you can expect another installment of As The Brilliant World Turns. Stay tuned for: "It's a Big Journey, Jeny. A BIG ONE." and "Is This Really Where We're Starting?" And, most delectably, "Desert Yoga." OH, and I cannot forget to mention "The Jesus Ride".

For now. I have to scoot to the place they call "office" and do the thing they call "work".

I'll leave you with a few parting shots to whet your appetite:

is this really where we start?

eszter in flow and bliss

sarah, dancin'! Prepare for an entire episode of How To Know When To Drop Your Pony And Do Yoga In The Middle Of NOWHERE. Oh I can't wait for this one! Wait til you see!!

And this.... well. THIS is the way to finish a ride.

Oh, and I cannot forget THIS episode:

Alrighty, space-fans. Stay tuned!!

Jj