To say it's been a bit of a hectic few weeks would be an understatement, heck even the weeks leading up to the Lazy Horse were pretty hectic but since then it's been even more so. Gravel events and friends weddings have kept us pretty busy and things don't look to be settling down all that much in June either with both the Solstice and Coast to Coast coming up. To quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
In an attempt to try to embrace those words, we loaded the 1120s on the back of the Jeep and headed out to the Winter Park area in Colorado for a few days of riding and relaxing.
They had really good snowfall amounts over the winter in the area so many of the creeks were flowing at or slightly above capacity, nothing flood level just yet but they were full for sure. Heck there was even still a little bit of the white stuff in the valley along some of the shaded paths and there was plenty still to be seen in higher elevations.
Day one of riding was just a casual ride up to the Winter Park ski resort on the gravel and paved paths. With the all but one ski run closed for the season the resort was pretty much a ghost town but as soon as Trestle opens for the mountain bike season it'll be back to it's normal crowds. It was kind of nice to roll through there and not have to duck and dodge people and the Fraser River Trail is a fantastic trail for sights and sounds. As is often the case, after a day of riding we finished up with a stop at Camber Brewing for a cold one. Camber is definitely our favorite spot for after ride refreshments but if you want to try something different there are probably half dozen or so other breweries in the Fraser/Winter Park area to wet your whistle.
Day two we got in a little single track, some new at "Phases" and some familiar just up the road from us. Phases was pretty fun but had a lot more climbing than the single track in the Fraser area. The 1120s did exceptionally well on the somewhat technical single track despite not being the best tool for the job, there were plenty of times during the weekend we wished we had the full squish bikes but we opted to bring only one bike each this time and the 1120s are great all around bikes. Of course with all that climbing and single track called for a cold refreshment, Fraser River Brewery got the nod on day two.
Took the following day off from the bike and got in a little hiking around the Grand Lake and Adams Falls area, also checked out the town of Grand Lake for a little change of pace.
The last full day there started out bright and early with a coffee and muffin stop at a new to us coffee shop in Winter Park and then about 14 miles of new single track before meeting up with Jackie's sister's family for lunch. This was some of the more technical single track we've encountered in the area and while the 1120s never complained we both were wanting for a little suspension again on this ride. It was also some of the bigger climbs of the weekend and we both were wishing we had less flatlander lungs on several of the climbs, 9,000 feet is no joke.
After lunch we got a wild idea to follow the Fraser River Trail the other direction to Grandby and back. On paper this sounded like a great idea, in reality it was still a great idea but it was a little more exhausting and intensive than I think we expected. FRT heading to Winter Park is a great trail of smooth gravel and pavement with gentle climbs and lots of shade. By contrast the trail heading to Grandby turns to single track and is rocky, technical in sections and has an adundance of climbing and it's 32 miles round trip. Probably should have scheduled that ride for a bit earlier in the week but we got it done and ended the week with a solid full day of riding.
The cherry on top of the day was a cold one from Camber Brewing while soaking away the aches in the hot tub.
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