Field Trip

Saturday I went up to Grand Mesa (east of here) with the Western Slope Field Conference. We hiked up to the top of Grand Mesa on Crags Crest Trail which tops out around 11000'. Grand Mesa isnt actually a mesa at all, its whats left of an ancient volcano and we tramped around up there looking at the former vents and lava flows (exciting, I know).

Looking south towards Durango. Fun Fact: There used to be and 18k' volcano here about 10 million years ago.

Looking SW toward the San Juan Mountains. In the upper right corner you can see Capitol Peak in the distance. One of Colorado's 14ers, and supposedly the hardest to summit.

We finished our trip driving down a 1 lane dirt road that drops a mile from the top of Grand Mesa to GJ with about 50 switchbacks, all in an old Econoline van. Exciting!

Pork N Hops

So tonight was the start of our local BBQ competition and microbrew festival, Pork N Hops. It goes through Saturday... but is $20 to enter on Saturday and was FREE tonight... our type of event.

So we walked on over to the nearby Lincoln Park where it's being held and enjoyed some award winning BBQ, some Colorado microbrews, and a little bit of live music. Unfortunately we left the camera, but all in all, a good evening. Now we have the back door open and are listening to the music and watching some SEC and NFL football on tv :)

What happens when you google famous art images?

You got to know when to hold 'em...

Sunday night we packed up the car to go camping at 18 Road in Fruita. After seting up camp I went out and rode chutes and ladders.

We found Kellys Flip camera while unpacking so Im trying to get that set up to get some video going. After riding, we hung out doing homework (since I had class at 9am on Monday).

We got to bed and were woken up around 1:30 by gale force winds. We were actually a little ways down in a wash and protected some, but our tent was still being blown around. After about a half an hour the pretty easy decision was made to pack it in and head home. Maybe were quitters, but we're quitters who got a full nights sleep.

Lazy Sunday

This weekend has been nice and quiet. We spent yesterday doing some work, Will rode, and then we enjoyed the start of football season!

This morning we got up and checked out a new church nearby then went to the Palisade Farmer's Market and got some local fruits and veggies for the week. It's amazing how easy it is to find local produce around here... I'm loving it. We even got some beef jerky that was made yesterday and some homemade peach ice cream to enjoy while we walked around...


Palisade claims to have better peaches than Georgia... I'm not so sure yet.

From there we drove through Palisade's vineyards and orchards and ventured over to downtown Fruita to grab lunch and check out Over the Edge, a bike shop in Fruita. We stopped by 18 road to check if there were any available campsites (they're were!), stopped by Fisher's liquor store on our way home to pick up a bottle of wine from our favorite vineyard nearby and we're now packing up the car to go camping out in Fruita!

Happy Labor Day everyone :)

Are tan lines cool?

How 'bout them Gamecocks!!! The game was on at 5:30 here, thats my kind of tv.

Long week... Monday I got lost at the lunch loops after school and my 1 1/2 ride turned into a 3 1/2 hour ride, fun but I was toast by the end.

The view from Gunny's Loop

Tuesday, since Im in college and have all of 1 class on Tuesdays, I went out to McInnis Canyon and did a 4 hour loop of Marys-Steves-Lions-Macks Ridge-Marys-Steves-Marys. Steve's may be my new favorite loop out here, fast, smooth, pretty flat, and great views. I got a flat about 20 minutes into the ride and realized that the glue in my Genuine Innovations patch kit had dried up in the unopened tube, you have to be careful with those freebies. But... turns out if you put the dried glue over the hole, then cover it with a patch, then put the tube back in the tire and pump it up, it still stays inflated somehow. So after pumping up my 2.3" tire with my little PDW road pump I was good as gold, and it's still inflated!!

Thursday I went and did an hour at the Lunch Loops between classes, love that. Now I have to study for a Statistics test, I feel so young again.

Mountain Biking with Kelly

This morning we got up at 630 and rode through town out to the Lunch Loops for Kelly's first ride in Grand Junction.

We hit up the bottom of the bottom of the Tabaguache trails at the base of the monument and after a few spills (and the marks to prove it) we got rolling for close to an hour.

We finished off the ride by riding through downtown and stopping at Main Street Bagels for food and coffee and made it home before 10. Time for some school work...