bikes

ok first things first--we arrived safe and sound in snowmass village according to plan.  Wife, kids and dogs all made it and the adventure will provide subject matter for many future posts.  But first bikes.

In my fantasy world we would arrive Friday afternoon and the kids would hop on their bikes while the wife unpacked and I drank beers.  We arrived late and there was no biking or beer drinking.  Saturday I walked from house up to Clarks market with dogs and thought that isn't a bad walk--maybe 1 mile.  Sunday I told my kids to ride to Clarks to buy some stuff for lunch (and get them out of our hair).  Son came back and said that was an epic fail.  Daughter tossed helmet, bike, bag, sunglass on ground and screamed a lot.  What happened?  Snowmass village is hilly.  Very hilly.  My kids are used to hazards like 6 way intersections, getting doored, alleys, crazy car, bike, and pedestrian traffic.  Snowmass has none of that but, well that mile up to clarks has got to be 800 vertical feet starting from 7500 feet.  Needless to say the kids have got some work ahead of them but shoot there isn't even a bunny slope equivalent around here to warm up on.

Today I went for a ride.  About 30 years ago I used to race, but really haven't done much riding since then.  My bike is 15 years old and set up for easy road racing on flat conditions.  Today I rode from snowmass village to Aspen and back.  Didn't look bad in terms of distance and heck the longer I was out of the house the better.  Leaving snowmass was easy (too easy) as I went downhill fast.  I am not sure I have ever had to change my brake pads on a bike but now checking those suckers will be a pre bike ritual.  So everything went fine except for some serious uphill where I cried a lot and was reduced to walking the bike some.

 On the return above the airport I was on the bike trail because I figured I was too slow to be on the road when I saw a beautiful deer.  Wow.  I stopped and look at the deer and he at me.  Lovely.   And the deer didn't make fun of my slow pace or my tears.  And then a fucking bear comes running across the road and the bike trail 20 yards ahead of me.  Big bear.  Really big bear.  Made the very large buck look tiny.  And this bear was not black.  It was brown.  Yikes.  I stop and hold my breath and prepare to do a 180 and go downhill as fast as my shot legs will take me but the bear continues on its way.  I wait 30 seconds and find wow I can pedal uphill pretty fast on an old bike with the wrong gears and spent legs if you think you might have a bear on your ass.

Welcome to Aspen.