Palisades - an area I've been meaning to check out for a while. Famous for its peaches and wine, but also home to the Palisade Plunge. That was my real draw, but with the recent snow the trail was not open yet.
No matter there are plenty of other trails to expore, and not one but two mountain bike races on this particular weekend. One of which my buddy Brian was in.
While Brian was racing I started up the Palisade Rim trail.
It is quite spectacularly scenic.
Little Book cliffs to the north across the valley.
Petroglyphs on the rocks half way up. The video shows more essence of the Rim trail.
camped overnight north of Fruita.
Sunday was a gravel race, which Brain raced in also and won the combined two day event.
I took off in search of a trail called Sarlac.
I had discounted the trails leading to the canyon as they didn't look like much on the map.
However the cactus was in bloom and trails were in pretty good shape dustwize.
The Sarlac trail was a grunt of a climb, but once up to the single track, the trail was specular once again.
Some fun traverses.
Utah border over my shoulder.
Rugged geography back east toward the Book cliffs.
Paintbrush in bloom.
Purple Scorpion flower, names as such due to its toxic sap like poison oak.
Had a great ride on the fat bike, Sunday. It has been a pretty good season so far. This ride was 4.5hrs and about 22.5Miles and 3700ft of climbing. The weather was perfect, and the trails were smoothly packed and quiet due to it being super bowl sunday. I started at Peaceful valley, took sourdough to Brainard lakes, lapped the east part of Snowshoe trail, then Waldrop to South St Vrain, back up Beaver reservoir road to Coney cut off back down to Peaceful Valley.
Skating on an Alpine Lake has been on my list of things to do for a few years, I finally got to do it this Christmas break. The Previous week I had been fat biking, and heard a hockey game being enjoyed here, the previous day I rode across it, noting the ice thicknesss and quality. Although the forecast was for some wind, we went anyway. The Lake is a little over 10,000ft above sea level in the Brainard Lake Recreational Area.
I headed off to Steamboat Springs for Labor Day weekend as it seemed a good bet for the weather, plus I was invited ;) The flying was quite nice, very gentle thermals which was a surprise to me, but apparently this is common as the valley is generally quite green, and this year had a particularly wet August. My battery ran out half way through the flight, but I think the scenery is still pretty nice, I flew for a couple hours, getting to 14k and had a nice landing at the hayfield LZ.
The next day, was questionable as to whether or not there might be helicopter traffic grounding freeflight, so I opted for a town tour on the folding bike I had packed. The river trail was quite fun.
Maddy gained some really good skills riding a rigid frame downhill, we stayed mostly on the Green, stince the 1.8" wide tyres on the 24"inch wheels without suspension has to be brutal on the wrists. Anyway she did great, 4 runs is a good showing considering the circumstances. What is more, she ended with a big excitablable smile.
We left in the darkness to arrive at Snowy Range Ski resort for Maddys first lesson. I chose there because of loathsome traffic on I70, relative ticket prices and the prospect of quieter lifts. I was wrong about the lifts, it was quite crowded that weekend. But we got lucky with the parking and the journey. I had ideas of snowboarding in the morning while Maddy had her lesson, then using my xc skis in the afternoon while we were all together. The meet up logistics were too cumbersome though and I stuck with the board. The snow was surprisingly good while thin.
On MLK day I skied Happy Jack Trails. It's a place I've had my eye on for Fat biking for a couple of years because the local club grooms the trails. Pretty day, awesome trails.
Palisades - an area I've been meaning to check out for a while. Famous for its peaches and wine, but also home to the Palisade Plunge. That was my real draw, but with the recent snow the trail was not open yet. 
No matter there are plenty of other trails to expore, and not one but two mountain bike races on this particular weekend. One of which my buddy Brian was in.
While Brian was racing I started up the Palisade Rim trail. 
It is quite spectacularly scenic.
Little Book cliffs to the north across the valley.
Petroglyphs on the rocks half way up. The video shows more essence of the Rim trail.
camped overnight north of Fruita.
Sunday was a gravel race, which Brain raced in also and won the combined two day event.
I took off in search of a trail called Sarlac.
I had discounted the trails leading to the canyon as they didn't look like much on the map.
However the cactus was in bloom and trails were in pretty good shape dustwize.
The Sarlac trail was a grunt of a climb, but once up to the single track, the trail was specular once again.
Some fun traverses.
Utah border over my shoulder.
Rugged geography back east toward the Book cliffs.
Paintbrush in bloom.
Purple Scorpion flower, names as such due to its toxic sap like poison oak. 
Even the Cactus was in flower.
