Sunday, December 19, 2010

Last weekend of the Fall ride

Today my loving wife Martha and I rode out for a ride under sunny skies and warming temperatures to see if we could find a bit of snow. The destination was Bee Rock and although we didn't find much snow, it was still an enjoyable ride.

Leaving shortly after 9:00AM, we were bundled up for cold as the thermometer at the bank registered 31°F as we transited the town of Parker. Soon past Parker, we were on the Crowfoot Parkway where its grooved surface made the knobby tire I had on Natasha feel a bit squiggly. Still, nothing really bad, just squiggly.

Once past the town of Castle Rock and west of the I-25 interchange, we turned back North on US85 towards the town of Sedalia. The temperatures had warmed considerably by the time we left Sedalia behind us and headed towards Jarre Canyon and the vicinity of Bee Rock.

Our first view of Bee Rock

We continued down the dirt county road taking in the sights and still spotting no snow as you can see.

Good shot of my riding jacket's tough material, kevlar you know.... 

A side view of Bee Rock 

Martha poses on Natasha, someday she might even learn to ride her.

We continued on the county road, passing small patches of snow where the shade protected the snow from melting in the warm Fall weather we've been having of late.  At the sharpest turn on the road, we took a side road I'd not taken before as it had a sign stating it was a dead end.  It wound for a little bit through bushes and a few more snow patches until we got to this gate:

The most snow we could find for Natasha

So, now that we "found some snow", we headed out of the area at the posted speed limit, enjoying how smoothly Natasha dealt with the dips and peaks on the dirt trail.  Soon we were southbound on CO 105 headed towards Dakan Road to see if any snow was there.

There turned out to be no snow again but we did get a shot of the "Hershey Kiss" rock formation.  I don't know it's formal name, that's just something I'd used from other rides.

Hershey Kiss Rock Formation on Dakan Road

We then headed on home, retracing our route up CO105, to CO67 which took us through the town of Sedalia once again and back southbound on US85 towards Castle Rock.

As we entered the town limits of Parker, we stopped at the "Coffee Cabin", a roadside coffee shop so that Martha could get herself a coffee.  A little bit of UDF later, we were back on Parker Road headed north towards Lincoln Blvd which we would turn east on to take the back roads homewards.

Martha apparently saw several deer along the road as we rode along.  I was looking for them but did not spot them at all!  We were home by noon with no incident, a short but nice little ride to enjoy the warm temperatures of the last weekend of Fall, 2010.

Hope you got some riding in.

5 comments:

Keith - Circle Blue said...

Glad to see you out and about with Natasha. And, it is really cool to see Martha with you.

So, do you think one day she will learn to ride a hack? Or, was that wishful thinking on your part?

~Keith

Chris said...

Good to see you both out and about having fun on a ride!

I'm not very impressed with the ural knobby. It squirmed on the road, and the knobs were sloped rather than right angles. Didn't have as much bite in the loose as I expected.

My k335 is wearing a bit fast on the pusher. It is down 5mm after 1000km with only 6mm left to go :(

redlegsrides said...

Circle Blue....yeah, just wishful thinking, though she'll have to learn if she wants to go on the longer rides! : )

redlegsrides said...

Chris, I've only had the ural knobby on snow once and it didn't do very good in the soft deep stuff....we'll see. I don't know how old mine is but might as well use it before it rots.

Too bad about the Kenda's wearing so fast....what pressure are you inflating it to?

dom

Chris said...

Just using stock pressures. 32,30,40.

They are totally worth it in the snow though! Just got back from playing in a snow storm again. So fun!