It was a beautiful day.
It was great to meet so many people. Everyone seemed like someone I wanted to know more about.
We all met up at the top of Vail pass. Every indication was that the weather would be agreeable to our endeavours.
We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 riders, so there was a not inconsiderable amount of time spent arranging a bizarre Polish Shuttle, wherein we left most of the vehicles at the top of the ride and once on the trail we still cranked out well over 1000 feet of climbing. This is Colorado. Anyway, everyone took this in stride, except the dog.
And so. After our leaders and organizers had chivvied all of the vehicles into their various staging areas, we rolled out.
^Not the complete group.
It was really interesting to see the myriad versions of the mountain bike. There was one job to do that day, and folks reached into their toolboxes and brought out all sorts of different tools for the job. And everyone had fun on their bike.
And even those without a bike had fun.
Below is a little snapshot i like to call "Woman rides, Men Walk"
Arriving at Krummholz, Mount Holy Cross in the background.
Obligatory mountain magnificence shot:
We reached the top of the climb and regrouped, and socialized.
Rich took the opportunity to wrest the souls from innocent flora.
Migz with MHC in the background.
We returned to the cool embrace of the woods to find various challenges there.
And then we broke out of the woods and onto the wide open swoopiness of the Vail Back Bowls.
Because it was Vail, and because we are nothing if not fancy, we sprung for a mudbath for the dog.
And once again, back to the grind, this last section followed the creek all the way into Minturn, and was a constant, low grade technical challenge. It wasn't overly gnarly, but if you let your guard down for an instant, the trail would seize the opportunity to smack you around.
Father and Son.
There are more pics here: http://www.anthonysloan.com/cr1.html
And there's even more here (amidst duplicates): http://www.anthonysloan.com/crgallery/
It was great to meet so many people. Everyone seemed like someone I wanted to know more about.
We all met up at the top of Vail pass. Every indication was that the weather would be agreeable to our endeavours.
We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 riders, so there was a not inconsiderable amount of time spent arranging a bizarre Polish Shuttle, wherein we left most of the vehicles at the top of the ride and once on the trail we still cranked out well over 1000 feet of climbing. This is Colorado. Anyway, everyone took this in stride, except the dog.
And so. After our leaders and organizers had chivvied all of the vehicles into their various staging areas, we rolled out.
^Not the complete group.
It was really interesting to see the myriad versions of the mountain bike. There was one job to do that day, and folks reached into their toolboxes and brought out all sorts of different tools for the job. And everyone had fun on their bike.
And even those without a bike had fun.
Below is a little snapshot i like to call "Woman rides, Men Walk"
Arriving at Krummholz, Mount Holy Cross in the background.
Obligatory mountain magnificence shot:
We reached the top of the climb and regrouped, and socialized.
Rich took the opportunity to wrest the souls from innocent flora.
Migz with MHC in the background.
We returned to the cool embrace of the woods to find various challenges there.
And then we broke out of the woods and onto the wide open swoopiness of the Vail Back Bowls.
Because it was Vail, and because we are nothing if not fancy, we sprung for a mudbath for the dog.
And once again, back to the grind, this last section followed the creek all the way into Minturn, and was a constant, low grade technical challenge. It wasn't overly gnarly, but if you let your guard down for an instant, the trail would seize the opportunity to smack you around.
Father and Son.
There are more pics here: http://www.anthonysloan.com/cr1.html
And there's even more here (amidst duplicates): http://www.anthonysloan.com/crgallery/
Then maybe my V10 wouldnt' have gotten stolen Friday if I had left Thursday. 
Oh well, looks like good times. 
