Quantcast

High Country CO with SS and Full Trucker.

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
Sorri, my czenglisch is no very well todayy.

I should have said "your ass" or "you", but either way, if you get yourself in a position of getting zapped by the @FSM, you done bad.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,379
12,533
In a van.... down by the river
Sorri, my czenglisch is no very well todayy.

I should have said "your ass" or "you", but either way, if you get yourself in a position of getting zapped by the @FSM, you done bad.
You should probably not ride with me, then. On this particular ride, we had to leave the bikes on the ridge and scramble down the hill about 250 vertical feet and cower in a small group of rock pinnacles:
1584991753068.png


Did the same ride a few years later with @Full Trucker and just got LUCKY to be honest, that we only saw rain and hail on one of the high points near the "end" of the ride:
1584991702872.png
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
You should probably not ride with me, then. On this particular ride, we had to leave the bikes on the ridge and scramble down the hill about 250 vertical feet and cower in a small group of rock pinnacles:
View attachment 142397

Did the same ride a few years later with @Full Trucker and just got LUCKY to be honest, that we only saw rain and hail on one of the high points near the "end" of the ride:
View attachment 142396
I got myself into a peculiar situation during our trip to Idaho last year. When it started lightning directly above our heads, on a ridge with two out of three trees scorched by lightning, I felt *very* stupid. And I suspect one hit very near our car as it displayed a mysterious malfunction of power windows when we arrived.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,379
12,533
In a van.... down by the river
I got myself into a peculiar situation during our trip to Idaho last year. When it started lightning directly above our heads, on a ridge with two out of three trees scorched by lightning, I felt *very* stupid. And I suspect one hit very near our car as it displayed a mysterious malfunction of power windows when we arrived.
Yeah - that ride I mentioned above is an 8-12 hour affair, and the *vast* majority of the trail is above 12K feet. You just gotta basically HOPE that the weather doesn't go to hell in a handbasket while you are out there...
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
I don't fuck around with lightning (TS) anymore. We do get it a bit here, but not nearly as much as in AZ. In AZ, I was in storms where I was maybe 100 feet away from strikes, deafening and feeling the concussive blast. Strikes happening every couple seconds in heavy rain. Hail, etc. Luckily I didn't get caught in one of the 1" or larger hail downpours, but we had those too. There's a significant difference in being hit by lightning by random, or even way down low when there's a crap load of good conductors available, vs. being on a fucking lightning rod out in elevation, often out in the open, during the peak activity of a thunderstorm. I adapted just fine, but it meant looking at the forecasts, the convective strength and how widespread it was going to be, what times it was forecast to start, etc. All of this stuff is readily available, it's plotted and you don't have to be a scientist. If you want to derive the numbers fro a SkewLogT chart, then yeah, you need a bit more schooling, but the convective forecast discussions and convective outlook stuff is pretty easy to figure out. Also what to look for on radar. We'd get into the summer during a heavy monsoon period where the clouds would start forming actively around 10, rain by noon, and it'd clear up by around 4pm (to amazing cool summer temps where I'd be in the 60s at 5000' and down the road in Phoenix it'd be 110). During those peak times, you had to decide how you wanted to ride. Get off the mountain by 11-12 or start a ride at 4 (water permitting), but don't get caught in the mess of it. That kind of rain can cause serious hypothermia due to how you get totally soaked. Sometimes I'd go to Flag, ride in the morning, go to a restaurant, come back out in the late PM for some more riding. It was nice sometimes when the monsoon cycle would get thrown out of whack and instead of building and raining in the day, it'd do it at night, and there'd be low stratus in the morning and cool temps (instead of shooting up to 90 degrees immediately) all day.

I do a lot of riding in weather, snowstorms, blizzard this week when two rangers on snowmachines went by me high above the city in the mountains, -30F and I'll eventually get so pissed off I'll go ride in the pouring rain here, but not lightning. Lightning=thundestorms, which means downdrafts, lightning, rain, hail, etc. No thanks.

I saw radar returns in AZ on aircraft equipment that went to color-scales I didn't even know existed. Usually, it's green, dark green, yellow and red. Pink and cyan=some shit is going down:
Droid 069.jpg
 
Last edited:

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
23,058
11,300
In the cleavage of the Tetons
I got myself into a peculiar situation during our trip to Idaho last year. When it started lightning directly above our heads, on a ridge with two out of three trees scorched by lightning, I felt *very* stupid. And I suspect one hit very near our car as it displayed a mysterious malfunction of power windows when we arrived.
I was so close to a big strike once, I got burned. My gloves were wet, and I had one Hayes (aluminum) lever, and one (Magura) carbon lever. The aluminum one burned my hand. Strike was *maybe* 20 feet away. One of the scariest mountain bike experiences ever.
 

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
I'm actually grateful that for trail riding I've got to flats now so I don't have that nice little metal cleat under my foot when I'm hoping to not get zapped while taking temporary shelter.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
I'm actually grateful that for trail riding I've got to flats now so I don't have that nice little metal cleat under my foot when I'm hoping to not get zapped while taking temporary shelter.
Says guy riding a lightning rod.
 

mtg

Green with Envy
Sep 21, 2009
1,862
1,604
Denver, CO
So the high country is drying pretty quickly this season, and it's pretty easy to stay 6' apart on a high country ride.

You guys want to do a Brown's Creek suffer fest in June?
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,928
14,447
where the trails are
So the high country is drying pretty quickly this season, and it's pretty easy to stay 6' apart on a high country ride.

You guys want to do a Brown's Creek suffer fest in June?
aren't there two Brown Creek trails? Which are you talking about?
(I've done neither.)
 

mtg

Green with Envy
Sep 21, 2009
1,862
1,604
Denver, CO
If only I had lived back in the day when Canyon Crik (and Agate Crik) did NOT end in an uphill. :(
It looks like the Canyon Creeeeek climb at the end was the result of a silly land dispute...you can almost see the road along the creeeeek, and then have to climb over a damn mountain to get back to the bottom. Is that what happened?
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,379
12,533
In a van.... down by the river
It looks like the Canyon Creeeeek climb at the end was the result of a silly land dispute...you can almost see the road along the creeeeek, and then have to climb over a damn mountain to get back to the bottom. Is that what happened?
Yeah - much like the end of Agate, the old trail passed through a tetch of private land...

Actually, it's similar to Warren Gulch as well...
 

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,484
7,531
Exit, CO
I started a PM to cover logistics for the Little Brown’s Sufferfest and added a couple people. If you’re not in on it but wanna be, lemme know.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,032
7,550
I'm down iff USFS changes their e-bike regulations in the interim.

(They actually might! iff is also not a typo.)
 

mtg

Green with Envy
Sep 21, 2009
1,862
1,604
Denver, CO
The climb is a Jeep road, so you’re definitely fine there, and Little Browns has low traffic. That whole area is packed with loud fuel burners, I doubt anybody would reasonably care if you’re riding an e bike.