Mountainbikes, Snowboards and hiking boots, oh my!

It's been a little while since I have posted here, but for good reason! I have been busy living life, which aside from my current lack of incoming funds is pretty sweet right now.

Erik and I went on a mountain bike ride a couple weekends ago up at Hall Ranch in Lyons, CO, and man is that some sweet singletrack! The ride up is pretty mellow, and the ride down is a ton of fun. I've heard that Hall Ranch is some of the best singletrack in Boulder County and I'd have to agree. With plenty of water bars and natural features, it keeps you on your toes. The section of tight switchback at the bottom is great for whipping around those corners. I'd say cornering is my weakest point, so that little tight section is great practice and a lot of fun! We saw a group of deer on the way up. Very cool.

A deer at Hall Ranch

Erik's friends Jimmy and Kayna stopped through on their way from Montana to Texas and we went on a nice hike up to the Flatirons. It was a perfect day for it. Now I think it would be more of a snowshoe than a hike. Speaking of, it's about time to break out the snowshoes!

It has been snowing in the Rockies!

In case you didn't get the memo, it has been a great early season here so far! We have already had 3 big snow storms, and many of the ski resorts are already open. I have managed to make it up to the mountains twice so far. Once to Loveland and once to Breck on opening weekend!

The loveland trip was pretty sweet. Erik's friend hooked us up with a couple of free passes and the snow was very good for this early in the season. I bet it is even better now. The drive up was a fiasco, however, and I ended up out of the car pushing the escort up a section of I-70. We will never take that car in a storm again! We ended up buying chains in a small town off the highway, so we were able to make it to the resort with a couple hours left to ride. It was all worth it though to shake the rust off the old legs and get back into the groove!

Breck was a ton of fun. I drove up with my friend Jen and we got to the resort at ~11am. There were crazy long lines, but the slopes were pretty open! We went on a couple runs, then met up with some friends and had a margarita. On our last run we cut a corner and got some powder turns in! I was nervous that I was gonna trash the base of my new board, but the call of sweet powder won me over and I decided to risk it. It totally paid off, and we got some great turns in with no damage! Hooray!

Erik and I are going to head to the mountain this weekend with the snowboards, mountain bikes, and hiking boots and see what adventures we can get into. The plan is Friday snowboarding, then out to Fruita, CO or Moab, UT for some riding. Hopefully we can get out to Moab and hit the Whole Enchilada, but the top might not be open due to snow. There are a ton of good trails out there though, so we will have a blast!

Then it's off to the East Coast for thanksgiving. I just got a bunch of new clothes with some giftcards I had laying around, so I am super stoked. I got a sweet argyle sweater and a bunch of Roxy long sleeved thermal shirts, so I am ready for winter! I'm off to Costco to return some stuff now.

Check back soon for an update of the Thanksgiving break festivities!