I got lost!

I've been mountain biking in the Land of Enchantment for 7 or 8 years and until yesterday I've never ridden past a lake! I suppose that's because there aren't many lakes here, and the few we have are in wilderness areas where bikes are banned (grrrr). But yesterday the gracious Greg de Taos was kind enough to lead a ride to Lost Lake, somewhere between Red River and Taos. What a fantastic ride it was! Around 3K feet of mostly mellow climbing to a gorgeous alpine lake with killer views all around, and a rippin' descent back to the fine IPAs waiting at the trail head courtesy of CDaddy. And the icing on the cake was the fish tacos on the way home.

A fine day indeed.






Unfortunately our gracious host went OTB and suffered a palm bruise that made braking difficult. But as we say, crashing is just part of the fun!



The talus slopes kept CDaddy honest. As if....



one more.....





Thaks for looking!

the real world

It is truly an amazing place, this world we live in. The incredible beauty of our planet, the diversity of life that has evolved here, the mysteries of the universe. How lucky we are to have these amazing bodies with which to experience it all. The free will to choose, to choose whether to do good or bad with our time here.

And then there is the world of our dreams, where anything is possible. Where our words and actions have no consequence. Where our joy and pain, our wonder and terror are all fleeting. The canvas erased each morning, to be re-created the next night.

The late great Roy Orbison said it best in his song "In the Real World"

In dreams we do so many things
We set aside the rules we know
And fly the world so high
In great and shining rings

If only we could always live in dreams
If only we could make of life
What, in dreams, it seems

But in the real world
We must say real goodbyes
No matter if the love will live
It will never die

In the real world
There are things that we can't change
And endings come to us
In ways that we can't rearrange

I love you, and you love me
But sometimes we must let it be
In the real world
In the real world

When we were dreaming heart to heart
I wish that we had stayed right there
For when the dreamers do awake
The dreams do disappear

If only we could always live in dreams
If only we could make of life
what, in dreams, it seems

But in the real world
We must say real goodbyes
No matter if the love will live
It will never die

Statistics 101....

Face it, if you live and drive long enough in this state that has a reputation for a drinking-and-driving problem, sooner or later you are going to have a close encounter of the wrong kind. My number came up today. I was on my way to the trailhead for a short ride on when I noticed an erratic driver behind me. Sure enough, he tried to pass on a narrow 2-lane road and side-swiped my car, taking off the side-view mirror. I was able to follow him for a while and called 911. Amazingly, Santa Fe's finest (major overstatement) caught him a few blocks away, where he was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident, resisting arrest, and driving under the influence.



It's sad to think of kids being this wasted at 8:30 in the morning.


Thanks for looking.

UPDATE:

Yesterday I got copies of the arrest report and the accident report. Mr. Julian Quintana, age 26, was arrested for DWI at 8:30 a.m. He had a 1.75 liter jug of Southern Comfort in the car, as well as a 17 year old girl. He was also cited for reckless driving, having an open container, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to render aid, failure to immediately notify, and resisting arrest.

OK, so sometimes you need one more...

I've been riding the Haro Mary 29er single speed for over a year and was still loving it. It's perfect for short rides on the local Dale Ball trails. But a friend had a Gary Fisher Rig for sale at a killer price that I just could not pass up. I had tried out a Rig last fall and found it to have a much nimbler geometry than the Mary. Steeper head tube angle, shorter chain stays, and more trail made for a much better-handling bike. Plus it has the Fox 29er fork which is sweet. So I bought it.




I swapped my Avid Juicy 7's and my Truvativ Stylo bottom bracket with 180 mm cranks onto it and now I'm loving it. I'm making more of the switchbacks now with this set-up. Plus it's 5 pounds lighter and accelerates way faster.



I took it out this morning and had a sweet ride.





Another thing I'm lovin' are the quiet pawls in the freehub. All my bikes for the past 3 years have had noisy rear hubs, so it's a nice change to be able to ride in full stealth mode.


Post-ride recovery green-chile cheeseburger with fries at Bert's Burger Bowl, a Santa Fe tradition. Oh yeah!




Thanks for looking.