bus

Some more bus advocacy on Monday morning. 

The two ladies on the front right are on Springs city council.  If our council had a few more like them, we wouldn't lag so far behind Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins on any semi-important measure among Front Range cities.  But hey, at least we're ahead of Pueblo!

I've been riding public transportation since I was a freshman at Pitt.  But Monday was the first time I've ever got onto a bus without a specific destination.  I got on at the downtown station, and then just rode it around until we got back to the downtown station.  Spent all of that time on the eastside, and it re-affirmed my opinion that there is absolutely nothing worthwhile on that side of town.   Every time you hear some stereotypical horseshit story about the Springs, I guarantee it happened east of I-25. 

FYI, the blonde councilwoman, Jill Gaebler, went sub four at the Ascent this year.  Less than two hours behind the fastest city councilor I've ever had. 

Seven mile run this morning.  I've now run seven days in a row, and nine of the last ten.  With the late surge, I'll end September with a whopping 93 total miles!

Pikes

Pikes yesterday during my run:

Pikes this evening at 5:30PM:

Happy Anniversary!

If you had two years or less in the divorce pool, you're out! 

beer 271

Montana yellow beer.  Bills itself as the official unofficial beer of Montana.  But it's made in Wisconsin.  I'm confused too.  But it wasn't bad.

Got down to Bristol on Sunday to reserve a few bottles of Venetucci Pumpkin Ale.  I'll be able to pick them up in mid October.

40 miles running and 40 miles riding on the week, my first decent week since the Leadville run.  I really have nothing coming up.  Oil Creek is out, it doesn't look like I'd get in off the waitlist, and I couldn't run 100k anyways.  Even Hot Chocolate is out.  Life events have popped up and I don't think I can make the Denver drive twice this weekend.  Besides, the Fall Series starts this weekend and I have to help the Red Leg/CRC men defend their title in the super competitive team category (I think we were the only ones to field a team last year).

beer 268, 269, & 270

Finally getting all caught up.

268 was a Devil's Backbone Belgian Style Tripel from Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco, Tejas.  A gift from a recent Texas visitor.

269 was the Double Haul IPA from Kettle House Brewing Company in Missoula, MT.  Another one Marc hauled back from Montana.  Another mediocre Montana brew.

270 involved a hunt to find the new Smiling Toad Brewing Company location.  It's on 8th street, much closer to my house than the old location, but it's tucked away and not visible from the street.  Like the new digs though.  Awesome bar, plus a pseudo beer hall to go along with it.  Could serve as a nice post-ride/run joint after playing up in Cheyenne Canon or Stratton, though they'll have tough competition from Bristol.  Anywho, still making the same good beer.  This is the IPA.

beer 267

Another one Marc brought back from his trip to Montana.  From Dog Tag Brewing in Belgrade, MT.  Good stuff.

Even better than the beer is the fact that they honor a fallen soldier on every can.

Speaking of military related stuff, I had to head up to the grand opening of our new local VA on Friday.  Still using a bike for transportation, I didn't want to be all sweaty from climbing Fillmore hill so I decided to try using the bus bike rack for the first time.  Glad to report that the bike made it fine.

beer 266

Road Block Lager from Wildwood Brewing in Stevensville, MT.  Marc got this at a gift shop near Yellowstone NP.  Pretty awful.

Takuto

We had the good fortune to host a cross-country biker on Monday night.  The dude is from Nagasaki, lived in Toronto for a year, and then decided to ride from Toronto to Los Angeles before catching a flight back to Japan.  He spoke broken English, but we had a good time by throwing down a few beers and filling him with steak.  On Tuesday morning we took him to King Chef, which he loved, and then for a dog hike in the Garden.  Around 11:15AM he left our house for his next destination, Denver.

Bikes & Brews

Over the weekend we went down to Canon City for the annual Bikes & Brews festival.  Bike ride, beer festival, late night pub crawl....  Such a great time!  Only ended up riding a 50k, a solid indicator of my current fitness, but my beer drinking skills sure are off the charts right now.  Some pics from the weekend:

beer 262, 263, 264, & 265

Beer 262 was Friday night down at the Royal Gorge Brewing Company in Canon City.  Red Canon Ale.  I want this place to be cool, but the beer is meh.  More of a restaurant than a brewery and you can tell in their beers.

Beer 263 was another Royal Gorge Brewing Company drink, the Skyline Amber.  Good for those guys, though there was certainly better beer drank at the festival.

Dropped by Red Leg on Sunday to try the Blackhawk Black IPA.  Delicious.  Unfortunately they only made two kegs of it and now it's gone.

We had a CRUD happy hour at Bristol on Monday and they had the Double Decade Saison on tap.  Saisons ain't my thing.  But at least I got to drink Laughing Lab after this pint.

beer 260 & 261

I think I can make it the rest of the year just off of beer my friends gave me.

beer 259

Retro Red Ale from Lone Peak Brewery in Big Sky, Montana.  Marc brought this back from his recent trip to Yellowstone. 

Four miles on the Garden roads this morning, 36 minutes.  And, of course, the bike to and from work, as I've survived two days of not having a vehicle.

beers 256, 257, & 258

Beer 256 was the Wilson IPA from Mr. Grumpy Pants, aka the Ourayle House.  One of my favorite breweries in Colorado.

Beer 257 was the Durango Wheat from Durango Brewing.

I think I tried about 1,000 new beers at Telluride Blues & Brews.  Such a fantastic time!  I'll get a post up about the music one of these days.

Beer 258 was one I almost missed, due to my truck being totaled and my sister being in the hospital.  But late in the evening I was able to sneak out to our porch for some quite time with a can of Valkyrie Double IPA from Southern Star Brewing in Conroe, TX.

I've run a half hour on back to back days now.  The comeback begins...

beer 254 & 255

254 was the Pumpkin Patch Ale from Eddyline, one of several breweries we stopped at on our way to Salida.  Took us six hours to go 100 miles from the Springs to Moonlight.

255 was during a stop for lunch in Montrose.  Colorado Boy has a pizza joint there now.  Which is great, since the Colorado Boy in Ridgeway never seems to be open whenever we drive through there.

Now a one car family!

I'm in the market for a new vehicle.

Neither $100 nor I were in the truck when this happened.  My sister had borrowed the truck and took a different way home from Telluride, ended up spinning out on some gravel on HWY 24 near Lake George and rolling a few times.  She and her boyfriend are fine.  I can't believe they lived, these pics don't do any justice to show how fucked up the truck was.

Vote for Hollydog!

My dog is jealous of all my recent media coverage.  She wants to be in the MHWR calendar.  If you have a buck to spare, vote for her here.

beer 253

Got the hook up from Wiley.  The Whip In, one of my old Austin hangouts, only brewed 14 cases of the stuff.  Tasted like wine to me, like something expensive you'd get at Trinity.

So to get some beer flavored beer, and to kick off Telluride weekend a bit early, we headed down to the Lounge.

beer 251 & 252

Rolling along on the beer challenge.  251 was the Hop Rush IPA from Four Horsemen Brewing Company.  Like everything else in South Bend, big expectations but fell short.  252 was a liquid lunch at local Phantom Canyon Brewing, the Workin' Man Blues Dortmunder Lager.  Worth trying.

Get a Texas shipment on Wednesday night.  Then it's off to Salida on Thursday, then Telluride on Friday.  Will have no issues trying new beers for the foreseeable future.

Weird clouds on Pikes Tuesday morning.

A side project of mine at work is trying to improve public transportation for our village.  That is going to take a while.  But I got to speak to city council about it on Tuesday.  A shot of me and two other transit supporters before the meeting:

Gazette (again)

Article on the 365 beer project over here.

Christian Murdock took this pic.  And he was just as drunk as any of us when he took it.  He named this photo, "jt and two slow runners."

Monarch Crest

Finally got my ass up to ride the Monarch Crest trail, something I've wanted to do for almost a decade now.  And even with how much I've built up the ride in my mind, it was so much better than I thought it would be.  Anyone, whether or not you ride a mountain bike, who isn't afraid of a hard four hour workout should do this.  I'm still a novice at the technical stuff, so I had to pay attention, but it wasn't super difficult.

The route I took was 33 miles and took me four hours.  I could probably take an hour off that since I had to stop and check the map quite a bit and also kept the watch running while I sat down on the continental divide to enjoy a brew.

The Vapor Trail 125 was going on, and I saw some of those guys as the final 40 miles of the race include the Monarch Crest trail.  Fucking animals.

As an added bonus, the trail ends at Elevation Beer Company!  They make beer there!  Hooray beer!

$100 and the dog used those four hours to explore the area.  She took a nice pic of my pooch.  Completely coincidental that the dog hasn't bit anyone since Colorado legalized weed.