whiskey 17, 18, 19, 20, & 21

We stumbled upon a joint called Container Park and decided to check it out.  The entire place was made from old shipping containers.  And they had a place that had lots of whiskey.  I tried my first ever flight of whiskey.

I ordered the Brown Sack Special, but I allowed the bartender to talk me into the Kentucky Mash Up.

Later that evening we ended up at Dino's.  I went with their two cheapest whiskies.  $100 informed me that I wasn't making good decisions, to which I replied, "you're right, I'm making AWESOME decisions."  We were both right.

Seven Bridges

Our flight to Vegas was delayed on Saturday, leaving us enough time to take the dogs on a good morning hike.  We went up Seven Bridges, yet another gem in the Cheyenne Canon area.  Four miles for $100 and I, much further for the dogs.  The last healthy thing I would do for a while, as we gave the pups to Amanda and headed straight for Bristol Brewing.

catching up

Had some friends in from Austin last weekend and had a blast catching up with them.  Showed them some of our mountain bike trails, some of our old breweries, and some of our new breweries.

Spent a lot of time hiking the dog.  I track my time/distance when I do this, but I bet she does at least twice as much when she's off leash.  Love tiring her out on the weekends.

On Sunday a buddy called me and asked if I wanted to tag along on a bike pub crawl.  Great time as we started at the Triple Nickel, pedaled over to Shuga's, dropped by Benny's, stopped at Front Range, and ended at Alchemy.  Stopped drinking around 8PM on Sunday and I was still hungover on Tuesday.

Good week on the workout front.  Some good rides, an Incline, a trip up Iron Mountain.  The cankle is not 100% but I'm not really worrying about it anymore.  Pretty much done with riding until Kanza, then I have a whole two weeks to whip myself into shape for San Juan.

$100 and I are off to Vegas tomorrow.  Going to do some running in Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire, and then visit some old haunts like the Double Down and Dino's.  We tried to get tix to see Brittney, but it seems she's on vacation.  We looked into seeing Jennifer Lopez instead, but we didn't have the desire to pay the asking price for tix.  Sorry, JLo, but if it's a rough weekend and you need someplace to stay, I'll be at the Golden Nugget.

So we got tix to see Absinthe instead.  No idea what it's about, but the wife is excited. 

incline #32

Really fallen off my Incline pace since the ankle incident.  Time to stop that.

Easy day, 37:31.

The graffitti that spawned a thousand negative facebook comments.  See the story here.  Some tool bag thought it would be cool to paint up the place.  Dude's name has been published and it won't be long before some testosterone filled crossfit dude kicks his ass.  I'm slightly more offended at this as when the Proxies of Ruxton Canyon  Incline Friends stole the "No Trespassing" sign and then charged $5 to get your picture taken with it.

whiskey #16

Leftover bottle from the old Two Guns Distillery in Leadville.  Terrible.  They charged $8 a drink at their Leadville bar.  Not surprisingly, they lasted less than a year before closing.

Tuesday

Great weekend with some visitors from Austin and some mountain biking and a lot of beers.  I'll get a post up about all that when time permits.

Commute 60 yesterday.  Might hit 500 biking miles on the month for May, probably my most ever.

Nice hour run on the Garden roads this morning.  Hoping to hit the Incline after work.

Some pics of the dog crushing it on our Sunday hike up Mt. Cutler:

Thursday

Had the day off work on Thursday and had big hopes for a 40ish mile ride.  The dog had other plans, as she guilted me into taking her over to Stratton Open Space for some hiking.  Four miles for me, at least six for the dog.

Did get a shorter ride in, as I showed some friends visiting from Austin Red Rock Canyon.  This Hop Ivy from Ska is friggin' delicious.

Wednesday

Nice seven miler through the Garden this morning.  Looks like the snow came all the way down to 9000 feet or so.  Gazette reports that the summit of Pikes got another foot.

These guys came down to the five mile mark to cheer me on.

Tuesday

Been raining here in the Springs the past few days.  Snowing higher up.  Only saw Pikes once since Sunday morning and she had quite a bit of new snow on her.

Rest day Monday.  Body needed it.  Good hike with the dog in the Garden in the AM.  PM, got outside for the hash, was nice to get back there as I rarely show up anymore.  More beers drank than miles ran, always a good sign at the hash.

Two runs on Tuesday.  Morning run on the Benny's Loop (down Pikes Peak Ave and back on the Midland trail) as I couldn't hit the track due to the weather.  Evening hour run on the Garden roads.

Florence Brewing

After finishing my ride I packed up and headed to the newest local brewery, Florence Brewing.  Frankly, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I always went to Royal Gorge Brewing when I was in Canon City, just because it was the only brewery in town, but Florence will be my go-to from now on as their beer is much better.  Note: unlike Royal Gorge, these guys don't have food.

Had the Citizen IPA, the Alpine Loop, and the Arkansas Amarillo Amber and then brought all those beers home with me.

Think this was my 129th Colorado brewery.

Gold Belt

Snuck away this past weekend for one last long ride before Kanza.  Bolted Friday after work for Oil Well Flats down in Canon City.  Not very crowded and I slept in the Jeep for my third night out of 2016.

Phone cameras never do the sunset any justice, but it was a beautiful night.

The plan was to get up early and get on the bike, but it was friggin' cold at 6AM.  So I sat around a while, drinking coffee and waiting for things to warm up a bit.  Around 9AM I began the Gold Belt loop, which travels dirt roads from Canon up to Cripple Creek, through Victor, then back down to Canon via Phantom Canyon. 

Most of the hard work is in the first 20 miles, which climbs 4000 feet up Shelf Road to Cripple Creek.

Of course after all that work I felt I deserved a reward.  Ralf's was open so I dropped by there for a PBR.  Only $2!

From Cripple Creek it's another decent climb to get to Victor.

It's only 7 miles from Ralf's, so I didn't really deserve another reward, but I had one anyways.  Victor is pretty much abandoned, but the bar was fancy, especially since the name of the bar is the Blue Collar Speakeasy.  And they had a $10 minimum on plastic, so I had to add another brew and some cheese sticks to get to the magic number.

The work is pretty much over at this point.  The downhill bomb through Phantom Canyon is a blast, but you do need to pay attention as the road is pretty bumpy in places and it could be easy to lose control of the bike at the speeds you're going.

After completing the loop (it was about 68 miles) I got some bonus training on the technical portions of Oil Well Flats.  Fun fun.

Ended up with 72 miles in 7:40.  Strava data is over here.

And after all that work, I ended up right back where I started.

Fourmile

Right after work last Friday we bolted for Fourmile Recreation Area down in Chaffee County.  Found a place to set up camp near Browns Canyon National Monument and set about doing every stereotypical Colorado outdoorsey activity you can imagine.  Definitely plan on exploring Fourmile a bit more in the near future, especially since I can get to Trout Creek Pass in a little over an hour.

Hiking in the national monument was awesome as well.  There is a trail called River Bench that ends with a great view of the Arkansas river, and I plan to return here soon with a sixer of First Cast IPA from nearby Elevation Beer Company.  Just a spot that inspires you to drink good, local brews.

Incline #31

Overslept, so couldn't get over to Cheyenne Canon on Thursday AM, just went an easy five on the Garden roads instead.  Headed over to the Incline after work for trip #31.  38:50, felt a lot slower.  Ankle still gives me fits going downhill, now four weeks after I injured it.

Semi-Rad seems to be getting more and more into the short film business.  Which is awesome.  Warning: you will want to go adopt a dog after watching this.



We had a showing last night and the film was well received by this audience.

Leadville

After finishing Collegiate Peaks we headed up to pay a visit to Leadville.

One of the dog's favorite places in the world is the frisbee golf/fitness course behind Colorado Mountain College.  She goes apeshit up there, especially if there's snow.  Even after hiking for four plus hours with $100 while I was running, she got to this area and wouldn't stop.

I've kind of gotten over the whole Leadville thing.  Used to love going there, but the locals just treat anyone who wasn't born and raised there like shit.  I get it that the ultra distance crowd, both bikers and runners, have basically become the same kind of people as the triathlete crowd and thus highly unlikable.  But I'm a guy who has spent considerable time in places such as the Manhattan and the Scarlet.  I can have a conversation that doesn't include topics such as heart rate or gu or MAF or drop bags or Born To Run (note: I do still have the capacity to do this, as Shad and I have been talking GPS watches and wrist based HR monitoring all morning via e-mail).  I don't expect to be treated like royalty, but don't go out of your way to be an asshole to me.  We used to go up to Leadville several times during the summer to eat/drink/sleep/play, but nowadays we just drive half an hour less to Salida or Buena Vista since they treat us tourists so much better there.

Anywho, there is a new brewery in town.  Periodic Brewing.  It's in the old Rosie's building.  I always got the idea that Rosie's existed just to say they had the highest brewery in the country and making good beer was a very distant second to that idea.  Not the case with this new place.  I had three beers (the Matchless IPA, the Powerline Black IPA, and the Beetlekill Brown) and they were all tasty.  Pints were reasonably priced, think they were $5 which is standard for Colorado.  And the bartenders were friendly with the customers.  Good beer, nice people, fair price, maybe this place will make it.

They told me there is a new brewery slated to open this summer down near the Silver Dollar.