Fruita MTB Trip 3

The Weekend of May 9th I went on a CHAOS mountain biking trip out to Fruita, CO. This is my third time riding out there. We left Friday morning and were on the trails at 18 Road by 4pm. Those of some of my favorite trails, especially Joe's Rim. We rode 3 short loops then drove into the Colorado National Monument to set up camp. We were camped at a beautiful spot steps away from a sheer cliif with a great view of the monument, which for those unfamiliar with it is essentially similar to The Grand Canyon, and quite spectacular.

As we were just setting up camp, a sudden and very strong gust of wind sent my tent for a ride and generally interrupted my feeble attempt at camp cooking, which was a bit frustrating. A volunteer came by with a stern warning about a severe winter storm approaching that was forecast to hit around 3pm on Saturday. He made it sound like we should pack up and head home immediately, but we were like "OK, thanks. Bye now".

Saturday we road along the Colorado River on Kokopelli, Mary's, and Steve's. It was a lot of really fun riding. I took two spills that made me lose my nerves for it a bit but eventually got back into the groove.

After the ride Saturday we hiked around the monument a bit before heading in to town for dinner at the local pizza shop, which was very tasty. Back at camp as the sun started to set and we were milling around it finally started to rain so we all had to retreat to our tents and spend the next 12 hours or so getting rained on. It was annoying and I didn't sleep much but my tent mostly held fast so I didn't get wet.

Sunday morning we just packed up our soggy gear and then got back on the road. The ride back was pretty treacherous as it was snowing big wet snow all through the mountains and parts of I-70 were being shut down. We heard stern warnings on the radio that the exact spots we were driving were terrible, but we were in a Land Rover with pretty good capabilities and my carmates wanted to power on even though I suggested we exit at Dillon and spend the night at my friend Julia's house.

We were stuck at a dead stop for almost two hours just before the Einsenhower tunnel, but luckily we had just stopped for food and gas so mostly we were OK. Eventually traffic started moving again and we made the drive all the way back to Boulder.

This month I've been rehearsing with a new funk band possibly called Captain Bone and the Thoroughbreds, but we'll see. Kim and I met Kim's mother for dinner and a play last Friday night. We saw the musical theater adaptation of the movie "Once". We're headed in to Denver for another play "American Idiot" this weekend for Kim's birthday. After "Once" we had to immediately drive back to Boulder so I could play with Gora Gora Orkestar at the Biergarten. We also busked on Sunday and had a band meeting to plan our upcoming Portland/Seattle tour.

Tomorrow we're going to see a friend perform "The Planets" with the Denver Philharmonic. Kim and I were scheduled to see that at CU a few weeks ago but I was sick so this is the make-up performance for me. Then we'll get drinks with Ian and Anna afterward.

I have to build a little demo app and help write a blog post for a node.js meetup next week. Timing might be a bit tight for that, but we'll see. Getting excited for June which will be very busy with Apogaea and the GGO Honk Fest West tour.