"Ride for a Season with The Singletrack Sisters"

The Singletrack and Skinny Tire Sisters of Western Colorado are back for another fantastic season of riding!

Here in the Grand Valley of Grand Junction, Colorado, biking is a huge deal. We are a mecca that folks from across the country...even Canada flock to throughout the year. The Grand Valley offers biking much like Moab, but without the whole tourist hype. Most folks that ride here, really know what they are doing. Here's an article from The Denver Post yesterday that explains our valley a little!

For some reason in the mountain biking industry, women just don't seem to exist on the trails nearly as much as men. Here is a great little article (written by a dude) that explains the phenomenon a bit more...Why No Y? That may be true across the country, but here in the Grand Valley women ride. This brings me back to last week, while sitting in The Hot Tomato after the weekly group ride at the Kokopelli Loops grabbin a slice of Ganny's Pesto pizza and a New Belgium Cocoa Mole brew, a feller sitting next to me from Wisconsin who comes out every year to ride asked, "Are there were many women here who ride?" He seemed to be quite in awe at the number of women in the pizzaria wearing jerseys and spandex. All I could do was look at him with a funny smirk and giggle, "Oh yeah! There are A LOT of ladies who ride!" He went on to explain with exagerated "O's" and "A's" that there are NO women that ride where they're from and how nice it was to see them out.

The women here ride anything and everything, through any weather and any season! I started riding with the group last year because they sounded exactly like the type of people I had been yearning to ride with. Before them, I didn't really know anyone to ride with. I quickly discovered that I could learn a lot from these women and make a bunch of new friends in the process! My friend and coworker Julie came along for her first time on the Weekly Mountain Bike Ride and explained her experience in her blog for Singletracks.com, My First Group Ride With The Singletrack Sisters.

As you may know from my prior posts last year, I have taken it upon myself to design the logo, posters and various other graphic items for this group of women.  Last year they wanted a general poster aimed at informing women of the Grand Valley that this new women's riding group existed. Now the group has grown (based off the members of their Facebook group alone) to over 300 ladies. Judging by that number and knowing that not every woman in the valley who rides is on Facebook, it was time to get a ride calendar out there for all to see when the rides would take place.

If you are ever planning on coming to Grand Junction, Fruita or Palisade to ride, don't be afraid to join in on the group rides! There are also many great discussions, events posted and valuable information that you can find by joining the Singletrack Sisters Facebook Group! If you have any questions about riding with the Singletrack Sisters or riding in the Grand Valley, feel free to visit their website, www.singletracksisters.com!

Here's a little video from the Sister's ride along the Palisade Rim Trail a few weeks ago!

Blessings of San Juan

In hopes of lots and lots of snow for seasons to come. A digital illustration featuring Mt. Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

"Closing Day, The Papa Muntz Way!"

As tradition goes, year after year, I have taken to skiing or boarding Powderhorn Resort's closing day with very specific attire in mind. If you remember the basis for the movie "Out Cold," (if you haven't seen it and love snow play, you must!) Papa Muntz founded a tiny little ski mountain in Alaska. Without going into any detail about the story, I will just tell you he was famous for his "moonshine" runs down the mountain. The idea is that you drop your pants to half mast and well, you get the rest!

I have been riding in beach wear on the last day for years now. My group of friends that I rode with in Telluride made skiing in swim trunks their closing day tradition. Most years, my last day skiing is at Powderhorn Resort, sometimes I make it to Copper Mountain or Loveland later in April. No matter how many days I get in after Powderhorn closes, my Papa Muntz run MUST to be done at my small very local mountain to keep with tradition!

Based off the film and incorporating the tradition we had in Telluride years ago, the prerequisite for closing day attire is beach wear and lowering the pants to half mast for at least one run from top to bottom, no matter how cold it may be (if the weathers not so great, it's typically the last run)!

Powderhorn Resort 2007-'08 Closing Day

 

Powderhorn Resort 2008-'09 Closing Day

 

Powderhorn Resort 2009-'10 Closing Day

 

Powderhorn Resort 2010-'11 Closing Day

This year, Lil Man graced us by sliding down the mountain flashing the bright colors of his swim trunks! We decided to take the Liberty's out to play and my Loki Levity jacket was a perfect sidekick to fold up into a backpack and carry my shirt for the ride down! The last run of the day was by far the best Papa Muntz run I have taken to date!

Powderhorn Resort 2011-'12 Closing Day

"I walk lotsa places with my pants down!"
-Lil Man

"The Things I Have Been Doing, Now That Spring Has Sprung!"

It is that perfect time of year again! The time where one who lives in Colorado can hike and snowboard and bike and ski and, well the list goes on! Me? Right now I like to do anything that has to do with a bike and anything to do with strapping some sliding sticks on my feet and zooming down a mountain at unhumanly death like speeds. I'll get around to hiking at some point cause right now, I feel the need for speed...humanized speed that is! I have also been doing a bunch of garden/sprinkler prep and yes of course, some designing as well! Stay tuned for more on the design front!

"In Other Contest News"

Yes, I know. I am a contest whore. Especially when it comes to winning snow sliding equipment. And even more so when it happens to involve my favorite snow play companies! Back in January, Liberty Skis kicked off another contest that results in the potential to win their skis. And you know I had to get in on that...again! It is called the "One Amazing Minute" contest. The rules are simple; create a one minute video featuring Liberty Skis and submit it to them for a chance to win.

Now I don't have all the resources I would like to put together a video to the extent that I would like (i.e. professional camera equipment and film making devises), but I do as you know have access to a GoPro. As well as my 10 year old Mac iBook G3 version 10.3.9 with whatever version of iMovie and Garage Band it came with. And by golly I know how to use em! The GoPro has captured my adventures in way that I could never have imagine to do with any of my point and shoots, so it goes on pretty much every activity I do.

The season so far has been pretty wonderful to my friend Holly (who rides Liberty's '10 Jinx ski she pick up at Habitat for Humanity for $12 last fall) and myself (with my '10 Liberty Double Helix's). We have had plenty of fun fresh fluffy days early in the Grand Mesa backcountry before the avi danger got too high as well as many fantastic fresh fluffy days at our local resort Powderhorn. We even managed to sneak in a Liberty Demo in Crested Butte in early December to see what all the new rocker technology in this year's skis was all about. And because we have AT setups on our skis, there will be many great days after the resorts close!

As the contest ends March 15, I decided to buckle down for the last few weeks and really get to compiling all of the footage I had from these skis so far this season. As it turns out, one minute is a really hard time frame. It could be one nice long powder run, multiple park shots, a slideshow, crazy angles, goofy stuff, bits from an entire season, etc. I picked out a few my most favorite things to do/ways to ski on my Libertys, drummed up some beats in Garage Band and got down to editing.

Eventually I plan to turn this video into a compilation of our an entire season, featuring even more of our backcountry days, groomer days and all around ski fun. I think it would be fantastic to make a blooper video solely on the bloopers that came from days on the Libertys for this contest (there have been some GOOD ones), but I don't know if a person can have more than one entry and really there just isn't enough time for me to make another flick. I will save them for my end of the year, welcoming the new year blooper video!

Enjoy!

"Excitement on the Home Front!"

Last night, after three very long months, the UPS guy finally delivered my G3 ZenOxide Skis, featuring my winning G3 Skigraphiks topsheet design!

 

Every so often, he would swing through our little cul-de-sac, stop at this house or that house. I would run to to door with haste and excitement, soon becoming disappointed to discover he wasn't stopping at mine. This process took place nearly every other night (except on weekends), every week of every month for the past three months. I thought, night before last, he was for sure stopping at my house as I heard the rumble of the truck engine and those ever so familiar brakes. But no, he slowed just enough to turn the truck around in a loop and sped off. 

Last night was like Christmas. I was out back working on a little garden prep when I heard it again. The engine rumble, then the familiar UPS truck brakes. I waited, thought "oh please, please be stopping at my place." Then, I heard they ever so wonderful sound of the truck gate open from over the roof of the house and I knew! I knew he was delivering something to my house! I hesitated to jump to the front door though, as I had recently been disappointed by a delivery to our house that I had hoped was, but just happened to not be for me. I stayed out back while I listened to my roommate greet the UPS guy. I heard them exchange words. As he rumbled off, I ran in the house to see what had came with eyes and ears wide open. My roommate didn't come in the house, she went around back to meet me instead. At that moment, I knew! I saw the long skinny box, with G3 packaging tape all around and burst into neighborhood echoing whoops and hollers. I ran and bounced all over the yard with my box, ran inside, sat the box on our pool table, and ran all about the house looking for something to open it with (there just happened to be plenty of tape cutting devises within a few steps) but I was so excited I just couldn't find anything. I calmed a bit and grabbed a steak knife. While talking to my friend Cindy on the phone in what sounded like very loud high pitch foreign language, I was still so excited I couldn't stop and figure out exactly where I should begin to open the box. Calmed myself again...and there they were. More beautiful than I had ever imagined! The fondling went well into the night and they of course came with me to work today!

Don't worry, there will be many more pictures to come!