Back in the days before I fancied racing my bike for long periods of time and before I even knew what a blog was, I was still riding mountain bikes and apparently still had the need to document my rides with memories scrawled on the back of photographs.
The 2003 pic above was taken while riding the Teocalli Ridge loop out of Crested Butte. 2003 would have been the 5th time for Wifey and I driving from Pittsburgh to Colorado to hike and ride, and our third straight year staying in Crested Butte. Over 30 hours of driving each way and at the time it seemed worth every second.
During the 2003 trip Wifey was about eight to ten weeks pregnant with B-Man and I can remember how taxed she was during some of the hikes. Between the thin air and the little dude taking over her body it made for a lot of rest stops, but it was still a lot of fun.
We would make one more trip to Crested Butte in 2004 with the wee B-Man–choosing to fly that time–but then that was it. After that we went through a few years of pretty hard times financially, we focused more on B-Man, I started racing more, and we got out of the habit of taking long vacations. Especially ones that called for long ass drives across the country!
I’d like to think we’ll get back out west someday to visit or maybe even live, but if not, no big deal. Sixteen years have passed since our first trip west (Durango, CO), and I find that for some reason the mystique of the Rockies has faded a bit for me. There are many places in my forty-four years that I’ve still yet to go (like out of the country).
Funny how after all the time that has passed, we don’t travel like that anymore, I don’t race anymore and you couldn’t pay me to spend that much time driving somewhere that far. Oh well, at least we still have each other (and B-Man), I’m STILL riding my bike and still writing down memories; only now in blog form for the whole very uninterested world to see. World, you have my apologies.
Later.