West Mag-nificent

Finally made it up to the West Mag trails in Nederland for the first ride of the season.  Between the weather, the late spring snow and my schedule of weekend classes it seems a bit late to be going up there for the first time but better late than never I guess.

Shoshone meadows

Wildflowers are starting to bloom

Everything's so green right now

And yet there's still a good amount of snow up in the high country.

Indian Peaks

Ride ended up a bit short at only and hour and 40 minutes or so but it was probably for the best.  I was struggling a bit with the steep climbs, still a bit tentative to push the hamstring even though it's not really the hamstring doing the work.  Walked a bunch of stuff I'd normally ride and started to get a bit upset with myself about it then decided it was too nice of a day to worry about it and let it go.  I've got all summer to sharpen my technical skills.

If the van is a rockin'...
The trails and the area in general were about the most crowded I've ever seen them.  Still the trails were fairly quiet compared to the ones in town but the parking lot, ugh, we came back to the car to find a beat up old school RV parked right up close next to our car and I kid you not, it was violently rocking.  And the moans and cries of 'Oh baby' left little doubt as to what was going on inside.  Plus the horrible tacky country music they were blasting...  It was like something out of a bad movie.  And the parking lot was crowded too, it wasn't like they were off in a private little corner somewhere.  Thankfully the guy was quick about it though I don't suppose his partner was so pleased because he was apologizing profusely if not perhaps a bit insincerely to her.  Sheesh.

I got a longer ride in on Thursday up at Hall Ranch.  Only took one photo, I was focused on riding but couldn't resist stopping to snap a photo of this view.

Had the same issues with not wanting to push the hamstring on the steep uphills and having to walk things I'd normally ride but again I have plenty of time to sharpen up those skills and work on getting stronger.

Felt good to have a real weekend this weekend, no classes or trials.  I almost feel like a normal person.  Saw a bit of the live stream from the USDAA 4-Star trial in Utah this morning and the conditions looked pretty miserable.  54 degrees according to the announcer and a good steady rain coming down.  So bizarre for that part of Utah in June, extreme heat and sun are usually more the issues at this time of year.  I love cool cloudy weather for agility but not mixed with rain.  Such weird weather the Rocky Mountain region has been having this spring.