Taking what Mother Nature (and old age) give us

Last Monday the weather for this weekend looked awesome:  predicted sun and temps in the 60s.  By Thursday the forecast had changed to a 40% chance of rain on Saturday and a 50% chance on Sunday.  So Friday afternoon I headed out for an after-work ride to make sure that Ellie the bike and I got some one-on-one time together before the rain hit.  We were a mile into our ride when Ellie started to make a bizarre noise.  It took me a few minutes of checking derailleurs, cranks, chains, etc., before discovering this:

Ellie's stay broke away right where the seam was welded.

After a long hike back to the car and some sadness on my part for the loss of a wonderful bike frame to old age, I felt ok.  I'd called a super awesome friend, A, who was going to let me borrow her bike for the weekend, so all was going to be alright.  Until we woke up to this sort of weather:

Hwy 65 headed back towards Mesa, CO

Oh okay Mother Nature.  That's how you want to play this.  It's Easter weekend!  I had plans to bike!  Today was not a planned lie-around-the-house day!  No!  I have to do something...we have to go do something!  (I tend to freak a tad bit when my plans get messed up for reasons beyond my control).  Soon though, we realized that rain here most likely meant snow at the closed-for-the-season ski resort.  Which meant...untracked creamy spring snow!


We gathered backpacks and snacks, beer and ski skins, and pulled out the ski wear (mine hadn't been used in a month almost).  Peanut butter and honey sandwiches fueled us as we headed up a run with the most consistent fall line:  Wonderbump.

It was warm, but super snowy the whole day! This is Voodoo biker on his way up.

The snow was great.  The crust underneath was soft, and the 4 or 5 inches on top were creamy.  Great skiing!

It just goes to show that sometimes you have to take the good with the bad...sure Ellie was broken and I had to shell out some $$$ for a new bike frame, sure it rained all day down here (and looks to do the same today), but we had the entire ski resort to ourselves.  Yes, the slog up to the top was painful, but half-way down I was screaming, "This is so much fun!!!!"