2016/03/31 - 1st Quarter Cycling Stats, Happy Birthday Trixie!

My 1st quarter cycling results are in!

My goal for 2016 is 4,000 miles. So far, thanks to this year's good weather, I'm a little bit ahead of schedule.
.....

Happy Birthday Trixie! Exactly 2 years ago Trixie was born. Ironically she was born on my last day of work. She is truly my retirement dog.

2016/03/29 - The Big Loop, Mountain Lion, Farmer's Daughter

I finally figured out how to connect the Ralston Creek Trail with the Clear Creek trail to make a big loop. 



It turned out to be 31 miles (50 kilometers) with only 900 feet of elevation gain.

As you can see, I did miss my right-turn and continued east on the Clear Creek trail for a while before realizing something was wrong! So the official loop is probably more like 30 miles.

I was actually happy to turn back west, as I was getting into some pretty questionable neighborhoods, with homeless awaking from nights in the tunnels and graffiti abounding.

It reminded me of when I was a boy riding my 3-speed to the other side of the Belt Parkway, exploring the "colored" neighborhoods in NYC. I would eventually get chased back to my side, which always added to the adventure.

I would really like to explore further east on the Clear Creek Trail sometime. It looks like the bike path goes on forever, but I don't know how safe it would be to go alone. 

I'll see if Mike wants to go with me.
.....

We saw this on the way up North Table Mountain on Sunday.

I suspected it was done by coyotes, but my friend Jeff just sent me this 9News link about mountain lion activity on North Table Mountain.
.....

"She was only a farmer's daughter, but all the horse manure."

- Fred Hoffmeyer (get it?)

Later,
Steve

2016/03/28 - Fu Manchu

"Many  men smoke, but Fu Manchu." 

- Fred Hoffmeyer (get it?)

2016/03/27 - Fastest Electrician, Going Wild, Go Bernie!

"Do you know who was the fasted electrician in the West?' - Wired Earp

- Fred Hoffmeyer
(By the way... after each of these silly made-up jokes he would ask "Get it?")
.....

I've been going absolutely wild working on moving my blography to www.hoffmeyer.com. I'm currently working on the photography section. 

Please visit and click on any of the Long's Peak images to see the where I'm headed with this. 

It's been a lot of fun scouring through my images, but I'm nowhere near finished. I just hope I can keep up my enthusiasm long enough to get through over 27,000 images.

It's also a trip down memory lane for me, for behind each image was a outing.

.....

In case you haven't already heard, Bernie Sanders swept  yesterday's caucuses, romping Hillary Clinton in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Go Bernie!

2016/03/25 - A Sick Man, New Banner

"My doctor told me that I was a sick man. I told him I wanted a second opinion. He said "OK... You're ugly!" 

- Rodney Dangerfield
.....

You may have noticed that I changed the blog banner. 

2016/03/24 - Deep Snow

I spent most of yesterday shoveling snow. The forecast called for 4 inches, but by the end of the day, we had a total of 16. 

My snowblower was useless with this deep heavy snow.

This year in Colorado, March came in like a lamb, but is going out like a lion.

2016/03/21 - Loew's Theater, Wanderlust, I'm Moving

When my grandparents took my parents to movies in the late 1930's, movie theaters were like palaces. Their local theatre, the Loew’s Valencia, had seating for 3,554 people in orchestra and balcony levels. The ceiling was a huge painting of a nighttime sky. Movie-goers would look up from the film and see a clear starry night overhead.



In those days you saw a double feature (that's 2 movies!), the latest government newsreels (remember there was no TV) and a few cartoons.

There was only one choice at the theater and the shows changed every week.



It could be a date-night or a family night out. After supper, people got dressed up and spent the whole night out. Movies were affordable, popcorn and candy were cheap, and in summertime there was air-conditioning. 

My grandmother said sometimes she would go the movies just to escape the NYC summer heat.

.....

I often wonder if people who love to travel are happy with their daily home lives. It's like they always want to be somewhere else.

I'm the opposite of someone who like to travel, (whatever that is) except for someplace that I can reach with my car and sleep outdoors.

Seriously... When I wake up in a hotel room, or someone else's home at 4:00 AM, I'm bored to death. I want to be home with my toys. I want my coffee machine, my pets, my computer, my bikes, my Netflix. I want to make noise. I don't want to be waiting endless hours for normal people to wake up.

But put me in a tent in the mountains, and I'm very happy to be away from home.

.....




BTW... I've been working a little each day on moving this blogaphy to www.hoffmeyer.com. I started with my color photos, and plan to add new ones each day until I run out. I have well over 30,000 images to go through, so it my take a while. Please stay tuned.

The reason I'm moving is because I'm not convinced that blogger will be around for too much longer, and I intend to keep this on the Internet for as long as possible.

And I've started to realize that unless I start organizing all my stuff (pictures, stories, trip reports, and stats) into some place that is accessible, that they will be lost forever.  I'd like to think that someday my stepdaughter might take an interest in cycling, mountaineering, photography, or 14ers, and might find my history in these areas interesting.

Later,
Steve

2016/03/20 - The Revenant, Popcorn, Spotlight

I went to see The Revenant today with Ze. I’m not sure what I was expecting, as the name didn't give much away to me. I did know there was a crazy bear attack scene, that Leonardo was in it, and it won some academy awards.

I found it a little hard to tell who were the good guys and bad guys, and who were the good Indians and bad Indians, but otherwise the survival and revenge plot was easy to follow, but not exactly believable.

While watching the movie, I couldn’t help but think that only a couple of hundred years ago, this is what men were like in the wild west, and for a lot of us today, these are our ancestors.
.....

It’s been a long while since I’ve purchased popcorn at a theater and was shocked by the price. It cost us $29.50 for 2 medium popcorns and 2 medium Cokes. That's just not right.

…..

I also rented Spotlight for $4.99 at iTunes last week, and watched it on my smart TV. After hearing an excellent podcast review of the movie, I was really looking forward to seeing it, but was hugely disappointed.

While I thought that the story was good and an important story to tell, I didn't get much more from the movie version, than I did the podcast review.

But mostly I found it very hard to watch Mark Ruffalo, and I actually had to take a long break before finishing it. There were so many scenes where his twitching and overacting were actually starting to annoy me.

Funny thing was, I want on to Google afterwards to see if other people were having this sickening reaction to Mark Ruffalo, only to find that he won an academy award for the part. Go figure. 

The moral of this post is that you should never take movie advice from me.

Later,
Steve

2016/03/19 - Saturday morning ride with Fat Bike Mike

It had snowed about 8-10 inches yesterday, and another couple of inches overnight. The temperature at the start was 27 degrees.

These conditions were perfect today for riding our fat bikes on snow over dirt.

Unfortunately we didn't realize this until after we did a complete loop around the reservior bike path, where the fresh snow had covered some slick icy spots underneeth.

But once we got on the crusty snow covered dirt, we were in fat bike heaven.

At one point during the ride we considered ditching our bikes to ride these two beautiful horses. :-)






Later,
Steve

2016/03/17 - Catastrophic Death

How would you like a job that required over 10 years of training and every time you preformed your job you risked a 1 in 35 chance of catastrophic death? Be an astronaut!

2016/03/14 - Shamrock Marathon, Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb

Exactly 35 years ago today, my good friend George and I ran the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA.

This was my second of five marathons, and proved to be my fastest time: 3:32:41.

In retrospect, this was the height of my 13 years of running races. I never again trained as hard as I did for this marathon and my next three finish times showed it.

.....


I just signed up for the Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb Gran Fondo. The ride to the top is 12.42 miles with 4,725 ft elevation gain. Now all members of the Badass Redneck Cycle Club (Mike & myself) are registered. Let the training begin!

2013/03/13 - Tools & Tubes, Cycling Bio, Autoblography

After yesterday's riding blunders I decided that in lieu of moving tools & tubes from one bike to another every time I switch bikes, to have a separate repair kit on each of my three bikes.  Hopefully this will reduce the human error.

I think the cost of the multiple tools & tubes outweighs the inconvenience of getting stuck without proper repair tools.
.....

I spent a little time  yesterday and today working on a "Cycling Bio", which can be accessed from the little orange links in the menu bar above. I'm not finished yet, but want to publish what I have written so far.
.....

I found out that what I'm doing here is known as an Autoblography. that's catchy aye?

2013/03/12 - The Bas Ass Rednecks ride again!

Today’s ride didn’t go as planned, in fact it was a total cluster.

Mike and I started out from Altona this morning at 6:15 AM on our road bikes, with the intention of riding to Ward. Herein lies our first mistake. Little did we know that there was road construction ahead, leaving a dirt and gravel surface.  And when we reached the start of it, we had no idea how long it would last.

It seemed endless and at times a little dangerous with our super thin road bike wheels but finally, after 4 miles we were back on pavement!

I’ll blame the fact that we were concentrating on avoiding stones on the road surface for our next dumb mistake. We started approaching a town that was too close to be Ward, only to realize that we missed the turn and wound up in Jamestown.

Mike and I are the only two members of the Bad Ass Rednecks Cycle Club, and whenever either one of us does something stupid, the other says “You are endangering the whole team!” I led us up the wrong path, so it was definitely my fault, and thus I was endangering the whole team. Yes it's a very childish joke.

But I wasn’t finished yet!

We got to the center of Jamestown just in time to see the local diner worker step outside to take a quick toke. I said hi, he asked if I needed a hit, I said I was OK.

Realizing our dumb mistake we decided to make the best of it and continue on the paved road till it turned to dirt.

After 4 more absolutely grueling miles we reached the top. The incline reminded us a lot of SuperFlag in Boulder.

We took a short break and started down, but after only a mile, my rear tire had a blowout. This was my first blowout going fast and I was surprised that I was able to safely slow down to a stop. In fact it was only the hissing noise that alerted me to the issue.

So here we are, two guys, one flat tire and between the two of us we don’t have the tools to repair it. Mike was going light today so he had absolutely nothing, I had a spare tube and a makeshift tool to remove the tire, but no way to fill the tire with air. 

Now this is not the first time we've gotten stymied by flats without tools, in fact it's only the latest of many times, but Mike was indeed happy that this time it was my flat and that we are getting close to being “even”.

With clips on the bottom of my road bike shoes, I walked my bike down to Jamestown while Mike rode down to the car and drove back to get me.

The silver lining is... After getting home and checking the stats, I realized that although the trip to Ward would have been 3.5 miles more, the overall steepness of our route was greater! The Bad Ass Rednecks ride again!

Later,

Steve

2016/03/11 - Life After Death, Insignificance, A Fine Line, Life After Blogger?, Mistress Advice

I’m not going to pretend to know what happens to us after death, but I really hope we get to keep watching. I’ve got a lot of time invested in this show.

…..

The older I get, the more I realize how insignificant I am in this universe. When I was a child, I was the center of the universe, but once I realized I was not, my dome of significance began to slowly shrink, until one day I realized that few people outside family really care what’s happening in the life of Steve.

This is why I prefer blogging to posting on Facebook. On Facebook I feel like I’m pushing Steve in your face until you can’t stand me anymore, whereas here you can visit and take as much Steve as you like, whenever you like.

…..

There’s a fine line between sharing and bragging, one that I fear I step over too often.

…..

I’m starting to rethink posting my photography on Blogger. God forbid Blogger goes away, I would lose my photography display, similar to what happened to all my trip reports when that asshole Hoffmeyer shut 14erWorld down.
.....

I heard about this letter in a podcast and was so happy to find it. It's a letter from Benjamin Franklin to a young man advising that, if he must choose a woman as a mistress, he should prefer old women to young women. Extremely good advice: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/51-fra.html 

Later,
Steve

2016/03/10 - Eugenics, Government for Sale

I was listening to a podcast on the science of Eugenics during my bike ride yesterday, compelling me to do some Wikipedia research.

According to Wikipedia: “Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population.”

I was surprised to learn that the eugenics movement well established in the United States before it spread to Nazi Germany.

In fact, Harry Hamilton Laughlin of Iowa was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Heidelberg in 1936 for his work behalf of the “science of racial cleansing”, and The Rockefeller Foundation helped develop and fund various German eugenics programs, including the one that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.

…..

Is our government for sale? Do you think that money influences elections? Fact: Nine out of ten elected US congressmen and senators spent more money on their campaigns than their competitors.

And did you know that non-profit political organizations do not have to disclose the source of anonymous donations, and up to 49% of the donation can go directly to a specific campaign?

This is not limited to either Democratic or Republican political parties. It is a bi-partisan issue. We are all getting screwed!

Later,

Steve

2016/03/09 - Did You Know?, Happy Morning, Monster Mash

Did you know that a 50 pound Iditarod sled dog eats 10,000 to 14,000 calories each day of the race?

Did you know that -40 degrees Celsius  is the same temperature as -40 degrees Fahrenheit?
.....

I was very happy this morning. My scale said 199, one pound under my desired weight nowadays, and then I read that Bernie took Minnesota. I like to reward him for his primary successes. Every time he wins in a state, I give him $10, the same amount we give Heloisa for every "A" on her report card.
.....

You know the old song "Monster Mash"? I just love the line: "The girls all came from their humble abodes, to get a jolt from my electrode". Tell me that didn't have a double-meaning.

Later,
Steve

2016/03/07 - New Page: Running History, Weird Weather

I added a new page to this blog titled "Running Bio" which is a short history of my running days. Check it out at the menu bar above.

.....

Today's weather was very weird. I took Trixie over to North Table Mountain for a 6-mile hike. What started out as a mild sunny 50 degree day, turned into a snowy, windy nightmare on top. We were both very happy to get back to the car.

2016/03/06 – Bad Ride

This morning’s bike ride didn’t go well.

After getting my fat bike fixed yesterday, I couldn’t wait to ride it. I patiently waited for daylight this morning, and soon after was on my way.

About 5 minutes into my ride I realized that the problem I had with the bike was not remedied, in fact it was now worse! Now I had a slight grinding noise with every down stroke of the pedals, no matter what gear I was in.

I guess I should have turned around and gotten my road bike, but I was looking forward to riding the fattie today. So I turned up the volume on my headphones and rode on.

After 7 miles I reached the top of North Table Mountain, but when I checked my Strava app, it had stopped after only ½ mile! I was pissed! It was as if the 7 miles no longer counted! And it bothered me that I was pissed over something so stupid as the Strava record, but I was.

Part of my goal today was to complete a 100-mile week of riding, and I only needed less than 10 miles to accomplish this, but now since I lost 7 Strava miles, I had to make that up. This gives you a little insight into the insanity I suffer.

So I decided to drop back down to the base of NTM and do a few 1-mile flat loops around the Golden Bike Park.

As if the constant grinding of my pedaling and the Strava mishap wasn’t enough, now my front tire went flat! Luckily I had a canister of compressed air, which filled the fat tire, but now it was time to head towards home.

I did manage to save the day by getting 100 official Strava miles for the week, but it still bothers me that minor goals like that become so important.

I love the Strava app, but for me it’s a double-edged sword. It definitely encourages me to ride more, but sometimes too much more. I have to watch myself because I have much more energy than my old body can handle, and it’s very easy for me to over-train.

Later,

Steve

2016/03/05 – Lost Pictures, Keith Richards, Bicycle Update

I spent a few hours on Thursday, posting some more pictures here on my blog. I finished the Black and White section and I added another 40 pictures to the Colorado Mountains section.

Anyway, yesterday morning I went to look at them and found almost half the pictures in all the sections were missing! I Googled the problem to find that it’s not uncommon, but there didn’t seem to be a solution that worked for me.

I didn’t panic. After looking at the addresses that blogger assigns to the pictures I realized that they are probably spread across many different servers and if any of them were down, that would cause the pictures to be missing.

Sure enough, this morning they were back.

…..

I was listening to a podcast with Mark Maron interviewing Keith Richards recently. One funny story Keith told was when he was at his 92 year-old mother’s deathbed. She said: “Keith! This morphine ain’t so bad!” and Keith replied, “I’ve been telling you that Mom” and they laughed together.

While I was riding my bike today I thought about how strange it would be to have Keith Richards at your deathbed. You would know that "this is it". It would be like the Grim Reaper coming to visit.
.....

I finally brought my fat bike in for repair. All it really needed was a gear adjustment. It was so out of whack that I could only get into three gears. Luckily one of the was the easiest gear, so I could still get up NTM.

I was surprised that the bike mechanic was able to help me while I waited and since he wasn't busy, I came back with my 29er. I needed new rear break pads and while trying to replace them myself I broke the derailer mount. At that point I couldn't even figure out how it went back together, so it was time to hand the dangling mess over to a pro.

The mechanic laughed and said that he'd never seen brake pads worn down so bad. I had not only worn them down to metal, but I also wore out the little clip that holds them together. 

The bad news was I also heated the brake so bad that it was welded shut. Time for a new rear brake!
.....

During my ride this morning I past by a section along Coal Creek that was dedicated to panning for gold. This could be right up my alley.

Later,

Steve