Motorcycle Ride to Granby

We haven't hadn't had the chance to do a good long motorcycle ride, but today we changed that. Along with Owen, Christine and I rode to her mom's restaurant in Granby (via Rocky Mountain National Park) and back through the Poudre Canyon. This was easily the longest motorcycle ride for both Christine and I. For Christine, it's probably also more miles in one day than she's put on in all the other days combined on her motorcycle.

Comanche Lake

Bum hip be damned. Christine, Kuzca and I motored out to the Comanche Peak Wilderness on Saturday and hiked to Comanche Lake. I haven't been there for 4 or 5 years, but I had remembered it being a pretty easy hike. It's got some distance (about 10 miles round trip), but it's not too steep.

We strolled out of Fort Collins leisurely around 9AM and made pretty good time up the canyon. They've been doing some resurfacing on Pingre Park Road and I was having a good time hauling ass on the dirt. Kuzca was giving me the eyes of a soon to be sick puppy and I dialed it back a bit so we didn't have to clean up dog puke.

We did the hike up to the lake in about 2 hours. I carried as much stuff as possible in my pack, and I think it helped keep the pace reasonable. Upon arriving at the lake we sat down and ate a little lunch while we look out upon the lake. It's not the most picturesque lake around, but it's kind of nice. After lunch, we sat on the bank a did a little fishing. I managed to pull a few in, and Christine got a few nibbles. The only thing she's missing now is landing the fish. I can totally identify, because I've missed a lot of fish in my day because I wasn't fast enough to set the hook.

It was so nice that we ended up staying longer than planned. By the time we got back to Fort Collins, it was almost 8 so we picked up some Chinese takeout for dinner while we planned our Sunday motorcycle ride with Owen. More to come on that.

Proof that Christine was fishing:


The lake:


Kuzca was having a good time in the snow. (And mud. Look at how black her legs are)


We even saw a mom and baby moose:


And their tracks:

Bike to Work Week - 2

It's now Friday, and I rode a different bike to work each day. We've had some short rain storms, but lucky for me they were all done by 3PM each day and the roads were nice and dry for the ride home.

I haven't driven my car since Sunday. My commute to work is about 7 miles, so that's 70 miles of commuting my car didn't do this week: 14 miles of moto power and 56 of pedal power. I probably saved about $12 in gas. Whoa, I'm going to go on a shopping spree. :)

Yesterday I even ran some errands on my bike after work. I rode up to Old Town to pick up some doggie Biobags. Then I rode to CSU to pick up this week's vegetable crop from our CSA. The ride gave me a chance to ride some bike paths and roads that I've never ridden before. The coolest revelation for me was the Mason Trail that runs parallel to College from the north side of town (around CSU) all the way down to the south side of town (Fossil Creek Pkwy). What a great bike path. It was like a paved superhighway for bikes and I didn't even know it was there.

I don't spend much time on the roads where I'd see a lot of casual riders. Most of my time is spent out on country roads, alone or with a group of people with the same mindset. It was frustrating this week as I spent more time on the local roads seeing cyclists not follow the rules of the road. I'm tired of seeing people ride through red lights, ride on the wrong side of the road, dangerously drift out of the bike lane and into traffic, etc. Mostly this bothers me because I spend a lot of time on the roads and the actions of these poor riders will typically get attributed to people like me. The last thing I need is some motorist running me off the road in retaliation for a recreational rider they saw blowing a red light.

I'm not without my own legal infractions. Sometimes I don't signal a turn. Whenever possible, I speed on my bike. I don't come to a complete stop at stop signs. But in general, I'm very law abiding on my bike. You'll never see me blow a light. You'll never see me unnecessarily impeding traffic. I don't want to give a motorist any reason to be pissed off that I'm on "their" roads. I just wish more people felt the same way.

A tasty dessert or breakfast

I got this simple recipe from a recent issue of Bon Appetit. It's a tasty evening snack, and I even had it for breakfast this morning. (Fruit + dairy + granola = breakfast)



Ingredients:
* 3 cups diced peeled tropical fruit (such as pineapple, mango, and kiwi. We used mango and kiwi)
* 1/3 cup honey
* 1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger plus additional for garnish
* 2 1/2 cups plain nonfat or reduced-fat (2%) Greek-style yogurt
* 2 cups purchased granola (with nuts and dried fruits, if desired)

Bon Apppetit instructions:
Mix fruit, honey, and 1/3 cup crystallized ginger in medium bowl. Spoon 1/2 cup yogurt into each bowl. Top each with 1/2 cup granola, then 3/4 cup fruit mixture. Spoon remaining 1/2 cup yogurt in dollops over fruit. Garnish with more chopped crystallized ginger and serve.

Ryan's instructions:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. It may not look as nice, but the flavor is great.

I don't really like crystallized ginger, but it goes really well in this. I don't now how much of a difference Greek style yogurt makes compared to other yogurt, be we found some at Vitamin Cottage.

(Original recipe is here.)

The first harvest

Last night we made some pad thai and used our first* pieces of produce from the garden: a serrano pepper, and some basil. We also got to use some radishes that we got from our CSA last week and some some pasta from the farmers' market. (And it was tasty.)

* Technically, we did pull a strawberry from the garden a while ago, but that thing was pretty much ripe when I bought the plant from the nursery and planted it. The first thing we get to eat from our garden that we actually grew from seeds will be either spinach or radishes.

Bike to Work Day

"Bike to Work Day" is by far the best day of "Bike to Work Week" because there are various breakfast stations around town where riders can grab a free bite. I usually adjust my commute so I can hit one or two of these stops, but this year there were really none that were reasonably close. There was, however, a breakfast station set up on the HP campus and it was actually pretty good. It was catered by Jason's Deli and there were breakfast burritos, muffins, bagels, and (best of all) fruit cups. I think I ate more calories than I burned on the way in. I'll try to make up for it by sprinting home after work.

Bike to Work Week

This week is Bike to Work Week (in Colorado). Since my stable of bikes has grown even more this year, I'm going to try to ride a different bike in each day. I sort of had to cheat today and ride my motorcycle because I only have 4 pedal bikes. The rest of the schedule is:

Tuesday: Mountain Bike


Wednesday: Specialized Tarmac SL2 (Road Bike)


Thursday: Specialized Tricross (Cyclocross Bike)


Friday: Trek 5200 (Old road bike / time trial bike)