Hall Ranch

BooYaw!!!! New Favorite trail, Hall Ranch!!! I drove up there last thursday with my wifey Lis, Cameron, and Brian. Cam had been there before, but it was a first for the rest of us. My buddy Paul Hart and his wife Valerie had been there from KC, and told us about how badass it was, but we had never had the chance to go...until now.

If you've never been there, here is a description. It starts in Lyons, CO just north of Boulder. You have a gradual climb from the parking lot that is really exposed. The trail gets rockier and rockier as you climb. I'm told that it is all ridable, and that after you have been there a time or two, you get to know the line. The first time up the hill, you are sort of SOL. Brian and I did end up riding most of it. I was on the Moots, and Brian was on a demo Enduro. The cool thing about this trail is that it would be fun on any bike. When you get to the top of the climp, then there is a fast loop with great view of Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and Long's Peak. Because of all the rail we have had this spring, there were quite a few wildflowers. It was beautiful. I love living in Colorado.

After to loop, you just get to go down the same awesome technical descent you climpd up earlier. It is almost harder descending then it was to climb...but not quite.

The ride was awesome...and it really got me stoked to start going to some bigger, longer rides all over Colorado. I just need Lis to get her boards out of the way, and we can start explorin this great state.

Don't Call it a Comeback!!

Here I am, back on my blog after a small 10 month hiatus.  So much has happened.  New job, new house, new zip code, new elevation, new car, new bikes, new friends, same old me.  Hopefully,  I can manage to update this blog a bit more often this time around, but we'll see.  I hope that there is just more stuff to blog about this year.  I plan on doing quite a bit more riding this year, and hopefully some racing.  Lis and I signed up for the Dirty Kanza 200 mile dirt road race.  If we weren't feeling the pressure to get our asses in gear and ride, we certainly are now.  Lis will be riding her Moots Psychlo-X YBB and I'll be sporting my new GF Presidio.  Don't worry, I have some pics of our pimp rides up soon.

Here is a pic of Lis tearing up some singletrack in Fruita back in September.

MOOTS!!!!!

You didn't think that I was going to skimp on the photos of my new bike did ya???

Shattered!

So our vacation went a little longer than expected....and not in a good way.  The trip was awesome.  Lis had spring break and not a worry in the world, and I just needed some sleep, so we set off for Florida for some R&R.  We spent 4 nights in Daytona with my grandparents.  Mostly at the beach all day with Jackson.  It was great, no work, no school, no problems.  We had one day of cloudy weather there, so we hopped in the car and drove to Santos to tear up some singletrack with our buddy Ryan Fisher.  Got just under 3 hours of dirt before sunset.  From Daytona we set off for Tallahassee for a night of fun with Lis's friends.  First stop was more singletrack at the Red Bug trails.  We rode just after a torrential downpour and the trails were still perfect...even with water rushing down the trail like a raging river in sections...why did we leave florida??  Anyway, then we headed to first fridays to check out some sweet art.  We even made a purchase....cycling print or course.  From there we went our with Lis's bff MaryAlice who took us out for sushi and booze....awesome.  Last night is Florida was in Gainesville where we stayed with the Fishers (and Fisher to be).  Again, single track was first priority.  This time we hit the San Felasco trails until dark.  I really miss being able to ride mountain bikes all year long in any weather.  I never even imagined that there could be a place in the world that you couldn't ride in the rain...or within days of a rain.  Crazy MO/KS soil!!!!!  I hate you!!!  Then we spent some time with my little sisters....Dylan is talking and Amanda hasn't stopped talking since we last saw her 2 years ago.  Hope it's not long until we see them again.

So, like I said, the trip was awesome!!  So awesome that our car decided that it didn't want to go home.  We drove to Hot-lanta and the Volvo decided that it had enough.  That second pic is of our car broken down on I-75 North, just past atlanta.  AutoZone is just about the only thing that's open on Sundays at 6pm.  They said that we needed an alternator, but didn't have one.....a new battery would get us home, though.  So, 4hours and $90 later, we are back on the road!!!  One hour later, we are back on the side of the road, broken down again!!!!!  While calling AAA AGAIN, my shoulder decided to just pop of of its socket.  Talk about topping off a crappy day, Lis had to hold my arm while I set it back in place (or reduced it as the medical folk like to say).  Then we had to wait another 2 hours for the tow truck driver.  He towed us across the GA/TN border (progress) into Chattanooga where we snuck Jackson into a Quality Inn while our car was being delivered to Pep Boys.

Wake up car was from Pep Boys telling me that it was going to be another $800 to get us going, and that is could be done by noon.  By 12:30 we were back on the road minus $890 of car repairs, $75 on a hotel room, and 1 days work.  By 2pm we back on the side of the road after a bike (Sean demo bike) swung around from the roof rack and smashed out the rear window.  We had to drive the rest of the way home with the seat warmers on so we didn't freeze to death.  Evidently, we hadn't been through enough crap yet.

Now, it's been almost 2 weeks since we got home, and my car is still in the shop getting a new rear hatch and window.  I can't wait until we have two cars again.

...wait a second, I think I actually updated my blog....that might be the craziest part of the whole story.  Sorry it was so long, but that's my story.

SteveHealclearedthatshit.blogspot.post

That;s right, as you probably figured out by now, I cleared that shit.  What shit, you might ask...well  right now you are looking at me just ahead of Sean Hermes heading north on the High Line at Minor Park.  I have about 7 1/2 psi in my back tire and I cleared this rock ledge that's about 18 inches high and around a rock making a slight left hand turn while making sure not to fall to the right where there's a pretty steep drop for the next 30 feet.  That's right, I cleared that shit!!  Cameron was there to photograph the even, and in about 6-8 weeks, I going to clear that shit on a sweet ass Moots!!!!  Stay tuned for Moots updates.  Meanwhile, I have a sweet ass 23lb Niner to practice clearing shit with big wheels.

I have a blog...now what???

Well, I, Steve Heal, have a new blog. I don't know why, and I don't know who is actually going to read the stupid crap that I'm going to post, but here it is.

How did I decide to start a blog, you might ask. Well, on New Years Eve, Lis and I had a little party. After a few sips (bottles) of champagne, Cameron started ending each sentence with".blogspot.com." Well, Lis and I fell in love with saying and adopted it is our own.

What's in a name?? Well, just after everyone recovered from our little soiree, I was looking for some photo's that Dean (FOG) took from the Epic Cross race where I crushed (for half a lap). When I asked Cameron where Dean put the photos online, well stevehealoffthefront.blogspot.com was born.

I never did myspace and my facebook efforts have severely lacked, but maybe this blogspot thing will be just the ticket for people trying to stalk me from across the country (and the globe).

Enjoy.