The mesa is a busy place at dawn.
The weather reports were finally in our favor for the weekend, too. The forecasts called for highs in the 70s with only a chance of afternoon thunderstorms (typical Colorado weather pattern) on both days.
We decided to make the most of it.
Saturday morning we took off for a mountain bike ride at Mt Falcon.
Mt Falcon hasn't gotten much easier since we last rode it in late October. It is still really really steep, some of the waterbars are really really tall, some of the switchbacks are just plain nasty . . . and I anticipate we'll be back to ride this bugger several more times this season!! It is great training for Leadville, since it is a tough, steep, rocky, climb.
The fun part, though, is the descent. We didn't turn around and bomb back down the Castle Trail – it is so steep and rough it really isn't much fun. Instead, we went over the top of Mt Falcon, then down the backside to Parmalee Gulch Road and Pence Park, then through Lair O' the Bear Park on singletrack – and that is great fun! It is swoopy and mostly downhill when you ride it from the Pence Park direction.
Pence Park Mountain Bike Ride - Colorado from Sq2shooter on Vimeo.
[You might need Dramamine to watch this, but it is fun to see where we rode from another rider's perspective.]Saturday night we stayed up past our bedtime to participate in our neighborhood movie night. We have a neighbor who bought a giant inflatable screen, and they set up a mini-outdoor theater several times throughout the summer. So far, I have never been able to stay up until the grown-up movie starts, but I always enjoy the kid's cartoon feature! (and the popcorn . . .)
Sunday our legs were a little bit tired, but we decided to try the Loop from Hell anyway. We loaded up the road bikes and drove to Bergen Park to start the ride – that saved us about 2 hours, round trip, and probably 12 miles of climbing.
There were at least a hundred other riders on Squaw Pass Sunday – probably more. It is always fun to see all the other riders – every shape, size and age is represented. I felt really good on the climb and made it to the summit ahead of Phil.
We bundled up (the temperature had dropped 20 degrees from the time we started) and enjoyed the downhill into Idaho Springs. 
The sky clouded over fairly dramatically, and we had scattered showers as we left Idaho Springs. At the bottom of Floyd Hill I pulled away from Phil and was feeling pretty good about the day's ride . . . but at the halfway point he powered on by me and made it to the top at least 200 yards ahead of me. Drat!
As we turned to go back to Bergen Park the skies opened and we got caught in a pretty heavy downpour. Since we were only about 4 miles from the car, we didn't stop to put on our rain gear – we just picked up the pace and rode hard.
After drying off and getting cleaned up we headed over to meet friends for 9 holes of golf at Fox Hollow.
Really.
A nap was sounding like a better idea than a round of golf . . .
Once we got going it actually felt good to walk. Swinging a golf club helped loosen my back up a little bit, too.
As we headed out to the first tee box the clouds were building to the south, but it looked like the thunderstorm might miss us.
We watched a great lightening show for the first three holes, then on the fourth hole it started to move in – and we moved out! We got to the cars just as the skies opened.
A busy weekend, but lots of fun.
4 am came too early this morning, but we grudgingly rolled out of bed to head on down to the pain cave.
We got our core and flexibility workout done, and then got on the bikes for a planned 90 minute interval workout. My legs felt dead. I managed to go for an hour, then I called it quits.
This might be a long week . . .
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