Slept fitfully last night as the temp didn’t drop @ bed time. Crawled out of bed, made the bed & made it a Murphy bed, put stuff away, got dressed, then fixed bfast of Buckwheat pancakes & real maple syrup. Cleaned the kitchen up then made rig ready for stutter bump road out.
Drove into Grand Junction to check out 3 bike shops looking for a Deuter bladder and whatever. At Bicycle Outfitters downtown a Pugsley was on display. Hurkin bike w/ huge tires & no suspension as the tires provide the bounce. No bladder anywhere.
Drove out of the valley climbing 1,100′ to Butterknife trail head. Trail was made by dirtbikes but not many ride it as it is too technical for them but very enjoyable by us mtn bikers. Like 83 degrees under full sun. I rode more of the trail today than previous 2 times using confidence from Sedona and spinning. Entire ride all to myself. Loose broken rock on sand making for dicey controlled contact w/ the ground. 12.54 miles in just under 2 hours, climbed 1705′. I ride several trails when visiting Fruita / Grand Junction, this is one of them.
From the TH the Ribbon slab trails are visible. I rode this last summer. Need a shuttle to gain the road climb:
Yesterday I sat in the full sun for several chapters of Robinson Crusoe. This 24 hours later:
Yesterday I replaced the idler pulleys on my rear derailleur, the old pulleys were worn and worn to the exiting condition of the drive train. I rode a short distance testing the drive train. Seemed to work OK. Today on my ride the chain skipped on gears 4 down on both chain rings. What’s up w/ that? Finished ride using the smaller gears. Drove back into GJ and went to Bicycle Outfitters and challenged the young man to identify and fix the skip. He nailed it. Turned out the rear derailleur was adjusted to the worn old pulleys. He adjusted to the newer pulleys.
Plan for dinner is @ Hot Tomato in Fruita owned by Jen and Anne. Great to see them again. Fun pizza and New Belgium draft beer place. Anne is a photographer and every now and then I see her pics in Bike Mag who made the Hot Tomato the official pizza place. Friends let friends eat hot pie.
Tomorrow is the Kokopelli trails between I-70 and the Colorado river. The river is flooding bottom lands along I-70. Rising waters just might close the interstate.
I lost my in to Squirt lube sponsorship as Larry has moved on.
Hot during the day, in the 80s which is better than Moab’s upper 90s.
Juniper gnat bites. Small flying insects buzz me, I do not know what a gnat looks like as I have never caught one biting me. Bites itch for days afterwards.