I just got back from Colorado last night. Over the weekend, I went to Winter Park with my gf to go camping and have fun with gravity. I've never done any real down hill mtn biking and I must say it was freakin' awesome!
Friday afternoon we left Denver and Drove to the Idlewild campground in the Arapaho Ntl. Forest and grabbed the last good campsite. It was 14 bucks a night and well worth it. Our site was on a paved path that takes you to downtown Winter Park one way and to Winter Park Resort the other. We set up camp and rode into town to grab a bite to eat. My gf is very familiar with Winter Park. She's been out in CO since the first week of July, so she knew right where to go for good grub.
We headed out to Deno's Mountain Bistro which was about a mile or two ride from our campsite. It seemed longer than it was cuz I didn't bring a bike this time out so I had to ride one of my gf's. Her DH bike had flat pedals on it, so I opted to ride that one--Big mistake! The seatpost was very short, so even at full extension, it was like riding a clown bike.
I started off with a Black Butte Porter and she had a Green Lake Organic Ale. Both were delicious! Seared Ahi Bruschetta & marinated roasted olives for an appetitizer and then we split Linguine Portofino. The appetizers were excellent. The Linguine was pretty good, but would have been better if they had used fresh pasta. Overall, very good grub! I highly recommend this place.
After dinner we rode back to the campsite. It was slightly uphill which kinda sucked on the clown bike with no lights. She had a single LED headlamp, so I followed her silhouette back to our campsite.
We built a fire and had a few beers when we got back and then crashed.
Saturday morning we packed up our bikes and headed to the resort. We planned to ride the xc trails to warm up and the hit the DH trails later. I rented a Kona Stinky and had them put my Eggbeaters on it. I must say, it looked pretty ridiculous. When we got off the lift one of the guys at the top asked my what happened to my pedals.
So, we ride Long Trail first which is a blue, but fast as hell! At this point we are just wearing xc gear--flimsy styrofoam core helmets, shorts, and jerseys. At the bottom my gf told me that if I was going to ride that freakin' fast that we needed to put on our body armor and full face helmets which we did. BTW, I've never done this lift assisted riding. She's been doing it for years.
At this point, we're done with the xc stuff. I had the shop put the flat pedals back on and we're off to the DH trails. I took it kinda easy at first, but by the 3rd or 4th run I was doing jumps and riding the wall. We did eight or so runs in all. On my final ride, I ate it pretty hard in a turn. I came in too hard and washed out my front wheel in some loose stuff. The left side of my body and head slammed into the ground. Aside from a pretty big bruise on my left thigh, I was uninjured. The helmet and body armor worked flawlessly.
DH is the most fun I've had with my clothes on. If you all have never tried it, try it! You're gonna need a hammer and chisel to get the smile off your face!
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