JesseParker.com

F orgive me, I've been busy doing other things like riding my bike and spending time off the internets. I have a backlog of pictures from some random rides, so here they are... The first one will link to a few more. This is a ride near where I work, It's currently covered in snow. From Random Then we move on to a lesser known ride around here, it starts with a dirt road climb for nearly an hour. Good scenery: Then you descend into a cool limestone canyon with trail unlike most of what you find around here. Creek crossings, real dirt, more like the east coast than here.. The canyon itself is quite scenic too, limestone isn't very common around here. I did this ride last Friday and it was really cool to be able to have a place all to my own, I spent a fair amount of time just enjoying the scenery. Then there was the ride on Wednesday before the snowstorm. My friend Kristian just got a Truvativ Hammershmidt, a two speed epicyclic gearbox that replaces the front derr...

S o I've been wanting to do this ride pretty much since I got here but the timing and my fitness has never been quite right.  Things fell together though so I went for it. Barr trail starts at 6,600 feet and climbs to the top of pikes peak at 14,100 ft over 13 miles.  So that works out to about 7500 feet elevation gain, throw a few ups and downs in there and you're around 8k.. So I knew it was going to hurt, but I did it anyways.  What does that mean? I started at 6:30 just as the sun was starting to rise.  The light kept getting better and better so I stopped and took a bunch of pictures.  The first one has a link to the album where there are many more than shown here.. From Barr out and back The initial climb is pretty steep and switchbacked until it reaches Barr Camp, which is a grandfathered cabin in the middle of the Forest Service that serves food, sells candy bars, and caters to overnight guests.  Pretty cool place to stay really, it's roughly half way up elevation w...