The Summer of Joel

Just like George Costanza once declared the "Summer of George", I have decided that this summer has to be the "Summer of Joel". Every weekend is packed full of adventure, fun and exciting things to do and places to go.

This weekend is proving to be what is becomming quite common in the Summer of Joel, two action packed days with little time to rest. Today Jill, Sarah and I headed up to Winter Park for some lift-assisted downhill mountain biking. We got there early and got some early runs in, grabbed a quick meal & a beer then headed back up for another run. After some rusty navigation the first run, we found a fast, swoopy trail that all 3 of us really enjoyed bombing down.

Jill railing a corner.


We had a couple minor injuries, one self-inflicted due to equipment problems and one inflicted by a group of asses. Sarah had a cleat screw fall out, rendering her pretty helpless when trying to clip out. Down she went and out came the blood. She was bleeding pretty badly at first, but we found a course worker who had a first aid kit and we got her patched up. Check out the carnage...


Then on the last run of the day, Jill went down thanks to some punks. We were on a doubletrack road when two guys in full body armor and big bikes blew by us. Two more started to come through, but when the 3rd guy got up next to Jill the course narrowed up. He was going too fast and started to come into her line, which scared her and forced her off the side of the trail where she lost the front wheel and slid down. She got several nasty cuts and scrapes. The maddening thing was the jerks didn't even stop to offer a sorry or help her out. She showed her displeasure for them and I bombed down and had some words with them. Unfortunately you find people like this all over these days, where the heck has common courtesy gone?

Regardless of the group of jerks, we had a great time and got to blast down the hill quite a few times. I will admit I'm pretty shocked at how much work it is even though gravity helps you out. Shoulders, biceps, triceps and your back all get worked over pretty well keeping things pointed the right direction. Of course Sarah and Jill probably felt that much more than me, as my Yeti really took the edge off the bumps out there today. That bike continues to amaze me.

Anyway, onto a couple more pictures from today.

Here I am getting some huge air. That's gotta be 5-6ft off the ground.


Sarah bandaged up and rolling again.


Stay tuned for more antics tomorrow as we're spending another day white water rafting some Class IV & V stuff down Buena Vista way. I lead a charmed life.