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You heard the man, get you some! Phil's was primo today. I REALLY wanted to get up above treeline on the CT but you may just be able to see the San Juans in the background in the second photo and the healthy layer of recent snow. Figured I'd play it safe.

Yesterday a buddy and I rode segments 3, 2, and 1 of the Colorado trail. Right around 40 miles, 3.6k climbing, over 7k descending. Long, hard day in the saddle, but one of the best days I’ve had on a bike.

OTBS, did struts & UCAs on the tacoma and it no longer rides like a covered wagon😆

I am 48 years old. I had never broken a bone before I took up cycling 4-5 years ago. Since then I have broken both elbows (one badly, requiring screws, a plate, and a replacement for the "ball" part of the radius), one shoulder, one wrist, and possibly my tailbone. The tailbone is the most recent thing...the *very* *day* my shoulder was cleared for riding, I was on my road bike and I hit a little divot in the street and went flying. I landed in the street HARD on my lower back/upper butt area. Some nice folks called 911 and the paramedics showed up...by then I had stopped yelling/screaming and was able to stand up, and so I actually got on my bike and rode home. The bike was 100% OK BTW, not even a ding in the rim. I ended up not going to the doctor for this because I had painkillers left over from last time or whatever, the pain got noticeably better each day, and I didn't have trouble sitting so much as trouble with things pressing into my lower back. So I could still work (I do IT). So now here we are a month later and I can lie flat on my back on the floor with only some mild discomfort, which means to me the swelling is pretty much gone. I get a little burning in my tailbone sometimes if I sit for too long, but even that's decreased to the point of almost not happening. I am physically ready to get back on the bike. But man, I'm scared. Most of my accidents are speed-related, both on the MTB and on the road bike. So I need to slow down. It's that simple, I guess. But I've known that for the last few accidents and it hasn't kept me safe yet. Instead, I play this stupid game in my head where I think that if I fall and get hurt on every feature or turn where injury is likely, then eventually I'll exhaust all the possibilities and just not get hurt anymore. Until I pick a new trail or route I guess. I've got a big mental block right now WRT getting back on the bike. It seems like I'm getting hurt more often instead of less often. At least, this spring/summer it's been that way. I have thought about giving up riding but it's the only exercise-type thing thing I enjoy enough to stick with. And I need to lose weight. I'm 210 and really ought to be more like 165-170. At most 180. I guess I know what I need to do (slow down), but knowing what to do and doing it I guess are different things. I feel hopeless and at the same time I feel stupid for feeling hopeless because the answer seems to be so simple. Anyway, just venting.

i keep trail conditions updated at https://austintrailconditions.com You can make a browser bookmark on your phone that becomes a home page icon

Damn thing wants to go and I was hanging on for dear life all day long. Way too much bike for me, but I’d rent it again. We had a little bit of everything at AF yesterday- mud, wet rocks/roots, hero and it handled all of it.

It was pretty cool I must say to be contacted and interviewed by someone interested in hearing my story about mountain biking in my life! Enjoy the read if you would like to - https://medium.com/@zacharysisson/austin-texas-mountain-biking-interview-seth-buckner-1dc89ac87a49

Badass!

Nicely done.

The cobblers kids always need shoes.

We did the Eureka stuff in the morning, grabbed burgers and beer then hit the shuttles in the afternoon. Half price on the shuttles after 3:00. Let's just say that was a total beat down day.

Mullet bike

We also had some CotA fun. Same day as Phil's World in fact. In the photos you can see the smoke still in the sky. A few hours later (the PW shots above) the cold front had cooled things off by 20 degrees and pushed the smoke completely out of the area. The sun an hour after sunrise: