It started out innocent enough riding some canal gravel with my son Lane, but I got to reflecting on last years two-wheeled miles or a lack of miles for me & part of my thinking on that was I get tired of the same old routes so about 5 miles into this humdrum gravel grind I asked Lane if he was up for an adventure, well, what 16 year old wouldn't be up for an adventure on a bike, I just hope this old goat could hold up my end of the deal for this EPIC day! (can I even say the word epic anymore or will I get sued by a certain bike company?)
we eventually reached the south platte river which is flowing fast this time of year, a little ice
this is where the cyclocross back in November paid off getting over this "barrier"!
singletrack sidewalk across the river
father & son karate monkey's, one gear & rigid!
I never heard the horn OR saw the gates move, DANGIT!
climbing, climbing, climbing, this is where the adventure started on a private drive just off highway 30
it was a lot of wide open once we got to our halfway point, it was all uphill to this point, & this hill is the highest point in Keith county marked by this geological survey marker, I know of this place from visiting it many times in the past by horseback, this was probably a first for this lookout to have mtb's up there.
it's STRAIGHT down right in front of Lane, about 100' & right smack dab behind his head is where we were headed, north platte river valley
man, I needed this break!
looking back east, now that light colored square in the center of the pic on the horizon is the Gerald Gentleman power plant south of Sutherland, probably 25 miles away from us
over Lane's shoulder to the west & barely visible today was Kingsley Dam at Lake McConaughy
BREAK TIME! The wind was really whipping up here & we cooled off in a hurry
AHHH!
descending...
...& more descending, it was mostly downhill from up on top & some sweet cowtrail singletrack
Lane's good to the old man & waits in the trail with a trackstand when I get to far behind
we found some slick, somewhat muddy spots where the sun had been shining & kicked up a herd of twenty mule deer, SWEEET! They were to quick for me with the camera though
a few obstacles where we had to dab our feet
there's some of that mud we found clinging to the Exiwolf's
Ahhh, "the Old Country" as my kids call it, my wife & I lived here for several years when we moved out here, was a great location, unfortunately it was a typical old house, cold in the winter, hot in the summer & the worst part of it was, we weren't even into biking when we lived here, prime location. The ditch there is a small canal that they use to drain the large canal every few years & we used to hit paydirt gathering crawdads when they did, made us a little nervous raising small children here though with the canal this close!
this is the check on canal where they can drain it to the north platte river via that ditch in the previous pic
my old legs felt like this old building by this point!
some cool finds today on top of that big hill, appears to be some pottery or old china pieces & a small piece of chipped flint, doesn't surprise me that folks in the past spent some time sitting on this hill watching both river valleys as you can see a looong way both ways, I love sitting on that hill trying to imagine what it looked like over 100 years ago myself.
I believe rides like these will help me up my miles in 2010, just have to get creative close to home. I know for sure that a damn fine memory was made today for Lane & I & anyone's welcome to come out some weekend & join us, who knows what kind of adventure we'll find!
