climbing in the sky

We met at the base of the mountain – me and the Goldman. 8pm. Temp was a balmy 30, and it was light flurries. As we pedaled up, the roads went from a little slop, to frozen, to powder. Just about 1.5-2 inches of really light, fluffy powder. Our tires cut through it like air. Goldman went out pretty hard, so I followed his red tail light for 3+ miles, inching closer, then falling back, inching closer, and slowly coming around him – then leading the rest of the way to the top. Being in front felt like complete solitude with no lights, cutting fresh tracks on the road, and not a hint of wildlife. As we were getting closer to the top, we could see the glow of the ski lodge, and a few snow cats out grooming the slopes for the next day. At least for me anyway, I put in a hard effort, and got to the top with the Goldman only a short distance back in a good time. The lights at the ski lodge completely took our night vision away, and after buttoning up on winter gear for the ride down, it took a few minutes to get used to the pitch black again. I dropped the psi in my tires to around 15, and let ‘er rip on the descent. I could feel both wheels floating when I’d get over 20mph, and it’s about as close to surfing as I can get on land. We stopped half way down – away from the lights of the ski lodge – and just looked at the stars. There were as bright as I have ever seen between streaks of clouds that were lit up by the city lights over the other side of the mountain. 20 minutes later we were down, shivering, packing up to go hom. Goldman’s fingers were frozen as he was clutching cantilever brakes on his cx bike the whole way down. My ss has hydraulic brakes and huge ass tires, so I was able to coast more and just tap the brakes – no frozen fingers here – but a frozen torso. We spent about 1 minute talking about the ride, cranked up our cars, checked the temp which was a now much colder feeling 24 degrees, and we were outta’ there. Ffffreeezing.

The momentum is building for this ride, as we have three committed next week. It was just me the first week, two peeps this week, and three on board the next? Shit, we’ll have 25 dudes by mid-summer at this rate. My legs have that ‘good sore’ feel to them that I can’t seem to get from running or sitting on a trainer. Glutes, hams, calves, quads – all equally saying “thanks man, good times out there….” Plus, the demons in my head are dormant for another day or two.