Fire in Gold Camp Tunnel #3

February 17th, 2006

Monday there was a fire in tunnel #3 on Gold Camp Road. The access to the trails past it were closed for a few days although now they saying access is just restricted. There was an article in the Gazette about it. Eco-terrorism is suspected by someone not wanting the road re-opened. It was closed in 1988 because the tunnel was starting to collapse but the Forest Service has been talking about re-opening it to cars. It would be a shame if they did since that’s such a nice area to mountain bike and hike.

As I understand it even before the fire, the tunnel had to be restored because of being put on the National Historic Registry or something like that. When the Forest Service was taking comments on it, I wrote against opening it to cars. I remember what it was like to mountain bike up there when it was open to cars. You can read more about the project on the Forest Service website.

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RAAM Rules Changed for this Year

January 3rd, 2006

Today the preliminary RAAM rules were posted. Because of Bob Breedlove’s death last year, the rules have been changed for solo riders. Solo riders will be required to take a minimum of 40 hours off the bike at control points.

The date and time to finish is still last year’s so I’m not sure if the cut-off is going to remain at 12 days and 2 hours or if they will extend it. Of course I want to be fast but considering only about half of rookies finish, I’m going to be very happy with any finish under the cut-off time.

They also updated the 2006 roster. It is motivating and exciting to see my name there but at the same time a bit terrifying.

The weather has continued to be unusually warm but that also means it is windy and today was no exception. The peak gust at Reed Ranch weather station was 43 mph.

I think it was hitting close to that when I headed out on my mountain bike to the electronics store to get some resistors to work on installing a remote starter in my wife’s car. I had yesterday off work and had trained hard over the weekend so thought it was a good day for the project. I’ll wait to tell about that bad experience when I have more time and hopefully have the project finished.

As planned I did a long ride on Saturday with my friend Larry and his friend Nate. It was a bit cold when we headed out in the morning but it ended up being a pleasant day. It was a little cooler than a few of the other days lately but that was because the wind wasn’t blowing much. I’m not a fan of the wind so that made me happy.

Nate’s wheel was only 1.5 weeks old but 2 spokes broke at different times during the ride. It took a few stops for emergency truing to keep his wheel from hitting on his frame. I rode through the Garden of the Gods after leaving Larry and Nate to get a few more miles in and ended up with 106 miles for the day.

Sunday my legs were feeling pretty hammered but I went ahead with my plan to go up the old Manitou Incline. It took a few minutes to get my legs worked out but then I felt good. I was about 5 minutes faster than the last couple times even after stopping and talking to a guy that said he thought he was still drunk from New Year’s Eve. I must say I agreed with him. Barr Trail only had a couple spots of ice left after all the warm weather.

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Feeling a Bit Tired

December 30th, 2005

Yesterday I planned to ride at lunch time but just couldn’t drag myself out. It was in the mid 50’s but at lunch time the wind was gusting around 20 mph and earlier in the morning it had hit 57 mph at the Reed Ranch weather station which is near where I work. A lot of days I would have still gone out but I felt really wiped out and would have had trouble dragging out even without the wind.

Once I thought about it, I wasn’t suprised I felt the way I did. Last Friday I did about a 2.5 hour group. Saturday I hiked up the old Manitou Incline and then back down Barr Trail. Sunday was Christmas and I spent it with family but we did go to Seven Falls and I carried Danielle, who is about 25 pounds, up about 400 steps between going up to Eagle’s Nest and the stairs by the falls. It has been years since they’ve had the stairs by the falls opened at Chistmas time.

Monday I put in a 100 miles on the road. Tuesday I rode easy for a little over an hour on the Santa Fe Trail. Tuesday was a fairly mellow 2 hour group ride at lunch. That’s certainly more training than I’ve been doing lately so I’m sure a day off the bike was a good thing.

Today I was thinking of going downtown and riding with the group that meets at Acacia Park at 12:30 during the week. My plan is to ride between 90-100 miles tomorrow and I decided it would be better to ride by myself and take it easy. I went and did a short loop through Garden of the Gods.

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