February camping
Last weekend my friend James sent out an invite for some bike riding and van camping in Buffalo Creek. I worked with James at a shop in Boulder for a bunch of years, and though it’s still winter here in Colorado we get a couple opportunities to run up to the mountains during surprisingly warm spells so I took him up on the offer.
On the way out of town I learned I had just missed Dane and Alders up there, but they’ve done some work with us so I’ll shamelessly plug them anyway. Check out DaneCroninPhotography.com and BryanAlders.com. (Do it.) Instead, I picked up my buddy Jaden and his dog Fischer, because the only thing that makes mountain bike camping trips better are dogs and more friends.
James and Shep were posted up around a campfire when we arrived, relaxing after a long ride that day. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve hung out with Shep, at least a couple years, but as I rolled down the window to get a better view of where I wanted to stop the car he calls out “Just park the fucking van!” Strange as it may seem, there’s something comforting about that level of harassment.
We spent the night hanging out by the fire, listening to Shep’s encyclopedic knowledge of everything from TSA to metallurgy, before leaving him to fend for himself in a tent as we all retired to vans.
In the morning we kitted up after breakfast, and I was quite happy I had brought a Merino Tee jersey as a base layer under the Western Shirt Jersey cause it was a bit chilly. Once we were riding though the temp was perfect. I’m loving riding my Waltworks singlespeed during the winter and it was ideally geared for the trails we were on.
With a good ride under our belts I packed up and enjoyed the beautiful drive back to the Front Range.
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