Dave's Visit

Is it my imagination, or is it easier to get family and friends to visit when you live somewhere interesting. Perhaps it helps, too, that Colorado is reasonably close to Kansas. My friend, Dave, came out from Wichita for the weekend following July 4th. We rented a bike for him so he could get a taste of mountain biking in Colorado. Dave had not previously done much of that, or maybe any, so I hope this was a fun experience for him. Fortunately, he was good shape, so despite the lack of acclimatization time he held up quite well.

We rented a Rocky Mountain Element 10 from the Single Track Factory. That's the Denver bike shop that I would call my new favorite bike shop. The Element is a comparable bike to my Nickel, with 26" wheels and about five inches of travel front and rear. I gave the Element a test myself on a trail near our house (it wouldn't be right to put a good friend on a bike you hadn't fully evaluated for trail-worthiness), and found it to be a fine ride.

Not knowing exactly how things would go for Dave, we started out on Friday morning with the Meadow View Trail at Elk Meadow Park. Cindy was working, so it just Dave, Q&A, and me. Here's the Garmin log from our ride: Elk Meadow. We hadn't ridden here before, but knew that it was supposed to be good intro-to-mountain biking sort of ride. It turned out to be really nice. The trail took us upward, not too steeply, through a nice open meadow and thin forest, then made a long rocky, rolling traverse across the slope above the meadow, before descending back down along the far side of the meadow.

The morning ride at Elk Meadow went so well that we decided to head over to the Alderfer Three Sisters Park to get in some more trail time that afternoon. It should have been a quick trip between the two parks since they are both in the vicinity of Evergreen, but as usual, I managed to miss a couple of turns and get us going the wrong direction. But eventually we figured out where we needed to be. Here's the Garmin log: Alderfer / Three Sisters. The ride at Alderfer also went really well. We stuck to the north side of Buffalo Park Road, riding the Mountain Muhly and Bearberry trails. I tried to get everyone to ride the rocky, rugged trail up to the Three Sisters themselves, but they were all tired and after several yards of hauling bikes up the rocks I had to deal with a small rebellion. So we turned back and zipped down to the parking lot. We had a great time.

Dave and the kids:

Dave and the trail:

In the picture below, the Element sits on top of our truck, along with Quinn's Superlight and Abbey's and my Nickels. Three of the four bikes are white; not by preference, but by simple accident.

After the first day of riding, Dave had done so well and seemed so strong that I thought we could take on something a little more challenging for our Saturday ride. So I picked one of our favorites, the Colorado trail in the Buffalo Creek area. Specifically, we road the Green Mountain Loop. See the Garmin log here: Colorado Trail - Green Mountain Loop. This was a more ambitious ride than those of the previous day, with a total distance of about 17 miles. But with limited climbing, as Front Range trails go, so I thought it was not an unreasonable choice. Cindy had to work again, and Abbey's knee was sore after Friday's rides, so for this one it was just us boys. Quinn and I decided it leave our white Santa Cruz singles at home this time and break out the big black tandem instead.

Once again, we had a great time and the ride went really well, but by the end we were all pretty beat. Dave took one pretty good spill, sliding as a he rounded a steep and slightly descending corner; no major damage, but he picked up a few bruises and left a little skin as he slid to a stop on his side. Near the end of the ride I was feeling like I might have bitten off just a little too much. The trail is very much a classic Colorado Mountain trail. It traverses a north-facing slope for several miles, dropping in and climbing out of one drainage after another, and weaving through the open forest on a smooth gravelly trail. Well, there was the occasional rocky section, and the more-than-just-occasional, rough, challenging roots-across-the-trail section. And the climb up green mountain in the rain was not exactly easy. So by the end, we were all beat. I was thinking the Chair Rocks trail would have been a rational alternative this rugged brutality. But now I'm ready to do it again!

Quinn sits for a break:

Dave swoops through the forest.

Dave and Quinn enjoy the rain on the shoulder of Green Mountain.

And the next day Dave went home. I hope we'll be able to get him out again next year!

Family Visit

More wonderful thunderstorms and rain rolled across last night and today. During the heaviest rain last night, we sat out on our backyard deck, Quinn snuggled on my lap, watching the rain pour, lightning crashing in the distance, and for a while even some blueberry-sized hail splashing into the pond and bouncing onto the deck.

This post is a quick summary of the family visits we had this month. I can't guarantee that I have everything in quite the right order here, so if I apologize in advance if I get some details wrong. Details about the evening of the zombie attack have become especially hazy.

On the evening of Wednesday, June 19th, my parents arrived to spend a few days with us; we were glad they decided to stay.  We thought we might spend all of every day out riding three tandems, but there just wasn't time to that and anything else.

Cindy had to work on the 20th, so once we got through with breakfast and some tinkering with online homework, the five of us headed off to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. Despite the broiling Colorado sun and near 100-degree temps, we really enjoyed exploring all the trains at the Railroad Museum.  It's a huge place, with a huge assortment of train cars and engines spanning the rail history of Colorado.

After a day in the sun we went home, ate some yummy tacos with Cindy and Sharon, and took some bikes out to explore the Cherry Creek Reservoir trails near our house.

Friday, June 21st, we took the bikes out for a longer ride on the Cherry Creek Trail. We rode from our house out to the Cherry Creek Dam and down to the dam outlet where the trail turns and follows Cherry Creek all the way through Denver to its confluence with the Platte Check out the Garmin log from our route here.

The next day, Saturday, we explored Denver by taking the light rail from the station nearest our house into the city. No pics of that to share, but our rail trip pretty much followed the same as route as the previous days bicycling, taking us in to the 16th Street Mall and REI at the confluence of the South Platte and Cherry Creek rivers. Quinn made an awesome climb up the Pinnacle at REI; I should have gotten some pictures of that! Later in the afternoon, we met up with Laurie who was in Denver for a big conference and we all rode the rail back to our end of town.

Sunday morning with started out with a trip to the Lookout Mountain Nature Center near Golden and walked the short trail through the surrounding meadow. It was very nice, if a little hot.

 After Lookout Mountain, we drove down the hill to into Golden on north to Boulder where we spent some time driving around looking for somewhere park in the vicinity of Chatauqua Park. That didn't work out so well so we went on up the hill and found a pull-off where we could park and walk around a bit. It was really nice. People took pictures of us.

And then it was the Pearl Street Mall and then dinner with Bob and BJ at a Spanish/Italian restaurant near their house, after which we drove home in the most monstrous thunderstorm we'd seen in years.

I've been trying to get this blog written up for weeks now, so if it seems like I'm hurrying -- well, it's because I am!

My parents left Monday and morning. Once they were on their way, we headed to the zoo with Laurie. We bracketed the zoo trip with a coffee shop visit on the front end and a trip to the Torta Grill afterward. It was a good visit to the zoo, as usual, but the Torta Grill was most memorable!! We almost passed up the Torta Grill because it was such a small place with minimal seating right along Colfax Ave, but we were glad we didn't. We sat by the curb on plastic chairs at a plastic table and ate giant tortas that were more delicious than we could ever have imagined.

Meniscus Repair - Day 18

It is a dark and stormy night. Lightning fires rapid sequences of indistinct flashes that mix with the nearly continuous crackle and boom of thunder and the rattle of rain.  In our room, the wind blows the curtains into the furniture, threatening to sweep to the floor our piles of miscellany. Water lands on oak furniture, pooling, swelling grain, warping wood. I love thunderstorms. It's finally raining.

It's been 18 days since my meniscus fix. I've ridden my bike to work every day this week, and shared 35 miles on the big blue tandem with Abbey last weekend (I'll tell that story later). The interior pain, associated with the meniscus damage has subsided signficantly. I can still get that sharp pain if I load my knee sideways, usually when I'm sitting my swivelly office chair, or sometimes when I'm standing and pivot in just the right way, but it's definitely improved over the pre-surgery condition.

There's still some pain under my knee cap, near the top, if I load my quads when my knee is bent around 90 degrees. I feel it if I pedal too hard with my left leg at the top of my pedal stroke. That pain seems to be the result of the significant tissue disturbance caused by somebody sticking a camera through a hole in my knee and running a grinder around inside. There's some swelling that forms on the outside along the side of my patella, usually during exercise. A bit of ice reduces the swelling, but the skin in the swollen area is numb on the surface, yet stings or burns a little most of the time.

Overall, I'm feeling confident that the surgery was successful and I'll soon be back to doing what I like to do. So far, so good.

And since I finally found the USB cable that fits my camera, I can post a photo. This was taken on the fifth day after the surgery when the stitches were still in place. My knee is a beautiful thing.

Meniscus Repair - Day 5

My choice of title isn't really appropriate since there was no repair of my meniscus. It was really a meniscectomy -- a removal of the thin inner rim where there were some tears. Maybe "Knee Repair" would have been a better choice but it's too late for that. No wonder the documents I write at work go through so many revisions and cost my clients so much money!

We just returned from our first post-surgery bike ride, so I think at this point I'm feeling pretty good about my recovery. We only road about 5 miles, accompanying Cindy on her ride to work. I piloted the Big Black Tandem, with Quinn holding down the rear and providing a significant amount of the hill-climbing power. Pedaling was almost painless, although initially my knee was so stiff that I wasn't sure the whole idea was going to work. Afterward, I decided to post a quick update here while I iced my knee.

Yesterday Abbey and I went to a physical therapy appointment together -- maybe someday we'll get tattoos together. Being only four days after the surgery, our physical therapist, an avid mountain biker and skier who grew up in Evergreen and spent her early years riding a single-speed on the local trails, didn't do too much other than massaging my knee and the developing scar tissue. The latter was incredibly painful and I'm sure I left a pool of sweat on the table. She's been doing the same for Abbey, but Abbey never complained about the pain. Men are not as strong as women when it comes to pain.

I don't think I mentioned here that we pulled the blue Burley tandems out last weekend on Sunday morning and rode about 12 miles on the roads and trails near our house. That was the day before my knee surgery and about two months after Abbey's. It worked out well, Abbey had no problems, and now that I've gotten through my surgery I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get back into regular riding for the rest of the summer. We'll still have to take it easy on Abbey's knee until fall when her new ACL is sufficiently strong that she can ride hard in the rough again.

I don't have any photos of my knee with stitched holes. Maybe I should take some and post them here. If only I could find the camera.

Meniscus Repair - Day 2

Just a quick update on the knee repair. Everything I've heard and read indicates that Abbey's ACL replacement should have been much more painful that my little meniscus cleanup. I can believe that, given what was involved in each surgery. However, I'm not finding my repair to be painless, so now I have even more respect for Abbey's pain-tolerance!

I'm not supposed to removed the wrap and bandages until tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like when I do. I've been icing my knee every two or three hours, but the cold doesn't penetrate the wraps very well. I took a couple of ibuprofen tablets yesterday, and three this morning, but have stayed away from anything stronger.

Immediately after the surgery I was able to walk -- or at least limp -- and able to carefully put my full weight on my left leg. I could bend the joint to nearly 90 degrees without pain unless I applied sideways pressure. I could go up and down stairs with significant help from the rail. Yesterday there was really no sign of swelling, but this morning my foot was slightly swollen. Now at just a little more than 24 hours post-procedure, I'm able to walk, but not really all that much better than yesterday. There's still quite a bit of pain on the inside of my knee. Interestingly, the pain I feel is in exactly the same spot and occurs with the same motions as it did before the surgery. I suppose that means they did the work in the right location!

Back when the doctor first diagnosed the problem, and recommended the surgery, he told me it would be a quick surgery and should be followed by a quick recovery. He said I'd be running in a couple of weeks. Or did he say something like "up and running in a couple of weeks," which might lend itself to a less literal interpretation? I guess I'll know soon enough!! I guess I'm not in that much of hurry to recover; it's more important that the recovery is complete and the pain that was slowing me down is gone.

 

Bear Creek Trail

On the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, we made a short trip up to Mt. Falcon and to Lair o' the Bear parks. This was a six-person and one-dog trip, having added Grandma and a friend of Abbey's to the usual mix. It was a good trip overall, but we did run into a few minor logistical issues. The first was that we forgot to get ice until we were well past the best ice-getting places. Then, in the process of finding somewhere else to get ice, I missed more than one turn. It was sort of humorous, but sort of frustrating; we drove some extra miles and wasted some time and gas.

Eventually we made to Mt. Falcon (coming in from the high side on the west) and enjoyed some beautiful sunny weather while walking around the high meadow trails. We've been on these trails before: Click here for a recap from last year's trip with the other grandparents. We'd expected some crowds, since it was a holiday weekend, but it really wasn't too bad, although the parking lot did fill to capacity for a while in the late morning. After our walk, we had a nice picnic in the shade of a stone shelter with a splendid mountain view.

The picnic over, we set out on the more complicated part of the day. Since the Mt. Falcon parking lot is close to Pence Park, which is at the top of Bear Creek Trail, and since we were in two cars to accommodate our over-sized group, I thought it would be a great opportunity to do a shuttle ride on the Bear Creek Trail. So after lunch Cindy, Quinn, and I went to Pence Park with the truck and bikes to start down the trail while Grandma took A and D and The Mouse down to Lair o' the Bear Park to meet us at the end of the trail. It almost worked pretty well.

The difficulty was that, although Mt. Falcon Park was just at capacity, Lair o' the Bear was over capacity. So the second set of logistical issues for the day was related to finding someplace to park at Lair o' the Bear. It took Grandma and the kids the better part of an hour just to find a parking space. They did, eventually, but not much before we finished the ride.

Here's a link to the Garmin log from our ride.

The ride was really fun (although we tried not to let G, A, and D know just how much fun). About six miles, mostly downhill, although at one point Quinn seemed convinced there was more up than down! I'd ridden this trail once last year in both directions, but we hadn't done it as a family because I knew Quinn would find the climbing pretty tough. Doing it as a shuttle made for a good family-friendly solution.

Here's a picture of our Frontier with its new topper and the same old bike mounts we've used for years. We can get at least five, maybe six bikes up there. So far we're just set up for four. Of course, that step ladder beside the truck is almost a necessity for getting the bikes up there.

The Bear Creek Trail is a very pleasant ride through the forests and meadows on the mostly north-facing slope above Bear Creek. I think maybe the trail actually starts in Meyer Gulch, which is a tributary of Bear Creek, and then traverses a couple of ridges and drainages as cuts down to Bear Creek. There are no wide-open views, so it's not supremely scenic, but occasional glimpses of surrounding peaks and a mix of meadows and forest make for a very pleasant trip. The riding is mostly smooth and easy, not too steep, with only a few challenging rocky sections. There are some trail segments that involve navigating some larger boulders; a few of these I haven't been able to clean. The most memorable sections are near the top where the trail cycles back and forth and up and down in fast, smooth roller-coaster fashion.

Here's Mom on the trail, just getting through a short, rocky section.

Here's another tough spot; Quinn and Mom both dismounted here. The trail goes steeply up amidst boulders, and turns sharply right, and is along a small, but noticeable ledge.

And there's the staircase, pictured below. I tried riding up this section last time, but didn't quite make the corner at the top. Riding down really isn't hard, but it is a little intimidating. This time, I rode down, parked my bike, and walked back up to spot Quinn at the tricky corner. He rode the whole with no problem, although it would have been OK if he'd gone just a little slower!

Perhaps still on a high from his successful descent of the staircase, with an audience, Quinn found himself off to the side of the trail rolled into tangle with his bike. I had actually stopped to get some pics of him coming around a rocky corner, and was waiting with camera in hand. When he reached me and came into my view, I was surprised to see him riding a front wheelie. His rear wheel was at least a foot off the ground! This is a difficult situation from which to recover, but I thought briefly that he might, and then his front wheel hit a little rock ledge and quickly turned 90 degrees. With that his bike shot sideways and he continued right over the bars, still clipped to his pedals, somersaulting down the hillside. Luckily, large rocks have significant stopping power, and so he didn't tumble far. Once stopped, he yelled, "That was awesome!!" Then he realized he was bleeding. Cindy pulled him up while I took pictures, like any caring father would. With some sense knocked into him, and some significant pain in his arm, he kept it to a safe 80% of full throttle for the rest of the ride.

Early June Updates: Knees, the Pond, and the Bicycles

This morning I am reclined on our green banana leather sofa, a gentle and warm breeze blowing through the living room, with my left leg wrapped in a wide gauze bandage; a reenactment of Abbey's post-surgery pose. My knee repair this morning was much quicker than Abbey's: I checked in at 7:15, was wheeled into the surgery room an hour later, woke up around 9:00, and was home by 10:00. Much quicker and much less painful.

I thought I should take advantage of my limited mobility and a day off work to bring the scaqabout journal up to date.  At last posting, about 20 days ago, Abbey was a month post-surgery and doing well. Now she's seven weeks post-surgery and seems nearly fully recovered. There's still a little bruising on the back of her knee, but she's walking just fine and has been back on her bicycle a few times -- I'll cover that below. She's pretty much pain-free, although with a day of walking or too many miles on a bike, she starts to feel a little pain.

The pond. So our new rental house has a pond. Who wants a pond? When we moved in it was still frozen over, but it thawed shortly thereafter. At that point it had an ugly, orange and white goldfish, which was maybe six inches in length. Shortly thereafter, the goldfish disappeared; must have become someone's lunch. There's a big slab of stone not far under water surface. The owners put the slab in to give the fish a place to hide, but the slab also serves as a convenient fishing perch for hungry predators. Amos was very interested in the fish once he saw it, but it's unlikely that he was the culprit.

The most noticeable thing about our pond was the odor, so we decided a spring cleaning was in order. On Memorial Day we pumped it mostly dry, holding the water in a couple of big trash barrels while we scooped out inches of muck from the bottom. We also cleaned out the pump and reorganized the irises. Now the pond is looking pretty nice. The water is clear, the pump is running, and the sulfide odor seems to be gone.

Of course, we have also noticed that the other critters enjoying the pond are mosquitoes. If you lie on your belly and peer into the water you can see the larvae squiggling and wiggling about. For mosquito control, we picked up a bunch of baby fathead minnows. It'll be a few weeks before they'll be big enough to eat the mosquitoes, but once they are, they should provide some good natural mosquito control. And I hope they'll be harder for the predators to catch than big slow goldfish. Next we need to get some floating plants to help slow the algal growth.

So that's the pond.

Next I'd like to give an update on our bicycling activities. As I noted last blog, with all the knee trouble and relocation activity, our cycling season has gotten off to a rough start. But with the OK from Abbey's PT to resume riding -- on the road, mostly, with flat pedals (rather than 'clipless' or SPDs) -- we got the bikes out for a test ride over Memorial Day Weekend. We rode straight to the nearest mountain bike park!

Our new house is right beside Cherry Creek Reservoir State Park, which has a great selection of gravel and paved trails. Our neighborhood also has lots of roads with nice wide bike lanes -- I really think it's going to be nice place to be for running and biking once the knee repairs are done. So we pulled out the mountain bike fleet and hit the trail. Well, first we took to the roads to the park. Click here to link to the Garmin log for Abbey's first ride post-surgery. In accordance with the doctor's orders, once we hit bike park, Abbey found a bench in the shade and waited while Quinn and I rode the trails. Mostly.

It was fun ride. Here are some pics of the adventure:

 OK. That's enough for this post, but it's just occurred to that we have another ride to post. I will see if I can get that one up today while I'm still somewhat mobility-limited.