SSimplicity. It's what comes to mind after my first single speed mountain bike experience. I finished the conversion of my Dean Colonel Ti frame to singlespeed yesterday afternoon. The beauty of the Colonel is the modular dropout system and all I had to do was bolt on a set of track fork end dropouts and the rest was a piece of cake. After much reading, I went with a 32:17 setup, which according to Sheldon Brown's gear calculator, gives me about 49 gear inches. This seems to be what most people are running in my area. There's a cool blog by a guy in Santa Fe that I found particularly helpful (iheartsinglespeed). I also had a chance to meet and chat briefly with Matt from FOO whom I ran into in the foothills on a night ride one evening a while back. He looks, and from all reports is, an exceptionally strong rider and he had his SS set up at 34:18, which is also roughly 49 gear inches. The 32:17 will work well for me, I think, at least on the local rides. If I end up riding in much steeper terrain, I can make adjustments as necessary.

The ride consisted of my normal quick loop from the house. This is the loop I do when time is limited and I want a good 1-hour workout. I climb the one mile of pavement on Cedar Hill to the north Sandia Foothills Forest boundary, then continue up to just below the water tanks at the Tram. Then work my way south for 30 to 35 minutes and head home.

ImpreSSions: I felt so stealthy cruising along in the quietness of the setup. The bike felt much more nimble to me without the derailers, shifters, etc. Interestingly enough, my average speed for the loop was over 1 MPH faster than on my geared bike? Why? Sections of trail that I've gotten lazy on with the geared bike required me to work harder, and focus on conserving momentum and being more efficient through turns and staying off the brakes more. I think the SS will make me a better and stronger rider, which I'll need with the Wednesday night crew. More on the sickly fast Wednesday night crew in the next episode.....

End of an Era...........It's been nearly 5 months since I said goodbye to Tundra and it's still hard to write this. He was my faithfull companion for 14 years and a magnificent animal. I had said goodbye to Tundra's mate Kodi a year and half earlier, she too was 14. Tundra was mostly timberwolf, with a little malamute in his gene pool. I don't condone people owning this type of canine, as they require a high level of maintenance and a commitment that most people could never offer. However, I was at a unique place in my life when I got Tundra, and was able to give him the kind of life he deserved. We lived in a rural area in the mountains east of Albuquerque on a nice piece of property where I was able to build a huge enclosure for both Kodi and Tundra. They thrived in our forested environment and got to go on hikes and runs every day of their lives (except when I was sick).

There are so many stories to tell and maybe I'll recount some at a later time. Things that stand out the most in my memory; I slept well at night with Tundra at the foot of my bed. He loved to sit at my feet each morning over coffee during quiet time. He would have gladly given his life for me if necessary. He was a jokester and always knew how to make me laugh when he saw that I was down. He always greeted me with a boisterous howl and I miss him dearly.

I was blessed to have Tundra in my life for so many years. It was tough to see him grow old and I'm glad I was able to comfort him when it was time to say goodbye. I think that God has given me a little glimpse of His unconditional love through the canine companions that have graced my life.

Top picture is of Tundra at 8 weeks and bottom picture is at 14 years, just 3 weeks before he died.

Reminiscing.......Got an email the other day from Stevie, owner of Red Cloud Ranch in Taos that brought to remembrance one of our 2005 highlights. We stayed at Stevie's Barn Loft for our anniversary last summer, and boy is it a special place. It's a nice sized spread that backs right up to the National Forest where we embarked on a killer ride to celebrate our anniversary. We rode one of the local favorites; the Valle Escondido Loop starting right at the ranch house. This 20 plus mile loop starts with at least 3,000 feet of climbing and if you make a couple of wrong turns like we did, you'll end up with closer to 4,000 feet of climbing. From the Ranch we climbed to Osha Meadows where we picked up the well-known Elliot Barker trail. Elliot Barker continues to climb to Osha Summit, the highest point of the climb at around 10,600 feet. Here you pick up the infamous South Boundary trail (#164) to descend some of the finest singletrack on the planet. When you reach Garcia Park, rather than continuing on #164, you descend back into Valle Escondido and back to the ranch. We had a spectacular day; warm, sunny, and the wildflowers were amazing. Once back at the ranch it was off to the hot tub for a relaxing soak. An ice cold bottle of Killian’s Irish Red really hit the spot too.

Another highlight of our stay at Red Cloud Ranch was during a hike. On our way back to the Barn Loft, I noticed an eerie set of eyes staring us down from about 50 yards away in the forest. Dark was setting in and as I stared at the motionless figure, I soon was able to make out the characteristic shape of the head and the feline ears. It was a beautiful bobcat, and a really large one at that! We had time to snap a couple of pictures before it took off, but the digital images, just didn't come out well. The image is burned our memories though, and just one more great remembrance of our anniversary. The fly fishing in the spring-fed trout pond was not too shabby either. Hope to get back up there this summer, provided the forests haven’t been closed down by then due to fire danger from our dismally dry winter. Pray for rain.

Pictured is Ann, rolling through a sea of wild iris on the Elliot Barker trail at well over 10,000 feet.

Springtime in New Mexico? Yep, after more than 20 years, you think I'd be used to the fickle Spring weather, but nope, it still amazes me. Last weekend my wife and a friend were mountain biking at Cedro Peak in shorts and shortsleeves and even picked some pinon. Today, we awoke to about 3 inches of snow at the house and had to go for a foothills ride just for kicks. Prior to this snow, New Mexico was in the midst of it's driest winter in over 100 years. Just need a couple more Spring storms to help build on our dismal snowpack and ease some of our water woes. Well, not much else to say today. This is my first crack on the blogger scene and I like the venue.

Pictured is my better half. The snow was fun to ride in but the 40 mph winds were brutal.