Short, Hard Core trip to see the Gunch!

[Vibrato]

Going to visit Gunchie the weekend of the July 23rd and we've got a spot or two that is unclaimed in the Van. Here's the poop as of today:

We want to ride Winter Park, keystone, and the DEnver Fat Tire Urban Assault while we're there. That's 3 days of hardcore riding and drinking, two days of sittin in a Van having a beer fart battle.

To make that happen, we'll prolly leave Wednesday after work- drive 4-6 hours and split a cheap and sleazy motel, drive the rest of the way on Thursday- arrive unload bikes and try a couple of Gunchies local trails.

Then Friday at Winter Park, Saturday at the Urban Assault, Sunday at keystone, back home late Monday night.

It is anticipated that this will be a cheap beer weekend and we're staying with Gunchie so costs should be as little or as much as you want to spend.

I'll try to get lift ticket, bike rental and estimated fuel costs posted up by this weekend. (I"M RENTING A MOJO!!)

Seating is extremely limited, look here for further updates. If you're reading this- you are eligable- but remember, this is a drive, ride, drink, drive filled 5 days and the itenerary is subject to change without much notice to accomodate what we all want to do next.

And I'll hit an extra anger management session before we leave- I promise!!

[bleedfororbea]

in such a hardcore trip one would drive all night.. powered by red bull and audio books! maximize riding time

[Vibrato]

I'm afraid we'll meet a hitch hiker who just invented 7 minute abs!!!

[Gunchie]

I'm painting the new house right now, and the flooring is ordered which will be done next week. There is plenty of space for all that want to come. We have a twin and queen camp air mattresses, and one nice plug in queen air mattress that I can attest is pretty comfortable. I may have a real mattress too by then (depending what I can mooch off of the parents when they come next week). There is really good Mexican restaurant that is cheap, and a place that has half priced beers after 10 PM that are in the plans. The place with the half priced beer has over 100 beers on tap, and half priced appetizers as well that are quite delicious and filling. Local trails could include White Ranch, Apex, Chimeny Glich, Dakota Ridge, Red Rocks... the list keeps on going. I'll make sure to get some of Colorado's finest beers in the fridge as well. I don't know if I'll have any days of vacay to spare after taking work off to work on the house, but I'll leave the GPS behind which will guide you through the best trails on the front range! Come on, you know you want to ride in the 'no stress' van with Ray for 12.5 hours each way!

[Gunchie]

Then Friday at Winter Park, Saturday at the Urban Assault, Sunday at keystone, back home late Monday night.:

FYI, the Urban Assault is on Sunday. Let me know if you still plan to do this so I can sign up. It's teams of two, so someone has to come with!

[jimithng23]

Come on, you know you want to ride in the 'no stress' van with Ray for 12.5 hours each way!

Don't worry guys...if the KC trip last year was any testament, Ray is perfectly capable of commandeering a 'no-tension' van. ;-)

[mtnbkn1]

so I'm doing the urban assault on my DH rig??

[Vibrato]

so I'm doing the urban assault on my DH rig??

You can do it!! or- you can bring 2 bikes, with proper planning we can swing it for ya, schnauf!!


Gunch- I'm gonna puke from fatigue just driving out there- with our weather the trails have been open here for about 10 days this year. Pick some fun technical trails for us like Dakota Ridge, the climbing stuff may have to wait for the next visit. Have some pity, man- it's been a REALLY crappy year for riding here!

[Bexter]

Gotta tell ya, Gunchie is a terrific host! Heck, he even lent me HIS BIKE!

GunchieBex..jpg

This picture was taken at North Table Mountain in Golden, CO - Friday, July 2nd. You gotta go to Golden City Brewery in Golden as well as the other place Gunchie already posted. For more fun pix from the CO trip, check my Facebook.

[Vibrato]

Its me, KRuD and Schnauf, got room for one more. Still planning on leaving on Wednesday after work, July 21st and returning Monday July
26th. My 14th Anniversary is the 27th, it's kinda important we get back...

Anticipated Trip Costs- Plan on about $100.00 ea for gas. If bringing your own bike the parks are about 35.00 each for lift passes. and the cost of the Urban assault, so $100.00 for events, and then you got food- Figure 20.00 a day so that's another 100.00, and beer of course but we're drinking 30 packs of something cheap so that's only as much as you wanna spend so lets call it 20.00 a day, another 100.00. (and Gunchie is nice enough to put us up but we may need to split one nights lodging on the drive out, another 20.00?)

So let's see:

Gas $100.00, Events $100.00, Food $100.00, Beer $100.00. one nights lodging $20.00. So We're looking at about $420.00 total, you could spend more or less depending on what you want to buy/rent/drink/eat.

We did 8 (or was it 9?) days of Moab for about $650.00 each so these costs are fairly realistic.

If you are interested let me know, this WILL be a no tension trip. Ray- 309-737-4762.

If your wondering about rentals- with 33 miles of lift accessable downhill trails and 600 miles of cross country (yes, thats six hundred miles!) is the Winter park/ trestle site- http://trestlebikepark.com/pricing_packages.html

And here's a video of the Keystone dropzone- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7blpFjghpw

[Gunchie]

Another update. I talked to Ray today and we were thinking of possibly skipping the Urban Assault. Yeah, it would be pretty cool to do in Denver, but it's one less day of singletrack. That's a little less for the Urban Assault. Also, through my local bike shop we can get lift ticket and bike rental for a lot cheaper then if we just went to Winter Park (I think it was $40-$60, but I'll double check). Now remember, the same company that owns Winter Park owns Whistler. That means the same people who designed Whistler (the best downhill resort in the nation) are designing Winter Park. They are doing some pretty cool things out there, and are looking to make more of a name for themselves. As far as food and beer, I'm sure we can make this pretty cheap. Me and the girlfriend host plenty of guests and have a line of restaurants that offer good food at cheap prices (and cheap alcohol too). And I promise, I won't kill you with too much climbing.

[jimithng23]

Me and the girlfriend ...

since she is now your fiance, I really hope she doesn't watch the forum ;-)

[MotoSturbed]

Does this mean we can do White Ranch as a one way.... DOWN?!?

Gunchie makes me climb everything we do first; says something about earning it!
But oh how I love the reward of bombing down!!!

[Vibrato]

We've got 2 seats open in the no tension van- Schnauf had to bail, he's got a serious work schedule issue he cannot get out of.

I know with all the rain it seems like everyone is a little down in the spirits about riding, (I know mine are) so watch some videos and get motivated or me and Kurt will just have to go by ourselves. Heck, we've done that a bunch of times, but this should be a pretty cool trip if anyone is interested.

And I agree with Don- we can shuttle up and ride down the local trails just like we did on 18 road!!

[Bexter]

Does this mean we can do White Ranch as a one way.... DOWN?!?

No kidding Don! My first day in Colorado, we rode to White Ranch from my friends' place meaning we had to CLIMB versus driving, parking at the top and enjoying the ride DOWN. UGH!!!! It just about killed me! I made it thanks to Gunchie's lure of beer at the end.

[SweetSVT99]

Wish I could go, but there's no way I can make it happen right now...

[Vibrato]

We got a foursome- the van is full!! Ok if someone else REALLY wanted to go we could probably fit you in, but a foursome was what we were hoping for. I can't WAIT for this trip. I've wanted to do trestle at winter park forever and we is on our way! (almost...)

[Gunchie]

I just spent a full week remodeling the house. Two nights I didn't even sleep. Still running on caffeine. Walls are painted, the flooring is almost done, and hopefully I'll have all my stuff I quickly piled in the house yesterday in a somewhat orderly fashion. May not have the trim work done, but I'll get there. There are two rooms downstairs that I have reserved for my guests. One is being carpeted on Thursday for even more comfort. If you can't make this trip, no worries. My door is always open. Just let me know.

[Gunchie]

There was lots of beer, and even more downhill. On Thursday I made the kids climb. Although they had fun, we decided to limit the uphill stuff. On Friday they spent the day doing Dakota Ridge and Red Rocks (one of my favorite early season rides), and then met up with me for some shuttling of Chimney Glutch. We did Winter Park (also known as Trestle Bike Park) on Saturday with high end demo downhill bikes. That was a new experience we all had a blast doing! Then on Sunday we did Keystone on our own bikes. Talk about long exciting downhills! This was a great vacation for me, and I think every involved would agree! Thanks for coming Ray, Krud, Dave (from ICORR, awesome rider and great addition to FORC), and Matt (a nice surprise to see my brother). Can't wait to see you guys again! Me and Don will keep looking for great places to ride for you the next time you stop by.

[dl1030]

Still tired and grinning! Not sure what I liked the best? White Ranch was oh-so-sweet and surprisingly very technical. Keystone/Trestle, well...those places are just heaven to me, what more can you say. Cant wait to go back. 4 days of non-stop riding and drinking...hard core if I do say so myself.

Huge thanks to Gunch and Megan for the hospitality! Really awesome of you two to put up with fart jokes for a weekend. Don, rock on man, was great to meet you. Matt/Krud/Ray, thanks for letting me tag along, you guys rule! This blew my expectations of what a fun trip is right out the window.

*the gopro chest mount can eat my @

[Vibrato]

Holy crap- what a weekend!!

Left wednesday night- drove ALL Night, we rode & drank for 4 days, drove all night back! Gunchie's got plenty of room and he's a great host.

If you go definately take advantage of the pedal pushers demo deal at trestle- what a blast! I rode a 2010 Yeti 303, we had a couple Scott's and a couple Specialized all w at LEAST 7 inches of travel. keystone was so much fun we didn't want to leave but we were to tired to ride any more- the only other place I've ever felt like that is at Rays!

Couple of us did the corkscrew at keystone and the HUGE, wooden 15 ft high step up/gap jump at trestle, we cleared those 50 ft wall rides you see in the videos, too!

PLUS- we finished up right on the money budget wise. GREAT trip. I must be getting old, I'm exausted.

Oh, yeah, I got to ride a Mojo for a day, too. I just may have found my next ride...

[Gunchie]

Holy crap- what a weekend!!

Holy crap is right. My drain backed up last night and I have a nice man named Jose coming to clean it today. Remind me not to feed my guests Mexican and Beer. Anyway, I went to ride last night to find that my upper body was shot. I could hardly handle the fire road down. Wow, we must of rode a lot! Man, that was fun!

[Vibrato]

bwahahahahahahahahaaaaa!

[BD83]

[QUOTE=Gunchie;6852]Also, through my local bike shop we can get lift ticket and bike rental for a lot cheaper then if we just went to Winter ParkQUOTE]

I'm flying out for Labor Day weekend and plan to hit Winter Park. Can you tell me how I can get some cheaper prices? I will need a pass and pads, while another person will need a bike/pads/pass.

[Gunchie]

Sure! The deal is for bike rental, pass, and all the gear so I don't know if there is anything I can do to save you money on just pass and pads. But, the bikes you get through this deal are the demo bikes which are highest end bikes they have... and I mean high end! Really nice bikes! If you want to go this route, call Pedal Pushers (here's there info: http://www.pedalpusherscyclery.com/) and tell them you heard about there winter park package deal and are interested. They will explain the rest. The price is $60, but that doesn't include any insurance on the bike so if you break anything they will charge you a huge overpriced rate to fix it. The insurance is I think $20-$30 extra so keep that in mind. It was a blast we went. I may have to buy me a big travel bike one of these days so I can go up there more often.