Not just another weekend.

Well we had one heck of a weekend. Joab(my youngest) and I both headed out Friday to Fort Collins and spend the night there. Staying the night there let us get a early start on Sat morning. We rode some cross country in Lyons, CO.. Hall Ranch was a blast. Very rocky, but fun. Joab had a cold and was very very stuffed up so we only did a few miles up and then came back. I picked up a new disc front wheel for my Dekerf and a couple pairs of lock-on grips. I can't say enough about Dave at Redstone cycles. He is the kind of person who you want to spend money with. If you ever get a chance to stop in and just bs with the guy, do it. We then headed out for Avon, Co. I put a trade together with a guy off of Craigslist. Avon is in the middle of the mountains. It has been quite awhile since I've been thru the mountains. Wow...I gotta do that more often. What a blast. Guy I was trading parts with was great doing biz with. Another positive Craigslist experience. Wheels are brand new and the fork is in good nic too. Then out of the blue Joab says he wants to ride some more. So we look over our options and head over to Keystone to see if we can catch a lift up. Neither of us have ever done lifts before. So this was a first. We get there and three guys are riding to there cars on big DH rigs. I walk over and ask when the lift is closing and they say it closes at seven. A quick thanks and were on our way. We jump on the gondula and ride up. We stick to the green trails and wow, what a blast. We end up getting soaked on the mountain. The rain starts coming down and won't slow up. We stop a few times to try and stay dry. Finally the rain stops and we fly the rest of the way down. It took us two hours to come down and Joab wanted to go again at 6:15 in the afternoon. That would have put us in the dark for half the mountain. We leave with dreams of coming back. Thanks a ton Keystone, those trails were a blast! I settle into the drivers seat and point the van home. A quick stop in Idaho Springs for a pizza from Beau Jo's Pizza. Joab was wiped out and didn't let his head leave the seat until we got home. Thanks a ton to everyone who made this great day happen!

From Bikes

From Bikes

From Bikes

From Bikes

Curt Gowdy weekend.

I've been planning for this trip for quite awhile. The destination was picked because I'd heard great things about the Mtn.Bike trails that were there. I'd been to Veedavoo before and really enjoyed the scenery there, so I figured Curt Gowdy couldn't be all bad. We had a hard time picking a date. We finally nailed one down and stuck too it. Unfortunately we didn't know we had just picked "Free park" weekend and "Free fishing" weekend, plus! Kids Xtream weekend. I did know that Specialized bikes were doing demo's that weekend but that was it. Plan is a plan and we were still going.

I had planned on leaving early on Friday to get a good spot. When I heard the news about kids day and free camping I debated on leaving on Thursday night. However I wasn't anywhere close to ready on Thursday night. I had a lot of last minute things to fill, fix and pack. However by Thursday night I was ready to pull out first thing in the morning. Alarms went off on Friday morning and we hopped out of bed, took showers, loaded bikes and called Donovan to see when he'd be ready. We waited for the bank to open so he could drop of the paper work for his new old truck purchase and then hit the road. Besides my phones GPS wanting to turn us around in Cheyenne the trip up was great. Clifford got better gas mileage then I thought and everything stayed where it was suppose to. Upon arrival we found that it was already pretty busy. We pulled thru a few loops and didn't find any really good spots. We finally settled on a flat, grassy area at the base of a short but steep loop. At the time we only had one neighbor. We got the camper set up, bikes and canoe off, and started a fire. Mike Dornbier showed up shortly after and set up his small camp also. We took a few bike rides, and got the bikes tuned up.(or so I thought) We hiked all over the side of a hill that was close where the archery course is. I say course, not range, because it was a HUGE course. One after another great targets set up on the course that stretched over the side of a mountain. Jake was the only one with a bow on the trip. That will be remedied next time. Jen showed up and we had a almost uneventful evening except for a couple slightly agitated puppies that wouldn't settle down. Jen ended up taking them to the car and sleeping with them there cause they wouldn't be quiet. We got up the next morning and made a big breakfast. Mike took a early ride and I slept in a little missing him on that one. We got ready after breakfast and headed out to the trails. We met the rest of the Cabela crowd that came down for lunch at out camp ground. Where we made a huge bunch of spagetti. It was really good and very energizing. We rode shoreline again and did some more fishing. Sunday we were finally able to test ride some of the bikes Specialized had brought up. I instantly fell in love with the Epic. Wow...what a bike. It just made you go fast. Everything my bike did it did faster. Joab and I rode a ton of bikes. Donovan and Jake rode a couple also and then we packed up and headed home. Great weekend and a lot of smiles all around.

Mountain biking in the Panhandle.

Yes it can be done.  After a day of getting things ready to go to Curt Gowdy, we decided to take a ride. I don't remember the pasture being this much fun on a four wheeler! We had a blast.

Thank you cycling

Thank you cycling.  I just felt this was worth mention.  Awhile back I committed to a weekend mtn. Bike trip.  Little Did I know then how it would change things.  I started looking back at the fun I had on a bike.  All the friends I made and trips I took.  Then I started thinking that this trip would be a lot more fun if I were in some sort of shape.  I dropped by www.mtbr.com and browsed thru a few posts.  I was so inspired by some of the photography there.  I've mounted new brakes on my bike, I've put on new wheels also.  I'm excited again.  I've quit drinking pop, started looking hard at how much sugar is going in my body.  I've nixed caffeine altogether.  That's a hard one.  The wake up call was how hard it was on the second day thou.  Man did that hurt.

So thank you cycling for making me look at myself.

From Misc

Redneck Paintball

Well were too far out in the sticks to call it ghetto.  So it's gotta be redneck.  Here's my efforts in creating a field for my kids and friends. The closest "actual" field is 2 hours away. We have played at my parents farm for years. The corrals have been empty for about 20 years. In the past we just used natural cover, two dead cars, a few spools and some misc pallets for cover. Nothing much more then that. Well this year another of my boys started playing. We made the yearly trip to SPE and he's hooked. So once we got home he got the bug to play again. We started looking at where to put up a structured field, what we had for supplies and what money we had to work with. Well very little money, however all the free pallets we could get our hands on. So we hauled out three trailer loads of pallets, left over plywood and started building. We cleaned up first by pulling out all of the old barb wire, hog panels and wood gates out. Nothing like finding a old roll of barbwire on that long slide into the snake. Once that was done we hauled in old feed bunks to make up the snakes. Set some fence posts to keep them there, then started on making all the pallet V's. The pallet v's got a outside coating of galvanized tin. All from panels that had blown down from the original wind break. Add a few old spools, a trunk lid from a 68 olds and were in good to go.
There is still a lot of space between bunkers but it's a start. I have enough pallets for seven more V's, tires for more tall stacks and a few other things I can add in cheap.

SPE - an Odyssey in Paintball

     This SPE started off like all SPE's in the past.  With a 12 hour drive to Illinois.  I really didn't want to do the trip there in one shot.  I have done that before and it leaves you pretty drained.  I had decided a hotel room mid way would do as a good stopping point and only give us a little over six hours left to drive the next day.  After a constant nagging towards my eldest son to pack his stuff.  It actually happened.  Thursday came around and He and Jake were ready to go at 4:PM Mountain time.  I picked up the kids from school, grabbed Jake and Josh's stuff, dropped off a reluctant Joab at soccer practice(next year bud) and topped off the fuel tank.  With all that done, the 2002 Gold Caravan loaded to the brim with paintball equipment, food and drinks was on it's way.
      On the road to Omaha we saw hundreds and hundreds of turkey and deer.  This didn't help Jake at all since we all went empty handed last turkey season.  A few places you could have filled your deer tag and turkey tag in a matter of seconds with a quite enough bow.  The normal gradient from the yellow grass of the plains to the dark green of leaves on trees and thick grass back east was very evident.  They had been getting a lot of water in the past few weeks.  We got thru Omaha and into Council Bluffs where we stayed the night at a 39.99 dollar motel.  My two boys were a little freaked out and after getting the room, told me they were pretty sure they just witnessed a drug deal.  I told them they were over reacting.  If this was the worst hotel room they ever stay in, then they will be lucky.  Yea the bed was hard but it was a clean room.  We woke up early and headed over to Panera Bread for breakfast.  Damn do they have some awesome breakfast sandwiches.  Six point five hours later and we're at Spaceman's house for a gathering of the usual suspects.  We ran around a bit waiting for other friends to arrive.  Gathered some misc beers and other bits.  A few beers, six pounds of bacon and a couple taco's later I was a happy man.  Sitting on the Spaceman's deck, trading stories, passing around markers and drinking home brewed beer with a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a couple years( I missed SPE 09).  This is why a 12 hour drive is totally worth it.

     Up early and headed to the field.  Set up camp behind the raffle table with Spaceman, DoghouseDan and a hand full of Canadians.   Played with my new Ule pump mag most of the morning.  Then after getting my sniper back from Ken I started playing with that for a bit.  Huge thanks to Ken for standing behind his work and fixing the little leak my sniper had.  You da man Ken!  After three years I finally got a elimination with this rig!  My two son's had a blast all day.  I had wondered about Jake getting tired and not wanting to play in the afternoon.  He was back a couple times, just long enough to refill paint and headed back out.  While visiting a booth, one of the vendors gave Jake a old Brute paintball marker.  He said he hadn't used it in four or five years and wasn't even sure it shot.  Jake found a way to put a hopper on it, then sprinted over to the chrono.  It clocked in at 275 and shot like a champ.  He proceeded to play with it the rest of the afternoon.  Josh played with his phantom all morning and then ripped things up with my ule mag in the afternoon, after I started playing with my sniper.  He ripp things up really well.  Including re-injuring his ankle that he had sprained pretty good the week before at a soccer game.  Even with a little limp he still played awesome.  Which was pretty evident on Sunday during the tourney.  I couldn't be prouder of these two.  I just can't wait till next year and the youngest can come with too.  Team Olsen will be in full effect.  Pump play was std issue SPE.  Everyone played awesome, everyone played with respect and honesty.  Other then the tourney I don't think we had a ref at our games.  I can't say enough good things about the type of play one experiences at SPE.  You really have to be there and play to get the full meaning.

  Saturday wrapped up and we headed out to get some Mexican food.  After a little trouble finding the spot, I ordered a margarita.  I wanted a big one and that's what I got.  We stayed the night in a much nicer hotel then on Thursday. Soft beds, a pool and most of all a hot tube.  Nothing like soaking off the paint in a bubbly hot tub.  So we checked in, swam for a bit then relaxed in the hot tube.  The boys decided to stay up and watch a movie.  Me the minute my head hit the pillow I was out.  Sunday we were up early, ate our fill downstairs and then out to the field.  The Tourney is on Sunday so we once again got everything sat up and waited on Gumby to show to start taking names for the Tourney.  Jake, Josh and I all got on separate teams.  Each team played seven games.  Points were given for eliminations, flag pull and winning.  It should be said no matter what your team you always have fun.  Thru the first three games the mag was shooting like crap.  Spiraling balls all over the place.  I went thru three barrels and cleaned it good and finally got it up and running in a decent manner.  In one of our last games I got "dead man" walked.  By the time I caught on to what he was doing it was too late.  I hadn't tucked a foot in like I should have and that was my down fall.  While I don't totally agree with it, it's SPE and that's just how things are.  I'm sure I would have been fine with it if I would have been the one doing it.  Jake ended up second to last, I got third and Josh's team won first place.  Jake and Josh proceeded to play until all our paint was gone.  We were debating on if we should drive back in one shot or stay the night somewhere.  While debating we got invited to Famous Dave's for BBQ with a small but elite group of guyz.  You know who you are.  We ate a bunch of BBQ and decided to hit the road and just keep driving.  My eldest took the first shift at the wheel.  I tried to sleep but was still wide awake with the weekend in my head.  I took over at a little after midnight and we pulled it home.  We all slept for a bit, except Jake he had been sleeping for 12 hours, so he was ok.  Unpacked, cleaned and tucked neatly away for the next paintball outing.  Which hopefully is soon.

Extream Hobbiest

I'm sure this has been thought up before.  I'm sure it's been stated many times in reviews and gear lists.  I just want to write this in my Blog as a reminder.  It's hard for me to stay the course even thou I know the end result will be better.  The idea as I see it, is for what ever hobby it is, what ever recreational activity, to make a durable, dependable, quality, set of tools for what ever the purpose.

An example for this is my paintball collection.  When I say collection I mean collection.  At one time I had three times as many markers as I did family members.  I have markers that I would drag to the field and not even use.  Worse I would try to use multiple markers.  Spending time setting them up, trouble shooting, getting them ready, to what...play one game and then put them back in there box.  So this year instead of concentrating on the marker I want to concentrate on the playing.  I'll bring two markers.  One main, one back up.  One hpa tank and one co2 tank.  No more "One main marker, a back up and a marker or two I'd like to try.  I'll bring two hpa tanks and three co2's so I can set up all the markers and change between them easily.".  Cause that's bull.  I never get to use them all, but I spend all this time trying to get to use them.  So this year I'm trying to force myself to thin down the paintball gluttony.  I've sold and traded several markers that were very dear to me.  Markers I'd imagined, drawn, faxed and had custom made.  However I've never or rarely used them.  The good memories don't reside in that marker.  They reside in me.  And that is the concept that is so hard to grasp sometimes.  I've thinned out the herd, given things away and made deals that I never would have if I hadn't been thinking this way.  Yes I have bought some things.  However MOST of what I've bought has been to make something better, more durable, or easier to use.  Yes there are times I get wrapped up in something I shouldn't.  Those time are getting less and less now.

So this mentality extends to other hobbies such as archery.  Why do I need three bows, when one will do?  Cycling : Why have four bikes when you really only need one?  Backpacking : Why have four backpacking stoves when you really only need two?(butane and liquid fuel..gotta have choices)  It's not easy.  Especially for me.  I'm a gear guy.  I love new gear.  The feel of a new mtn.bike saddle, the soft touch of a titanium cooking set, the beauty of nickle plated pgp.  However it doesn't make them better then the ones I all ready have.

To sum up.  Look at what you have.  Then truly see what you REALLY need.  Get rid of the rest.  Improve on what you kept if you need to.  In the end things will be more fun and the experience better by far.