Reservoir Ridge Natural Area - aka Michaud Lane Trail

First Trail Junction and view Northeast

This place is sweet. It is exactly 9 minutes by car from my doorstep to the trailhead. I would guess it is about 20 minutes or so by bike. I ride by the turn all the time on my bike rides, but as I do not have a mountain bike I just keep on spinnin' by. I have been trail running over there lately, which is fantastic! Here are some pictures from a this past Sunday on a sunset hike with Christi and Winston. The first is the view from the first trail junction just at the top of the first little set of switchbacks. You can see northern Fort Collins and the south end of Wellington.

Deer on the Ridge

A little further south on the trail we came across six deer. Here you can see two silhouetted on the ridge line below this lone pine. It really is a very neat place 10 minutes from our house.


What would be a sunset hike without some pictures of the sunset. The sky just keep getting better and better!

Tweed Run Fort Collins

I dare say the time is upon us. A call to my fellow gentleman and ladies, scallywags and misfits, it is time to organize, improvise, instigate and pontificate upon the merits and grand delusions of tweedom. What is this jibber jabber rubbish you ask. In the spirit of the original, or at least as original as I could find with a quick spin on the great wizard of Google, I announce tentatively concrete plans for the Fort Collins Tweed Run. (***I am relatively new to this blogging thing and I do not know all of the etiquette rules to using photos from other sites, so if I am breaking them I am sorry. I used the photo from http://bikehugger.com/. I hope that suffices).

But wait dear sir, what is a tweed run? Look here, or maybe here, and just to be safe lets include a this one. Sounds smashing indeed, so when can I begin to air my tweeds to eliminate that mothball smell. Well, I say we shoot for spring 2011. Enticing details, but not too detailed, details to follow. The gist is this. Meet in Old Town, drink some tea, coffee, scotch, or whiskey (American or Scottish, depending on if you are a purist and of which puritan persuasion you may be), water, or beer and begin a leisurely ride towards Laporte, then Bellevue. Maybe a venture into the brand new, so new they do not even have a website (or maybe they just do not want a website, but here there are on the web none the less) Bellevue Bean Coffee shop for some more coffee, tea or other libation before heading in a decidedly circuitous route to our point of origin, at which point we will once again have liquid libations of one's personal choosing. May I humbly recommend something from this fine establishment. Sweet Succotash!! Those folks can produce a mighty fine pint indeed.

Cheerio my good lads and lasses.

Coffee Shop Conversations....

It always amazes me what people will say in a public place on a cell phone. Less than 3 feet away right now a woman is talking about how she is bipolar, accused of running away with a homeless man, and sitting with a man who is obviously drunk, or at least close to it. She says her family is trying to kidnap her and she is on disability. She was seeking legal advice on how her court appearance is going to go. It is not like I am trying to hear all of this, but these people really do not care who hears this stuff.

I love coffee shops. They keep life interesting.

Tweed Rides

I have been kicking around the notion of a organizing a tweed ride for a number of years now. I have to say, I think the time may be upon us, or at least upon us soon. Our weather is a bit unpredictable this time of year, but I think springtime may be the right time. If you live in the Fort Collins area and would be interested in a cruising along on a tweed'er shoot me an email. We could also make one happen much sooner than spring if the weather looks right. We will probably start and end at a local brewery, who knows, maybe Equinox....

What would the tinkerer do?

I just can't get this Abbey and Trippel label issue out of my head. Not to beat a dead horse, but New Belgium is my favorite brewery, and Abbey and Trippel are a big reason for my affectionate affliction. I think I am going to have to come off of the sidelines on this one and start a grass roots campaign to bring back the labels. I woke up this morning thinking about this.

Now some of you are going to say this guy is a whack job. Who cares about the labels, its the beer that matters. I agree, it is the beer, but for me the beer represents so much more. Whether consciously or not, the image of the maker of a product goes into our purchasing decisions, and subsequently, the experience we have related to the particular product. This is a very well researched topic and we could spend hours discussing corporate image, goodwill, brand awareness, etc. The bottom line in all of this is that the change in labels represents a small change in my perception of New Belgium. I liked the original artwork. I started loving Abbey and Trippel with the monks and the sirens. The bottles represented a voyage to a land I had never reached. They were the embodiment of the trip I wanted to take. I was proud of the little brewery that used a neighbors art to grace their lovely brew.

This brings me to my campaign. You heard it here first. I love NBB. The new slogan for the campaign: "What would the tinkerer do?"

Who is the tinkerer? He is the guy in this video from NBB called "Anthem". (You have to click the "anthem" link because I am not tech savvy enough to embed the video). Which beer label would he go for? Check it out.

Why New Belgium...why?

I begin this post with the following disclaimer: I love New Belgium Brewing. I strongly support their culture, all they do for their patrons, and the amazing vibe they have going. I stand for Tour de Fat, Wind Energy, Free Tastings, recycling, living green, riding bikes, and apple pie (I just like apple pie, it has nothing to do with New Belgium). Further, one of my three dream jobs involves working for NBB and I have applied for numerous jobs there with no luck yet. I hope this post does not hurt my chances, but I only write it out of pure affection. This is going to be one of those fatherly, Socratic posts, where I ask the why question. This must be like having a teenager where you are full of love, but you feel like they are going down the wrong road.

What is the source of my angst you ask (well maybe you don't ask, but you are reading this of your own free will)? The new concept and labels associated with the Explore Series. I do not know where to begin. Abbey and Trippel are two of my favorite beers. My love affair with these two goes all the way back to moving to Fort Collins in 2000. I can still remember my first taste of these divine nectars in the old tasting room at NBB (pre-expansion). They opened my naive eyes to what this combination of yeast, water, hops, and barley could become. It was like the big bang for beer. Lets face it, whatever the purists say, the packaging (see some original Abbey art here) is part of the experience. The labeling on these beers was fantastic. Artistry worthy of wall art. The monks, the sirens, true perfection. And now to the issue, and how to state it mildly. I feel like these beers have now been violated, deflowered, spoiled, tainted. Their beauty and innocence has been snatched away. Instead, the faithful are left with "The Gap" in a bottle. The new labels look like something one would see at the mall (Gap, Eddie Bauer, Gap Kids). The romance is gone. You can say it is the same beer, but it is most definitely not the same beer. The experience has changed. This goes against the individualistic ideal (or my perception of that) of New Belgium. The Tour de Fat is one, big festival of individualism. These labels are painfully not individualistic. I do not criticize the design, and am sure from a graphic design standpoint, they are spot on, but they are not hand painted by a local artist like the labels used to be. They have no panache, no beauty, no heart. I could continue, but it only makes me sad.

Further, lets talk about this "Explore" series label that has been applied to Abbey and Trippel. My personal understanding of NBB history is that Abbey and Fat Tire were the two original beers brewed by Jeff L., a co-founder and original Brewmaster of NBB. Abbey has won more beer medals for NBB than any other beer in the lineup. Sure, it accounts for a very small percentage of sales, but C'mon. Some beers are brewed because they define a company, are part of the soul. Abbey was there from the inception, conception, of NBB. Placing it in the "Explore" series makes no sense. Sure, on paper in that marketing group meeting it made sense. Maybe from a financial accounting standpoint, makes sense, maybe, but does this really make sense in the real world? You can't place the Grand Dame with the new girls.

Let me close by reiterating my love for NBB, one of my most respected companies. I only ask these questions out of love. My hope will be that someone at NBB may read this (although only one person has every commented on my blog, and that was a friend, so the odds are slim) and realize how brilliant these comments are. They will invite me down to the brewery, hold a press conference announcing they are bringing back the Abbey and Trippel labels, and give me a lifetime supply of Abbey and Trippel. Hell, while I am dreaming, maybe they will present me with a cruiser bike and the keys to the brewery, but maybe pigs will fly out of my ass. I would be happy with the Abbey and Trippel labels back, with the Gap labels burned in a flaming bonfire (I would settle for recycling as it is more environmentally responsible, but I do like a good fire).

Trip V

My friend Andy is a brewer at New Belgium Brewing here in Fort Collins. The brewery has this little competition where anyone working at the brewery who is interested can submit a concept for a dream beer they would like to brew. Well, Andy is a very cool guy and he came up with a very cool concept for an extremely tasty beer. To get your beer selected I believe you must provide a narrative and a list of ingredients that would be used to make your concoction. This is fun, but this is also serious business. There are some serious creative types at NBB and they take making great beer pretty seriously. I do not know all of the selection criteria but I do know that you have to impress the Brewmaster of Brewmasters to get selected. All this means, you can't be a slouch and your beer better be able to ante up.

This beer is also pretty special because it is brewed at Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle, which isn't that special if you live in Seattle, but what it means for us in Fort Collins is that we do not get any shipped here. Luckily, Andy was provided with 4 22oz bottles for his preview and I got a tasting from one of those bottles. Boy Howdy, was it good! In the nose one picks up hints of chocolate and cherry, with a very pleasing golden brown color in the glass. The flavor starts of a bit subtle then finishes with a nice vanilla flavor once swallowed. Author's note: I don't know all of the technical beer terms for tasting, but I taste alot of beers. Bottom line, Andy brewed up a really great beer even if I can't describe it properly.

If you can beg, borrow or pay appropriately for some of this stuff, do it! You will be happy.

Bikes and Birdhouses

My dad was big into birds and birdwatching. It seems he was always standing at the kitchen window watching the birds at the feeders just at the edge of the woods. I enjoyed seeing them too, but I appreciate the concept more now that I am older.

We recently hung a bird feeder just outside our kitchen window. For the first 5 days, not a single bird, I mean not one. In fact, the running joke had become, "Hey look honey, no birds at the feeder." Then one morning I was having my coffee and I saw a low flying bird by the back window. I thought could she be going to my feeder. Sure enough I glanced out and there she was...our very first customer. And just like that the flood gates opened. After the first bird, a black-capped chickadee we had another 5 to 10 birds in 20 minutes. It was pretty amazing.

I think that is what makes birdwatching so much fun, the complete lack of control. You hang up a feeder and whoever shows up, shows up. Sure, you can buy seed blends that favor certain species, but ultimately, the birds decide. We have no control. It's not like an aquarium where you get to choose the fish you want. No fish "just shows up" in an aquarium. Birds at the feeder are a whole different game. There are the typical birds one expects to see, the nuthatches, chickadees, wrens and finches, oh and the occassional flicker, but there is always the unexpected. Best part...you have no control. Now that I think about, a bird feeder is a lot like life. You fill it up with education, friends, family, experiences and hang it out there and that is about where your control ends. After that, who knows....

Oh, I did build a birdhouse yesterday and I didn't get to bikes, but I have been riding.