i ride every morning at 6:00 a.m. i have three rides i like to do.

ride number 1: The Fort Collins Foothills Trail (AKA the Stomping Grounds). for when i'm feeling tough. this is mostly a technical skill kind of ride and will tire arms and shoulders as much as legs, very rocky. from the CSU stadium, go to the dirt road behind the stadium, follow it around until a singletrack trail breaks off to the left. the trail re-crosses the road and keeps going up. the trail forks, follow the left fork. from there it's mostly flat, LOTS of rocks, you have to cross a road at pineridge lake (careful for traffic). follow the second road you come to up up up to horsetooth reservoir, turn right at the dam. up up up. and then DOWN DOWN DOWN but keep in low gear because when you pass pineridge lake again you are going to cut back up to the trail and the entrance is kind of tricky from the downhill side. take the dirt road back to the stadium.

ride number 2: for when i'm feeling wimpy wimpy wimpy. go to dirt road behind stadium, but stay on it. follow it north to the CSU engineering research center. then it ends and a foot trail leads up the dam. for a little extra exercise, run up and down this trail. on the way back the road forks, take the fork up, instead of the way you came in and follow it until it ends. there is another horse/foot trail, you can hike up this, too, it's more scenic than the dam trail. follow the dirt road back to the stadium.

ride number 3: for when i'm looking for scenery and endurance riding. follow overland trail north, it s-curves twice and then you'll see a sign pointing towards lory state park. turn left. go up two hills and back down again. turn left at the stop sign. when the sign says to turn right to lory, go STRAIGHT. you'll climb up the hill to the top of the dam where the road is closed, continue on up the closed part. STEEP. the picture above is right *here*. follow the dirt road until it turns back into pavement, follow it down, it's the same road you came down in ride #1. NOTE: they are currently working on the dam road, be cautious around construction equipment. here is a little story about the first time i did this ride, if you're really bored.

this is a picture of me and john at slickrock mountain bike trail in moab, utah. it was the first time i'd ever been mountain biking and i fell three times in the first 50 meters (note the bloody knee). even still, i decided i liked it and now it's my second favorite thing to do ...