The Buffalo Spiderweb

The life and times of a wannabe endurance mountain biker. That was this past weekend after 66 miles and 8,945 feet of accumulated climbing and the best part, 98% singletrack baby! I've been thinking about a spiderweb route of Buffalo Creek for a few months now. At 1st I was gonna attempt this on my own but at the last minute I put the challenge out on MTBR, and got a huge response on the forum to it.

Saturday morning came and I found AV Boy's truck already in the BC parking lot and AV, no where to be found. To top it off, my truck read 18 degrees F. Fugging cold mate! Steadyflow shows up just minutes before I'm ready to take off and we make our pleasantries before starting the ride.

5 hours into the ride and I'm sitting right at 42 miles...setting myself up for a good 8.5 mph average pace. I lost Steadyflow behind me miles back and I've made up 20 minutes on AV Boy learning that he had started at 5:50am while me and Steadflow had left the parking lot at 6:10am. I'm starting to crack though. My body is refusing any kind of solid food and all that it will allow me to eat is gummy bears and my Accelerade sports drink. My original plan was to ride out to Lost Creek Wilderness but I know I don't have it in me so I take the turn off to Redskin, willing AV Boy a good ride and hopefully the win. If you didn't read it on the Challenge placed on MTBR, this is a good ol fashioned time trial, winner takes the braggin rights.

Climbing Gashouse I'm suffering and I've accepted the fact I've lost the TT for today and with that I should of just continued down Sandy Wash to my truck. But sitting there on the trail at the entrance to the new Sandy Connector at the end of Charlie's cutoff, I look at the time. 2pm. 51 miles into the ride I start thinking about the Strawberry Jack descent and the more I do, the more I loath myself because it means I'm climbing Buck Gulch to get back to where I am now.

An hour and a half later and most of Buck Gulch hike a biked and I'm descending Sandy Wash at possibly the slowest I've ever descended it, my bonk complete, my motor skills thoroughly scoured. I've survived my ride, but it has not been the highlight of my career of being the wannabe endurance mountain biker.

This was done all in preparation for the Gunnison Growler. The great thing is I now know I can handle sixty some odd miles of singletrack with some serious elevation gain this early in the season. Colorado season's for riding tends to start a little later in the year due to weather, especially for those of us who ride only mountain bikes. The bad, I have no idea how the Growler's singletrack stacks up to Buffalo Creek. I later learned that AV Boy had made it to the Wilderness Boundary but bailed on FR 543 to get back giving him around 65 miles and 8500 ft of climbing and Steadyflow bailed and ended up with 50 miles.

Photo by : PBR, me on the Colorado Trail about 30 miles into the Buffalo Spiderweb

With the Growler only 4 weeks away, my next couple of weekend's are pretty shot for continuous long distance training. Next weekend is Mother's day, the next we'll be in San Fransisco visiting family which leaves the weekend just before the Growler for the one last big training weekend.