It Ain't Mountain Biking Without a Little Hike A Biking

From climbing snow cornices

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to hiking up the edge of mountains with 2,000 ft drop offs within inches of your feet

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a hike a bike makes your suffer, makes you tougher and brings you to riding great wonders

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where fat tires are allowed but few ever go

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and at the end of the day,you can sit back relax, and reflect on the great bit of riding you've just done

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Photos by PBR

Getting High on the Divide

After last year's West Empire Death March, I swore to never do the Bard Creek Trail by bike again and I have stuck to that line of thinking. There are still great treasures west of Empire though and Lubes, PBR and myself adventured to seek them out. Lubes mentioned doing Jones Pass last weekend when I was camping at Twin Lakes with my girls and when I later learned he hadn't, I came up with a route that included Jones Pass and Herman Gulch ending with Silverdale back into Georgetown. Lubes was game and when we talked PBR into it, the good times were rollin.


It began with a mean and nasty climb regularly maintaining a 15% grade and sometimes jumping up to 25%. Even with a granny while the other two suffered singlespeeds, I walked a little

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Wildflowers and the views kept our eyes on the prize

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least the cornice was smaller then last years

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and that cornice still holds strong

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The Continental Divide Trail appears and is as grand as I remember

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Do you see Lubes and PBR on the Ridge?

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and there was hike a biking, lots of it

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But when we reached 13,215 ft, our highest point for the day, it was all worth it
(notice the Goat now has a backup ride, an Origin 8 Scout 29)

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From there it was a 3,000 or so feet descent

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a short bike and hike up and we arrive at an ancient glacier lake

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and some more magnificent scenery

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then it was in and out of the woods to below 10,000 ft

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Connections are a must, PBR found a way to enjoy this one

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Legs were starting to get heavy, can we catch a ride Thomas?

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Guess not, time for a nap before that last bit of great singletrack

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and what fun it was

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Lubes with the killer guns!

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Spikefest 10'

Everything you wanted to know about Spikefest 2010 in a nice rounded up little photo summary...me: still on the El Mariachi 34 x 22 singlespeed and riding strong all day, about 57 miles, a variant route from Kenosha Pass to Breckenridge where thunderstorms beer and brew awaited, sun broke free and a mad dash was made to Como to get the cars after a family emergency drew me off the original course. All is well.


My 1st Moose were seen on the drive to Kenosha

Moose near Kenosha Pass

On the way to Georgia Pass

Riding toward Georgia Pass

Mateo on the CT Bridge

Mateo on the bridge

PBR coming up fast

PBR railing the CT

Gummy Bears enjoy views too

Gummy Bears enjoy views too

CanyonRat, the great man who loaned me the El Mariachi to keep me sane, who has also never ridden any of Kenosha Pass, couldn't keep the smiles off his face

Jerry above treeline

Troy railing the CT with Mt Guyot in the background

Troy Railing

PBR and Mt Guyot

PBR coming down the CT

The Master of Ceremonies, Spike

Spike with the Breckenridge Mountains

Spike hiking the Flume Marsh

Spike hiking through the Marsh

The Great Flume Wall...

bikes on the flume wall

CanyonRat on the talus slope

Jerry on the Talus slope

Mateo, Spike, and CanyonRat racing the approaching Storm

Mateo, Spike and Jerry on the American Flume

PBR crossing the Little French Gulch

PBR on Little French Gulch

Lubes at Sally Barber Mine

Lubes riding by Sally Barber Mine

Lubes on the Breckenstunts

Lubes on the wooden stunts

PBR on the Breckenstunts

PBR on the wooden stunts

A Rotary Snow Plow in Breckenridge, These things are cool to see in action!

Rotary Snow Plow

Welcome to Colorado's Jungle

where the forest is wet and lush, seeing a lion(mountain, that is), bear or wild Turkey is a common occurrence. This is Indian Creek. An area of unique biodiversity for Colorado within Pike National Forest. The forest is very much alive at any given time. Butterflies and hummingbirds buzz within inches of your face, singing birds of all kinds chirp a fun and blissful tune and after a hard nights shower, like last night, a rare humidity for Colorado, reminiscent of the forest of the east coast mountains.

The Falcon is indeterminately disabled, a handicap that I will spare to share but through the kindness of good hearted friends I have another bike to ride, A Salsa El Mariachi, set up as a 34x22 singlespeed. Perfect for today's 5500 ft of climbing in 30 some odd miles.

Getting to the trailhead at 5:30am is hard for any man but I do it so I can spend the evenings with my family and the only other soul I could get to join me was a man with young kids himself, Guacamole.

Our ride begins on CR5 near Roxborough State Park, a gem of beautiful landscape and Red Rock Formations

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a short hike a bike on a hiking only trail leads us to the Nelson Open Space where there is a chance to ride up close to a piece of the Red Rock Formation

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a bit of mellow meadow riding before the climbing begins

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and Roxborough dissapears far beneath us as we climb Ringtail into Pike National Forest

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where we are immediately enveloped in a lush, dark, and humid forest

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that stretches on

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and on for miles

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Near the bottom of Stephen's Gulch, Gaucamole's chain bent in a manner that required 2 quick links and a bit of new chain from my pack to fix. It was a gimp fix but enough for him to limp out to the Waterton Canyon trailhead where we had luckily left his truck earlier in the morning.

I continued on, connecting to Section 1 of the Colorado Trail and though the South Platte beckoned I turned off at Lenny's Rest and reconnected to the Indian Creek Trail and eventually back to Ringtail where a 6 mile descent awaited.

The El Mariachi at the Ringtail shack

Salsa El Mariachi and the Ringtail Shack

A quick bombing descent and I was back in the Front Range

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Spikefest this weekend.
..just to decide if I want to do the 55 miler and hang out with the boys or go for the pain of 85 miles.