There are those magical moments in rain where everything seems etheral
You've choosen the right trail to make it all come together
and the smiles it brought are the priceless memories during tomorrow's day of work
Left Hand OHV and saying goodbye to the Alfine
Yesterday I made a mad dash to just north of Boulder to hook up with the Redstone Crew to ride the Left Hand OHV area. I didn't take into account for Boulder traffic or the tiny road sign I missed so I blew the meeting by 30 minutes and found a parking lot full of empty cars. It was already 6:30pm and I had no clue where I was so I just took off up the steep gravel road hoping to catch them to no avail. I got to a section I later learned was called the 5 points and weighed my options. A steepish gravel road to the right beckoned and it soon became this...
MMM....so many fond memories...seriously..this is classic east coast style and I was loving every minute of it until I found out I had brought my light battery but not the light itself. Doh!
It was 7:20pm now and I knew it'd be getting dark soon so I scouted out another steep dirt road and found trail # 841. It appeared to be heading the direction I wanted to go so I jumped on it and railed the tight, sketchy singletrack back to the trailhead.
Next time Redstone!
On to the Alfine. With this year's plans of epic rides and epic races I decided I needed a granny gear again for those moments when I'm feeling the Rocky Mountain High at 13,000 + feet. So the Falcon has gone to a 2x9 as most of you already know and the Alfine is being sold to fund the squishy fork I now have on the front.
$300 gets you a Shimano Alfine newly laced within the last 2 months to a 29er/700c DT Swiss TK7.1D including a Shimano XT Centerlock Rotor, non turn washers for horizontal or vertical drops, Alfine Trigger Shifter and the cassette joint. Everything you need to go internal geared.
Give me a shout at goatshell at hotmail dot com if your interested.
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.
Sandy Wash, The Virtual Ride
One of the local Front Range riders just posted a video of the Sandy Wash trail in Buffalo Creek. I couldn't help myself, i stole it for my personal virtual riding experience for those moments when I'm stuck behind the computer screen. Sit back, crack open the highest rated APV beer you got, mute the sound, crank up Pearl Jam's "Animal" and enjoy the ride.
Chapter 3, The Lunch Loops
Last night as I was finishing a ride in near hypothermia after being sleeted, snowed and rained upon I was thinking how I could live in the desert and be happy. Probably not entirely true as I need trees and the alpine to be truly happy riding my bike but the west or Colorado specifically has taught me to enjoy all environments that has singletrack since that which is my most beloved form, the Alpine, is only open 4 to 5 months a year.
The final bit of our adventure last weekend ends at Tabeguache trail system in Grand Junction otherwise known as the, "Lunch Loops". Bad Andy's cousin Ashley owns, The Bike Shop in Grand Junction and we met him early Sunday Morning for a ride and a tour of the Lunch Loops. I had been here once before but local knowledge is an awesome asset and I relied on him for todays tour.
We set up a Shuttle to the top of the ribbon. A Slickrock slab some 2,000 ft above the parking lot for the Lunch loops and made a speedy descent from there to the Gunny loop.
The Blasphemy of the Misfit...Gears
Descending the top of the Ribbon
Mike the Giant
Ken Woo
The Mad Scientist with Bad Andy trailing in a wash
Riding beneath the cliffs
Ashley of the Bike Shop on his carbon Cannondale 69er with a leftie
At the bottom Ashley helped with the shuttle by taking Bad Andy back get the Mad Scientist truck and Sean I decided we needed a bit more. Specifically I couldn't pass on Holy Cross which is a fun section of trail within the lunch loops that has everything from rocky ledges, big rocks in the trail, small slot canyons and a lot of speed. The guys offered to get AV Boy's truck for him and bring it down so we could keep riding so we took the offer and went out for our second loop.
Looking north from the climb up Pet-E-Kes
AV Boy on a flat section of Eagle's Wing
This is the kind of riding where I excel and where I made it through Holy Cross with one dab to my name and AV Boy came out with bloody stumps for legs and some choice words for one of the funnest trails in the Lunch Loops system.
Chapter 2, Rabbit Valley and the Rims
Saturdays ride was a route originally designed by me to be a sufferfest of all day proportions. Included were to be the Zion Curtain, West Water Mesa, The Arch Loop and the Rims. Only 45 miles and close to 6,000 ft in climbing but what you must learn about the desert is it'll whip the uninitiated, break you and leave you to turn to dust and then forget about you.
Bad Andy sitting of the edge of the cliff's edge, just 50 yards from our tents
I saw Bad Andy's breaking point the weekend before and I knew Mike and Ken hadn't been riding much during the winter months either and as much as I wanted to complete the loop, I didn't have the heart to drag these poor souls into the middle of the desert just to leave their dried out corpses to be another set of relics in the sun.
So I designed the Rims loop. A figure 8 of 20 some odd miles starting and ending in our Campsite of Knowles Canyon overlook.
Trail #2
Herding cows by bike
The Mad Scientist on the Western Rim
Ken Woo
AV Boy
The Mad Scientist and Ken Woo on the Kokopelli Trail above the Western Rim
Mike the Giant on the Eastern Rim
Looking east from the Eastern Rim
Bad Andy kicking up Dust plumes on Brian's Trail
Me and the Mad Scientist sitting on the edge of a sandstone cliff
I Interrupt my Regularly Scheduled Fruita Program
To tell you that the Buffalo Triangle still holds. Buffalo Creek, Beloved buff singletrack of the semi mountainous nature is the place we go when nothing else can be ridden or even if everything else can be ridden then we go because, its just to damn fun to pass up. I Met AV Boy, PBR, and Spike for some chilly action on the buff in tacky Buffalo, Thats "Buff" to you good sir, Creek.
Buffalo Creek was in unusual form as all the granite ball bearings were sticking together in a synonymous form from all the rain we're having. It was 51 degrees and shivering when we arrived, the humidity was high and at 7800 feet we got snowed upon and as we lost 2000 ft it turned to rain. PBR's plan of the epic failed but, we got to ride a secret stash of trail that may be open in something like 2015, and no it wasn't the new black diamond trail being built. Super fun all the same and it had my imagination running wild at all the thoughts and possibilities of new loops. Spike's telling of these secrets can conjure adventures in my mind as grand as that of the Never Ending Story; Rock Eating Giants, Dragons that look like cute little puppy dogs, and an image of the thing that was but never should have been.
If you think your eyes were fooling you, they were not. AV Boy is like James Bond and wears his Tux even to a singletrack party. Why, cause thats how my crew rolls!
Notice the KB Cyclewerks Leg warmers logo artfully and subtly placed on AV Boy's leg. Of course you did, now go buy yourself some and check out their awesome deals on everything else from shorts to jerseys and more. Oh by the way, this blatant advertisement is directly correlated with the fact that KB Cyclewerks is now an official sponsor of the Goat.
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