The Sweet Stuff

It's been a long time coming, but I finally went out for a nice long mountain bike ride. Somewhere around 38 miles, with God only knows how much climbing, a max elevation around 7000ft, and 6.5 hours from start to finish. I found some sweet single track, but unfortunately, most of the day I was riding all the wrong trails in all the wrong directions.

My first goal of the day was to beat the sunrise up the first climb, but at 5:20 this morning I was having second thoughts and layed in bed till 5:40. With sunrise at 6:15, I knew it would be close, but I decided to try anyways. Armed with a sandwich, some snacks, and a thermos of coffee I set out at 6. I might've had a chance with a geared bike, but with my recently regeared single speed, the roads to the trails took forever. Even though I didn't quite make it, I still had nice view to go with my coffee.

After that, I headed South around the reservoir to Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. Once there, I rode up, up, and up some more. I rode mostly uphill for 4.5 hours topping out at around 7000ft, just below Horsetooth Rock. Actually I walked quite a bit of that. The trails were mostly rideable but included lots of steep, loose, rocky, "baby head" sections (baby head sized rocks). The trails don't look very remote on paper or from across the reservoir, but once I was there, it felt like the middle of nowhere. The highest trail was a rugged black diamond route where I busted my ass twice - both times falling to the wrong side and sliding downhill. I decided to be more cautious after that. 

At 10:30 I stopped for lunch (or brunch?) at the top of the trail. Finally I got to go downhill! Some of it was fast and smooth; other parts were a test of my technical skills. Thankfully, the club rides will be held there starting in May, and I can learn the fun routes. I got home around 12:30, had a post ride beer, and took a 2 hour nap.