What a ride! We met up at Redstone HQ at 7:30pm. It was a small but capable crew - myself, Migz, and JL. Being 3 diehard and probably foolish mountain bikers, we transported ourselves 10 miles south to the OHV playground of Left Hand Canyon. It turned out to be a great choice.
We started at the main entrance to Carnage Canyon and climbed up the easy way to 5 Points. From there, we continued climbing on the main road. Our goal was to hit the top, the boundary of the Overland Fire closure. A massive acreage up there is closed for another year or two to assist in revegation, but I digress... From the 5 Points intersection, the road really changes character. The further we climbed, the steeper and rockier it got. I also should mention that it was 100% dry up to this point. We didn't run into mud, but we did see a substantial amount of ice. There were a couple of sections where we were nearly on our hands and knees trying to pick our way up thru the ice. Once we got thru iceville, it wasn't too far until we were at the top.
We stopped for a bit to enjoy the view (which, by the way, was fantastic, especially at night) and we headed back down the jeep road to the East. I hadn't been up there in years, but I remembered it being pretty darn steep. It was. We picked our way down the jeep road. It got progressively steeper and more technical the closer we go to our junction. We made it to a little singletrack that was our ticket back to the car. Fantastic, it was. I'm glad we rode it at night, because I probably would've thought twice on a couple sections had I been able to see farther than 40 feet down the trail. We made it back to Carnage Canyon, then back to the car. Big smiles all the way around.
Total stats were something like this;
Gone from the car 2 hours
Distance 5.7 miles
Ride Time 1.25 hours
Total Elevation Gain - app 1700 feet.
It was steep and hard but the fun-o-meter was pegged! I need to get back to LHC to explore further. It definitely warrants the expedition.
3 comments:
Very cool! I wouldn't have thought about heading there at night. Now I am!
I might even need to head that way this weekend for some play.
Yep. This weekend will be top notch. It's totally dry, too. We rode up 286 all the way to the kiosk at the top. Then down the ridge on the right (looking at the map) to the litte singletrack that busts off to the left (right on the map). Man, that was steep and technical. Great ride.
After 5 points it really changes doesn't it?
286d, according to the map i have, is the one that heads east from the upper Kiosk. I have to assume that it still has the 4wheeler sized gully going straight down it? I was a little scared in the daylight!
Once daylight savings time comes around I'd love to head up there exploring again.
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