found: new trail

I had a hankering suspicion that I decided to check out today. There's been a singletrack out there for a while that is "user created" that heads down a ridge and just dead ends on a cliff. Our BFR4 ride the other day got me thinking about that very trail and that very cliff. It seemed to me that a short hike down the cliff would put a person back onto another trail in Left Hand. I needed to see about that hike down the cliff because it could end up making for a pretty good loop.

Destination LHCOHV.

The pavement was perfectly wet when I arrived at the mouth of the OHV park.

I started out on the main road and settled into an easy gear for some climbing. Then some more climbing, then even some more climbing on steep, steep jeep road before I got to my destination. Not really a destination, per se, just the end of the climb. I descended on jeep road for a bit before coming to my junction. The BRD has had this particular junction marked as no moto for the last few years. The trail from there is chewed up, loose, rocky, and more or less straight down. I took it, hoping that I'd end up at my cliff and I could hike down. Well, somebody beat me to it is all I can say. The trail no longer ends on the cliff. It juts to the left and continues all the way down. Pretty sweet. Well, mostly sweet. It's not a very well made trail and definitely not sustainable. Oh well. I got to the bottom and found this.

Bootleg trail builders are not bootleg buck rail fence builders. hmmm. The singletrack dumped out on the old wagon road so I followed that back to the car.

I called the Boulder Ranger District when I returned. Turns out they've been working on this trail for a bit now. USFS mentioned that most of the intense work has happened in the last week. The plan is to have it legal and open to motorized 2 wheel traffic in about a week. As it is now, it's legal for all non motorized pursuits. Get it while it's good, I say. As soon as they turn motos loose on it, it will quickly turn into a mess. Some of the switchbacks were uber tight on a bicycle. I wonder what they're going to look like when the average LHC throttle twister gets loose on it. I'm not being anti moto, mind you, just saying that you've got to build the trail for the user, that's all. Don't expect to be climbing it on a bike, either. This one's gravity fed.