Where to go when the snow flies

Left Hand OHV, of course. I woke to 4" of snow in the yard, but within a few hours of sun, most of it had disappeared. Figuring that Hall and Heil would be much to muddy to tread on, I headed to the sandy and south facing Left Hand Canyon OHV area. I was glad I did.

Traction up 286 to five points got straight up muddy in a couple of spots.

From 5points up was pretty good, though. Mostly due to the rocky nature of the trail, there's not too much dirt to get muddy it turns out. Today I took 286 all the way to the top where the next kiosk is. I did a little loop in the 288 area then headed east a bit. There was definitely snow up top. Wet, slushy snow.
After taking in the view, I reviewed my plan. Having not come down 238 in years, I was itching to see what it was looking like these days.
Saw some sights along the way.

To my surprise, it was signed on top. 238 has been there and on maps for years but for some reason, the high entrance hasn't ever really been that evident. Thinking that perhaps it'd get a bit more traffic now, I pedaled onward and down to see what or if anything had changed.

As it turned out, not much had changed. The moisture was a factor right off the bat.

There was basically a river running down the trenched out trail.

The water was flowing hard and it had dislodged a lot of loose rocks inside it's trench. Wow - good stuff.

It turned out tobe a definitely worthwhile adventure today. I think we'll even do most of it for our Tuesday Nite Ride this week. How bout that? Meetup at the shop at 5:30pm or the lower LHC entrance at 6ish.

Expect to get wet :)

Lyons Bike Park Love

I'm generally not a big sessioner. I like to cover ground and get into the middle of nowhere. Despite all of that, I've been having a good time at the Lyons Bike Park lately. It's great to spend a 1/2 hour at the park here and there honing the skillz. Some days I'll make feeble attempts at dirt jumping or I'll spend some time working the pump track.

Today I took the singlespeed to the rock slabs to work on something a little more technical. Rocks. Good stuff. Good stuff with lots of lines.

The rock line down the east side has baby, mama, and papa bear lines. I'm still working on some of the big daddys.
The rocky obstacle in the south of the park is pretty round and mound shaped so you can hit it from any angle. Doing so provides lots of options.
The west side of the pumptrack has a nice climb with some good ledges to roll or drop in varying sizes.

There's even a few lines you can get really creative with.
Big shout to Dave Cosgrove, Glenn Bell, Lee McCormack and countless volunteers for their time and drive in this project. If you want to stay in tune with what's going on at the bike park, check in at the parks Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/lyonsbikepark

Tnr lhc ohv

Tuesday Nite Ride will be at Left Hand Canyon OHV area.  Meet up at Redstone at 5:30 or shoot to be at Left Hand around 6.  I'm getting tired of Heil and Hall.  Can't wait to get my forest fix!

Maps!

We just got a mongo order from Lat 40 maps out of Nederland.  It's finally riding season.  Where do you want to go?

Feeling tired and fatigued, I thought that a singlespeed ride at Hall Ranch would be just the ticket. I was fortunate enough to hook up with Chefrog for a little AM ride time.

The critters were out in force on the Nelson Loop.
The ONLY real moisture at Hall. It can rain now. It's dry and dusty enough that rain ought to make it perfect.
Tuesday ride is 5:30pm at the shop, weather providing. I will not be your ride leader tonight so where you go is up to you. So long as you end up at OB. I'll be there :)

Golden Bike Park news

I just got this email from the Golden Bike Park gang. They've got some good momentum on a cool project down there, check it out :)

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Golden Bike Park Supporters,

We have been very busy the past few weeks!

If you don't already know, the Golden Bike Park was approved by the Golden City Council. We quickly moved to into the permitting phase and dialed in the logistics. Terry Breheny stepped in and worked hard to get all the permits approved prior to project start. The crew mobilized quickly to start the pre-trail construction, starting the bio-swale, stormwater work, and removing scrub from the area's of interest. We are well on our way to getting this project started.

IMBA, in conjunction with COMBA is bringing in a world class trail designer for our longer 'Flow Down Hill' Trail. He will start work on the bi-directional and downhill flow trail later this week. The Golden Bike Park Group got the skills development area cleared of rubbish and put in a skeletal pump/jump/flow track. We'll be working final design and initiating work on this area within the days to come. We are ensuring that the skills area is for everyone from kids on Stryders, Adults on XC bikes and kids on dirt jumpers. This will be an area where the entire family can work on their biking skills!

You can glance at the progress from the Fairmount Trail, accessed from Tony Grampsass or connected by North Table Mountain Trails. Please keep off site until we are complete with the construction and the park is officially open.

Many of you have asked to be volunteers in the future design and maintenance of the park. We still have these lists and will be contacting you within months to help with final form and fit of the trails.

rode today

Saw a few things on todays ride.

local residents
Spring
That the grass is always greener
Ribbons
of singletrack
Lyons, CO

Pictures and Words for Monday

So, what's been going on? It's like someone turned on a switch at the bike shop. The sun, dry trails, and warm temps definitely indicated that the season is on like Donkey Kong. Despite that and being hammered at the shop, it has been a great week for riding and well, a great week in general.

Last Tuesday we did a hybrid of Hall and Heil, riding up Picture Rock to the picnic table, then up and back down the Rock Garden at Hall. Here's a good one of bstiff focusing thru one of the more difficult rock puzzles.

To top all of that off, a good friend going all the way back to Kindergarten was out to visit. It had been many years and he recently got into mountain biking. Funny that, Todd was one of my first real bike riding buds. We used to see how many street squares we could wheelie. He always killed me on that one. What a small world, eh? Good seeing you buddy, and thanks for coming out.

The rest of the week was pretty much a whirlwind. Later in the week, Cody brought in his mack daddy Transition TR450 in for some lovin'. I'm glad he brought it in because I forgot to take pics the first time! Check it out. It's beautiful.


Heck, being a holiday and all, I even got out for a bike ride today. I rode up Antelope, looped the top, down the rock garden at Hall (during which, I had the Dukes of Hazzard theme playing the whole way down in my head as I was straightnin' the curves and flattnin' the hills), then up to the picnic table

and down on Picture Rock. Damn it felt good to cover all the local riding and not hop in the car. I really missed the Nelson Loop. I love that trail. There was definitely mud on it, but if you play like good boys and girls and ride thru the mud, not around, we'll all be fine and the universe will stay in order. Peeps were pretty good out there, too. Shout out to Singletrack Builders (a team from Boulder - I think that's what they were called). I followed them up from Antelope to the Loop. They did a great job dealing with traffic on the trail and were generally good ambassadors for mountain biking. Thanks guys!

Did I mention the mud? This is as dirty as I got during that ride.

LOTS of splatter, but not too much mud at all. Good stuff. On like Donkey Kong.

Tuesday Nite Ride 4/6

The local Lyons trails are in good shape with a little mud.  With all of the local stuff ready to rock, we should pedal from the shop. 5:30 not so sharp!  How about we bust out the Wheel of Rides?