Another long one in the books. 7.5 hours today

The crew and I headed up to Peaceful Valley today for a ride I've been calling the "Peaceful Tour of the Dick." I've been looking at this particular route for quite some time. The riding between Brainard Lake Rd and Camp Dick/Peaceful Valley is some of my favorite riding anywhere and I've been trying to figure out a route that enabled us to ride it all. We about got it, too. With the exception of Waldrop Trail and Middle St Vrain Rd, we rode everything there.

We got some Dick, fo sho. It rained like crazy all day long on Sat and the forecast for Sunday looked about the same. Sun was starting to poke thru the clouds whilst were loaded up vehicles at the bike shop, though, so spirits were in good shape. We got pedalling right around 10:15 this am. Leaving from the Peaceful Valley CG heading south on Sourdough always guarantees a stiff climb out of the gate. No warm up at all. Today did not dissapoint. We made it up the climb and continued south on Sourdough all the way to Brainard Lake Rd. The climb out of the South St Vrain Drainage up to Brainard Rd is long and tough.

From Brainard Rd, we rode up the non technical but ever disheartening Left Hand Road up to Left Hand Reservoir. Beauty, Clark. Not only is LH Res a beautiful sight, but it also allowed us to pop out of the trees for a view. Always good to get a fix on what the weather is doing. It had been raining on and off for a few hours at this point, but no torrential downpours. Thunder was in the distance and the rain was light. No rainjacket yet and we could still see the divide. That's a good sign.


We retraced our steps down the road just a bit and hooked into the Little Raven freeride trail. Little Raven was constructed many, many moons ago by the Colorado Mountain Club (CMC) as a ski trail. Great in the winter, but it was barely traversible in the summers until BMA stepped in. They rerouted the bad sections, and added some wooden skinnies over a handful of bogs. While not what we think of when we think "freeride" this was the first project of its kind in the Boulder Ranger District of the USFS. The project accomplished 2 things. 1) we got a sweet trail out of the deal and 2)it introduced the term "freeride" to the USFS and created the association with man made, wooden structures. Things move slow in the USFS and we are gaining some ground!

Next up was the infamous South St Vrain Trail. The westernmost section of this trail goes thru the Indian Peaks Wilderness for about 1/2 mile. In another act of stewardship, BMA is in the process of rerouting the trail about 200 yards to the south so that we can legally ride it. Until then, though, we are good to go. SSV is a beast, especially when ridden in it's entirety from top to bottom. It's definitlely got some techy bits.



Fortunately, we rode with a crew that made it all look easy.


SSV dumped us out on the Peak to Peak highway. What to do now? More climbing, of course. We rode back up/west on Beaver Res Rd up to and past Beaver Res for the days last off road climb. Coney Creek Rd. The map shows that it's only a 6 or 800 foot elevation gain, over 4 miles. What it does not show, however, is all of the freaking little pebble rocks, baby heads and things that otherwise make your ass hurt after 5 hours in the saddle! It isn't easy, especially this late in the day. It does have it's saving graces, though.

At the top, near the wilderness boundary, there is some deep water. We all took the bridge ride/hike around but not Doug. Dirty Doug wanted some cleansing in the 29er tire deep water.

From there, it's a short but sweet descent to Middle St Vrain Rd and the Buchanan Pass junction.

Finally! Buchanan Pass. We were already pretty tired at this point. We had passed the 6.5 hour mark.
BP has a really cool scree field that you get to cross.

And finally at the bottom! We made it. Never did have to don my rainjacket either. I put the arm warmers on (it was chilly) but that's it. The weather gods smiled upon us once again.


Lucky for us, the beer gods smiled, too :)


All in all, we were about 7.5 hours car door to car door. 30.6 miles and 3800' of climbing. Not bad. We'll have to find another route to top that. Probably won't be able to top the rocks, though.

Tuesday Nighter recap

Another fantastic Tuesday nighter in the books. We rode up the road to Left Hand Res, then Little Raven to Brainard Lake, then all the way down to the highway on SSV. Shuttle stylee. Yep. Not a ton of climbing on this one and it was all good.

I've seriously wandered why there are no freeridey lines in this. It is ripe for the picking and you can drive to it. Serioulsy. Ed P?
Jen, Chris, and Dave picking thru the rocks on Little Raven.
Damn good views.
It was a lights required ride. Fortunately, there wasn't too much carnage so we made it out at dusk.

finally got a big ride in

Lots of pictures today. I finally was able to get in a quantifiably large ride today. The only rule was home by 1pm. I could leave as early as I liked. Seeing as how I'm normally not a morning person, I was pretty happy to make it to Peaceful Valley and be pedaling by 7:15 am. I know, I know - all this about PV? I guess I can't get enough. I wanted to get my fill today, though. The addiction to PV is costing me bucks when gas is $4 a gallon!

So I pedaled off with neither coffee nor warmup. It was a rough start to the day. I was all over the place, dabbing and floundering in sections that I normally do not. It is a tough climb right out of the gate, though, full of all the good stuff like roots, rocks, steeps and babyheads. Guess I'd have to warm up first.

The plan was to head south on Sourdough, past Brainard Lake Road and up to the Little Raven Trail. I had tried a few weeks ago but got denied. Too much snow up high relegated me to a mostly out and back on Sourdough. I had received recent information that indicated Little Raven was finally dry. It took me about 2 hours of climbing to get there, but I made it. Good views abound at the start of the singletrack.

The trail was wet at first, but it didn't take long to turn into sweet, sweet singletrack.

I don't think too many people ride Little Raven. That's ok with me.

The Forest Service even let BMA get creative on some bog sections.
Don't think of Little Raven as much of a descent. It's a tough traverse with a descent that is oh, too short. It's a shorty but a goody, and definitely worth the effort it took to get there. Another reason I hit the Raven was to dump out at Brainard Lake. Ever wonder exactly which peaks are the "Indian Peaks?"

Another beautiful thing about Brainard Lake is that it's also the highest elevation start of the South St Vrain Trail. SSV is almost too good for words. It's hard. Lots of natural rock gardens, funky lines, and other sorts of punishment. To make it down the upper SSV without breaking something is good news. I was feeling good, but not that good. A few dabs and I was back down to SSV's intersection with Sourdough. It was about 10am by this time. I really still wanted to ride Buchannan Pass today, too, but made a mental note that I had to be back to Beaver Res Road by 10:30 for that to happen. Otherwise, I wouldn't have time to climb to the Wilderness Boundary and back again. I made it to the road by 10:37 so I figured what the hell.

I think it's also important to note that I had been riding with my Ipod so far that day. As I approached Beaver Res, I had Willie on the jukebox singing "Uncloudy Day." Just as the song ended, the potd quit on me. It'd been a while since the battery recharge so I stuck it in my pocket. I think this was an omen. Just then, it started to rain. heh, heh. Thanks Willie.

I knew I could make it back to the car by 12:30 but I had to boogie. I had my sights set on Coney Creek Road. Let me tell you that all of those babyheads that make up that road don't do anything to make you feel more fresh at the end of along day either.

Finally, the boundary of Indian Peaks Wilderness. From here, a quick descent would bring me to the Buchannan Pass Trail. There's lots of water up there, too. Good thing for all of the foot bridges. To ford the water crossings on the jeep road entails sloshing thru a 20 yard water bog that's about 3' deep. I was happy for the board walks. I was tired so I walked them, too.




Buchannan Pass was sweet and suculent. Definitely worth waiting for. I had to flintstone it thru all of the rocky mazes at the top. I had nothing more to give and was feeling pretty tapped out at that time. Good thing it looked like this.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Buchannan Pass is also one of the wetest trails we ever ride. It doesn't matter what time of year you hit it either, it's always wet. This season seems even wetter so far.

By now it had been raining on and off since Willie left me down on Beaver Res Rd, about 45 minutes. I had never ridden Buchannan Pass in the rain, though, so I guess it was about time. It was good. I managed to make it down to the upper trailhead by the time the thunder got too loud. A few more minutes and I was back to the car.

I got a little muddy on that one.

I felt pretty wiped out but not as much as I thought. I was also happy with how I rode. When I was adding up the ride last night, I figured it would take me about 6 hours. My late start meant I had to bust it to get the ride done. I kept the snackin' and the breaks to a minimum and rolled in at 12:15 on the nose. 5 hours! I was pretty stoked to beat my forecast.

If anyone has read this far, remember the Big Fall Ride that I try to do every year? It's coming up and it's going to be bigger this year. 5 hours just isn't long enough :)