2nd Annual Peaceful Tour of the Dick recap

I had been spying a route on the map for several years and I finally had the gumption to lead a group ride on it last year. The first ever Peaceful Tour of the Dick. The route was awesome. Even though it was only 30ish miles, it was definitely a tough all day route. Good stuff.

We did it again today. We just polished off the 2nd Annual Peaceful Tour of the Dick. A few thought it may be more than they could bite off but everyone but a couple folks managed to see it thru to the end. And what a great ride it was.

After meeting at the shop and getting everyone organized, riders took off between 10:30 and 11am. We had a solid crew. Pedaling south on Sourdough out of Peaceful Valley is never an easy task. After passing Beaver Reservoir, we were getting into our groove.







We had a quick snack break basking in the views of the Indian Peaks.





After some more tech and some more climbing and a very small amount of descending, we found ourselves at Brainard Lake Road. Somebody from Eldora was up there.

Eldora's marketing dept is obviously confused, especially since there are no gravity trails at Eldora and they do not allow bike use in the summer. What gives?


A little later and it was time for Lunch just before embarking on Little Raven. We had views...

Entertainment...


Views...

And fresh natural raspberries.




What could be better? More riding? Fortunately, Little Raven never dissapoints.



Neither do big ass bull moose. I called out to Bullwinkle but he didn't respond. Come to think of it, I didn't see Squirrel either.


After circumnavigating Brainard Lake, we hit the new South St Vrain reroute. Even though we had been riding the trail for years, it passed thru a small chunk of the Indian Peaks Wilderness. The USFS ranger district in these parts are our friends. Thanks to them, it's all legal and ready to roll after a short reroute of the offending section of trail. It's good.


And the traditional, old, "Upper SSV" is always a challenge.



The lower section is pretty good, too.



After popping out onto the highway at the bottom of SSV, we had a 3-4 mile dirt road climb ahead of us. That one was a real deal breaker. A few of us pulled out to go back to Peaceful Valley. The rest of us pushed on up Coney Flats Road. Coney Flats isn't, by the way. About 1/2way up Coney Flats, you come to a section where you can take a no motorized route or the jeep road. Both come out at the same place. Never knowing which was faster before, we decided to send folks in both directions to ascertain the outcome of max efficiency. Chris, and I, along with a few others, took the pedestrian only route. It was good. It was more direct but definitely tougher. I told Chris that it was good that we took this route, otherwise, it would be a Redstone ride without at least a little hike a bike.


I've got a reputation to uphold :) It's not mountain biking unless you're hiking.

There were some fun bits, too. It wasn't entirely a slog.
Back on Coney Flats road for one last fun jeep road descent.



Then onwards toward the cherry on top, Buchanan Pass trail.



Notice the smile :)


No more pics of the ride. I was done by then and too tired for more snapping. I had to focus on riding. We'd been out just over 6 hours at this point so focus was key.

We wrapped up just under 6.5 hours. We took about an hour off of last years time and we even had a bigger crew this year - right around 18 riders give or take. We dropped off a few and picked up a few. Ride time was just over 4 hours with the rest of the time dedicated to lunch, snacking, fixing flats, etc. I think we got in around 4500 feet of climbing. That doesn't sound too bad until you factor in the rocks. Damn rocks. I'm frickin tired now. Good night. And thanks for coming out y'alls!

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.

Peaceful Tour of the Dick this Sunday

Don't forget, we've got a biggun coming up this Sunday. Peaceful Tour of the Dick. You know you want some Dick :). Camp Dick, that is.

Proposed route is Sourdough->Left Hand Rd->Little Raven->SSV->Beaver Res Rd->Coney Creek Rd->Buchanann Pass->cooler full of beer. I did a similar ride last year, but didn't go all the way down SSV and up the Boy Scout road. I cut back thru on Baptiste/Wapiti. It took me 6.5 hours solo. Check it - here

I suspect this will be a 7+ hour ride, but there'll be lots of bailouts. Mucho technical, mucho rocky, and mucho funno. Redstone Cyclery at 9am on Sunday. Can't wait for this one!