Switzerland

Great ride Tuesday night. We had a strong crew, too. We met up in Boulder, then caravanned up to Sunset where we did a fun little figure 8 loop using the Switzerland Trail and Todd Gulch. Thanks for driving the big rig, Chris!


After some climbing on the jeep road, we took a lapse into the unknown, something that would be appropriate for X Files. After that short stint on tv, we were back to our 2 track and heading back to make the figure 8.


Todd Gulch did not dissapoint. Well, not really. Some asshole, though, has gone in and felled a bunch of trees across the trail. We had to do a little walking in a couple of spots. It was worth it, though, to hit such a little gem. It starts off tame enough, but has some really fun, rough, rocky sections.

Once we ducked into the trees, the going got a little tougher. Here's a couple of angles on the same point:



Although the drive time was a bit longer than antcipated and the ride slightly shorter than anticipated, it was a good ride. I hadn't been in those neck of the woods in over 6 years. It felt good to play up there again.

Dirt!

Here's the other attempt down the rock face from Saturday...

Tuesday Night Ride, May 2

We're mixing it up a little this Tuesday. We'll meet up in cars in Boulder at 5:30pm. Convene 5:30 at Settler's Park (the lot just off Canyon on the right side of the road just as you enter Boulder Canyon. Last turnoff into Boulder). From there, we'll drive up the road to our National Forest destination of the Switzerland Trail area. Think of easy grade non technical jeep roads, twisty singletrack, and a few steep rocky descents in both jeep road troughs and technical singletrack. Good stuff. See you there.

on the road again

I got out a little on the roadie this morning. Freetime was limited to just under a couple hours so I had to squeeze in a quality ride in on short time. I took off from town about 8:15 in the morning. It was a nice little cruise towards the 36 turnoff. The back breeze, the day still cloudy with the sun starting to poke through, and the early morning temps made it a chilly outing until I headed south and started to climb on Foothills Highway.

I have to warm up a little before I figure out the ride. I didn't have any route planned. That's the way I like to road ride. Just go and take turns as you feel the urge. I rolled on past Hygiene and St Vrain roads. Both fun roads, but I didn't quite feel like pedaling thru the flats. That means Nelson was out, too.



Left Hand was now up on the right so I decided to head west and go uphill for a short bit. Man. The cars at parked alongside the road just kill me. Tons of folks driving up to the mouth of LHC so they can get their road bikes out and head up the hill. If I get in a car to go ride, it's with a bike with nobbies. That's the beauty of road riding, right? To leave from home?

Anyway, I road up to the Ward/Jamestown split and turned around. I took a little breather on the side of the road by the creek. Not because I needed the breather, more because Spring is here and I love sitting by the creek watching the water rush by.




The return trip was pretty fast. TONS of bikes climbing up the road as I was coming down. All ages and all types of bikes were represented. It was great to see folks just getting out on 2 wheels. Coming out at the bottom of the canyon was great. The sun was blazing on the hillsides, making the foothills even more pronounced.



It felt good to just cruise at a mellow tempo and spin. Hope y'alls rides this weekend were equally as satisfying.

Cactusy

A little ride this am... Hit it up with a few folks, including Carl who was ripping it up on his Flux and Mr. Monkey Face, aka Pablo.

Baby Steps via Klondike Bluffs

So Saturday morning we set out for Klondike Bluffs and the brand spankin new Baby Steps. This trail opened in March of this year and it was clearly evident by the trail condition. It is still very soft and if you get your front wheel anywhere near the edge of the trail, it will suck you in. But, this is singletrack in its purest form. Absolute brilliant route placement of this trail. Its like a moonscape throughout the whole ride and just flows perfectly. There is nothing real physically tough nor is there anything real technical. Just flat out fun. I can't wait til this fall after this trail has seen some moisture and some more traffic. When this baby is packed down it is going to be fast and like a roller coaster.

We rode all the way to the top of Klondike Bluffs, did the short hike for the view and then on the way back down we took Baby Steps which leads off to the right. The route was hard to stay on at times. Being such a new trail, it isn't totally established in all areas especially when it goes over the slickrock. Most of the trail markings were done with rock lines on each side. The first photo below show some this. All in all, so so sweet.

Look closely and you can see Redstone represented on the shoulders of the jersey

The route placement on this trail was very well done.

The crew getting ready to descend

Another view of the trail

damn fine singletrack-and it doesn't get anymore single than this

More sweet Single track

Descending back onto the Klondike Bluffs and back to the car. This is the lower portion of the Baby Steps

LPS (Porcupine) in Moab

So this past weekend some folks I work with headed west for desert riding. This trip was dedicated to trying some new trails that none of us have ever done. The first one was LPS (Lower Porcupine Singletrack) which is now totally legal and on the maps. This is a beauty of a trail. Think of the section of the normal porc between the first lookout at the top of the climb all the way to "high anxiety lookout" and just multiply it by 3. There is more singletrack above LPS but is not quite legal as of yet so we opted to play by the rules. I believe there are good reasons trails are closed and I know if I was a Moab local I wouldn't want everybody from the front range and elsewhere on illegal trails. It can ruin it for everyone.

The LPS trailhead is exactly 4.1 miles from the Porcupine Trailhead proper on Sand Flats road. The trail goes left right before the cattle guard. It is such a great trail, I will never ever ever climb up the main trail again. This is the way to go and there were only a small number of other riders that did the same so we virtually had this trail to ourselves. There is a section of this trail that is over the top in terms of steepness and technical difficulty. The photo below shows a guy pinning it with no problem. Very impressive. Just below this section is some more very steep but rideable sweeping trail that is stomach on the seat fun.

Take my word and next time you are out in Moab, ride this trail.

We also did Baby steps which is a new trail as of March 06. It is a finger loop off of Klondike Bluffs. I will do a seperate post for this one.




On our way up Sand Flats toward LPS

Cattle Guard and trailhead for LPS

Sample of the trail (the rim is to the left)

This is one of the sickest descents I've seen. No one from our group had the nuts or the bike to pull this off. This guy cleaned it with no problems. If you ever get to see this drop, you will be blown away, the photo just doesn't do it justice.

Another trail sampler.

A look out to Castle Valley south of the main lookout where everyone and their sister hang out.

This is where the trail dumps out onto the standard porcupine trail. This is just below the main lookout area. I wonder how many times I've ridden right past this spot and never even noticed it. Everytime actually.

too sexy for your bike.

The new Redstone jersey's are in and they are sweet. Dave's got long and short sleeve. The shorty's are nice for these cold mornings.

the redstone models show the new spring fashion:

Pics from Tuesday night ride

The weather was great, a little chilly but the trail was perfect.





-Joe

still ridin' tues

I'm riding. Well, my rule for tomorrow is that I (probably) won't ride if the pavement is still super wet. It's snowing right now, but if it clears up at all tomorrow, conditions should be prime.

Oh, and the woolies will be here, too. Short and Long. I saw the sew sample today. Sweeeeeeet.

Protect Fruita Trails

Fruita Trails need your help! Please visit the link (click on the title of the post) to help keep Fruita rolling.

Woods + Singletrack = Good

Had a couple great rides this weekend, back into the forest for the first time since last year for me. Exploring a bit, getting lost, and eating my new favorite trail food, it's got that "natural identical flavour." Mmm mmm Good.

Scenes from the North

Made it a bit further north than usual Saturday. A very demanding ride & unfortunately a trip to the hospital for some. Be Well!

sunday morning patrol

here's a teaser pic of my Sunday morning solo.

Any Guesses?

mary had a little lamb

Mary left to tend to her flock. In this case, a Black Sheep.



On-One Mary Bar. She's got some curves.


I got the opportunity to send Karma on it's way. Hopefully, it will come back around in a similar manner. A guy walks in - "do you have any Marta 160 rotors? I was just 15 minutes into my ride when I bent one." Well, no, I didn't have any spares but I could see it was paining this guy to not ride. Understanding his predicament, I asked him about it. Well, it turns out that he had driven down from Cheyenne to ride here. He wrecked pretty good not long into the ride and bent his front rotor way out of whack. It was beyond help - one of the rotor arms was almost broken it was so tweaked. I could see that it was paining him to not ride. Being a fellow addict, though, I understood. I pulled the 6.6 into the shop, dropped the wheel out, and pulled off a Marta SL rotor for him so he could get his ride in. I haven't seen a guy that happy in a while. It was good to help out another 2 wheeled brother in a situation that most of us have been in one way or another. He came back a bit later with an ear to ear grin. I hope he passes the Karma on, too. Karma is good but Bike Karma is even better.

5 weeks and counting

So... According to my calendar, it's about 5 weeks until the Lyons Fat Tire Fest. And I got to wondering what DeathMarchDave has in store for us this year...

4th of July Bowl

This is what makes GOOD Friday into FANTASTIC Friday. We got out for one last winter excursion this past weekend in Breckenridge. We hiked the Fourth of July Bowl on a truely amazing day. Don't worry....I still got out on the bike for a great day with Redstone & friends before the weekend came to a close. Enjoy!

Rides this week

redstone underground

Weather looks a little questionable for Tuesday, but I bet Dave C is still riding somewhere.

Thursday looks nice.

Someone tell me what to do.

Dave T.

Weekend Get Away

Made a little trip to the Arkansas River Valley this weekend. Stellar riding, stellar hanging out.

It's like fine jewelry. I've got a fun project coming up. We're moving the guts from a traditional CK hub to a new ISO Disc hubshell and building it into a tubeless wheel setup with a Mavic 819. This one will be fun. And it was a good excuse to pick up a new tool. Tools are like bikes in many respects - especially that you can't have too many! It's sad in a way. Most folks that love and appreciate CK stuff have never had their hands on the hub tool, but it's probably one of the coolest things they make. Well, that and the stainless steel freehub body...