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!

Time to check out Sourdough and SSV

Monday Monday. Good day. Morning spent hanging out and running errands with the kiddos followed by a 3 hour romp in the forest is the recipe for a good Monday.

I'd heard from a few folks that Sourdough was pretty good as long as you weren't near Brainard Lake Road. Same sources also mentioned how absolutely perfectly good lower South St Vrain was. I had to check it out

The bike shop is closed on Mondays which means that's the only day that I can get out for a quality, substantial ride. Another Monday down the drain and today did not dissapoint.

I haven't been on the Sourdough trail since last fall. Like a friend that you may not see often, but is your best bud once you do.


Even though the climbing hurt right out of the gate.

More climbing. I used to call this the burn zone, but I think now I'll call it the new Aspen grove. 10 years ago the area was recovering from a fire and the aspen were only a foot or so tall.



A little descending, a little more climbing, then the view. You know, THE view.


Followed by more climbing. Like a baby's butt, it is.



more baby butt smoove singletrack

The only snow I saw today.


Then it was on to the South St Vrain trail for some quality descending. The SSV creek was freaking raging. Most water I've ever seen in there. It was so deafening it was scary.

Don't be fooled. Not all SSV is like this. But some parts are :)


It's more like this

and this

and this


but it is ALL great. Due to where I parked, I had to follow up all of that nice descending with a 20 minute grunt up a looooong and dusty dirt road. blah.

>And being a Monday, I had the whole place to myself. Saw 2 people the whole day.

Dirty and tired, great way to spend another Monday. Mondays. Excellent.

Going Nordic

This has been kinda stumping me lately. Nordic skiing means XC skiing on snow with poles and skinny skis. Nordic walking is basically walking anywhere anytime with poles. What do you call it if you take your bike out in the snow on Nordic trails? Is it Nordic biking even if we don't use poles? Or is it just mountain biking? Whatever it is, it's damn fun if conditions are good.

Being sick and tired of the lack of riding afforded to us this winter, we decided to go far, far out on a limb. The idea was to head to one of our favorite summer riding spots and keep our fingers crossed that enough traffic had packed the snow to a rideable state either on singletrack or jeep road. Surprisingly enough, and despite conflicting reports on how bad it was going to suck, we had 8 crazy/stoopid/ignorant/optimistic fun seeking mountain bikers show. We loaded up the vehicles and drove west to Peaceful Valley. We knew it was going to be good as soon as we got to Peaceful Valley. We almost got the big ol F250 stuck - "someone get out and help me lock the hubs." heh heh.

Then Chad was one gloveless. Good thing we were able to dig up a spare.



Things were definitely looking to get interesting. We pedaled off onto the first singletrack right before the bridge. Unbelievably, it was fantastic. There had been so much traffic on skis, snowshoes, and hiking boots that it was firm, packed and fast. Smooth, too, as the snow was deep enough to cover up all of the rocks and roots. The tread was 18-24" wide. Once you got outside of that window, the snow was soft and deep.

Thumbs up! We made it to the start of Buchanan Pass and conditions were top notch.
We pressed on and up Buchannan Pass. Not being a snow junkie, it was unlike any other time I'd been up there. It was peaceful, serene, and the trail was completely smooth. I liked. The rigid SS was a great choice for the terrain, but I could've used something easier than the 32x19 I was on. I know, I need to HTFU.

Our watter bottles and bladders froze pretty quickly. It's a good thing a few of us brought extra hydration supplies. It's always good to get a cold hand around a warm Chub.

We made it up to the waterfall. By then, it had gotten to be pretty slow going. The trail was steep enough, the snow was soft enough, and the tread was narrow enough that it was really, really difficult to make ground. Most of us ended up hiking the last part of the way.

After another, erm, snacktime at the waterfall, it was time to head back. We expected it to be difficult but we really had no idea. Most of the way up, even though there was definitely a "tread" we were blazing trail. Blazing back down was a challenge. The packed tread was only 8-10" at this point. Going off tread by even an inch or two meant instant endo. The snow on the side of the trail was deep. Deep as in I stepped in it and went in to my crotch. Lower down and it got better. Faster and a smidge wider.

But that snow can fool you. Still just an inch or two outside of the line and you're going down. It was slick, too. I can't remember how many times I crashed. Silly fun, I tell you.

Without a doubt, the finest section of trail was the connector between Peaceful Valley and Camp Dick. I'll go back again just to hit that!

Great ride last night, guys. This is definitely on our must do again list. Best ride of the year so far.

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 :)