Big rides
The infamous, annual Don Ride is coming up in just a couple short weeks. In order to prepare for this 100-ish-mile, all-day, high-mountain, single-speed epic ride, I’ve been trying to get out on more long rides. On the weekend of the 12th I drove over to Colorado Springs, meaning to join old pals Jon Csakany, Doug Johnson, Scott Boyer, Jon Hurley, and others on a midnight attempt at Pikes Peak, followed by a sunrise ride up Mount Almagre, thus attaining the two highest summits visible from the Springs in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, the Peak got snowed in, and Jon, Mike Chavez, and I settled for a ride in the rain up Barr Trail Sunday morning. We ended up breaking through the clouds into sunshine, crossing the cog railway tracks, and descending through Jones Park in nothing less than perfect conditions. Here are a few snapshots from that ride:
After climbing for an hour through steady rain, we broke through into sunshine. Condensation on my cam's lens created this "watercolor" effect.
We left the Barr Trail, taking Barr Camp's supply trail to the cog railway. We crossed at this old stop, continuing on an old singletrack on the other side.
We came across this destruction just before the Water Department road. We didn't know what to make of this HUGE skidder slash - the trees didn't appear to have been harvested, really, just knocked down, shredded up, and left to rot.
At the top, before descending Jones. The Peak doesn't appear to have much snow, but the backside, as I found on my drive out, had a good amount of snow present.
This past weekend, back in Durango, I planned on doing back-to-back big rides. Saturday I started at the Hermosa Creek south trailhead, rode to the north trailhead, up Bolam Pass 4WD road, across the Colorado Trail, over Blackhawk Pass, down the CT to Hotel Draw road, and back down Hermosa Creek. It ended up being a nine-hour, 75-mile epic, with much of it above 11,000 feet. I came home, ate a lot, and crashed for 10 hours. Today, Sunday, I’ve decided against doing a ride at all other than cruising up to the library, and I’m just relaxing instead. Yesterday hurt. Here are a few snapshots from yesterday’s adventure:
After 20 miles of singletrack on the Hermosa Trail, I headed up Bolam Pass road.
Near the top of Bolam, I branched off on the Colorado Trail, heading for Blackhawk Pass. The Pass is in the background in this shot, with the CT in the foreground.
From the top of Blackhawk, looking north. The CT is in the foreground, with Mt. Wilson, Wilson Peak, and the interesting Lizard Head Peak (the spire) in the background.
That’s what’s shaking in this part of the world. Sandhya’s been conspicuously absent from blog-posting, but apparently she’s enjoying her remaining time in Santa Barbara. Just a few more weeks and we’ll be in the same zip code again… -Joey
