Horsethief, Mary's, Rustler's, and Rabbit Valley

Over the weekend I took a short trip even further west to do some mountain biking in the Grand Junction area with our western slope relatives. I left Friday after work and drove across the mountains on I-70 in the dark. The roads were a little icy in the high mountains, which made the drive a little stressful, but I didn't run into any problems. I got to Grand Junction late, unloaded my biking gear from the Nissan, and spent just a few minutes talking and winding down before getting to sleep.

I awoke to a hot breakfast of french toast and good coffee, as promised, and then we packed the gear into H&C's Nissan to hit the trails. It was quite cold that morning, a good bit below the freezing mark, so we dressed warmly and left Cailan with his grandma.

Looking for the driest trails we could find, we went northwest of I-70, past Fruita, to the Kokopelli parking lot where we could access several trails from a single starting point. We began by heading up a moderately steep and rocky trail, Mary's Trail, until we reached a rock shelf overlooking Horsethief Bench.

The descent from the shelf to the bench is quite steep. It may look like we're on the edge of a cliff (below), but it's actually the beginning of the descent. Most people don't ride it. Most people who try probably end up breaking something. Today it was especially treacherous because it was covered in ice. Of course, I didn't get any photos of the actual descent because I was too busy trying to descend without getting killed or dropping my bike off the boulders. Below, Heather holds my Nickel and talks to Utah while I take pictures before we descend.

Most of the Horsethief Loop was plenty dry, but some of the sections on north-facing slopes were not. This picture shows a snowy north-facing slope in the near background. Heather and Chris are climbing on the tandem.

After doing Horsethief, we carried the bikes back up to the shelf and continued around on Mary's Trail. The section below was undoubtedly the most exposed section of trail we rode. It actually looks worse in this picture than it really seemed, although one would not want to take a wrong turn here, or even look away at the scenery for a half second.

We stopped for a snack where Steve's Trail split off from Mary's, and then turned back to return to the parking area. Below is Steve's trail taking off toward the north and heading downward towards the Colorado River.

After heading back home for a quick lunch, we picked up Cailan, along with friends Maria and Max, did some bike swapping, and headed back to the same trail head. This time we rode Rustler's Loop, which has a few challenging hills and some rock shelves to climb, but is overall a fairly easy trail. Chris and Cailan are getting ready to climb up some of the most challenging shelves on the loop. They made it up, of course.

Marie and Max at the same spot. Max was probably shouting and laughing with the sheer joy of trail riding when I took this picture. He loved being out on the bike and wasn't afraid to let us all know!

Click here to see the GPS log for the day's rides.

Moving on to Sunday, we thought we'd try something a little more distant and a little more adventurous. We didn't know we were also trying something a little more snowy and a lot more muddy. The Rabbit Valley is a little further from Grand Junction; the trailhead is not far from the Utah border. We left Cailan at Grandma's house for this one. Utah stayed home too. He wanted to come, but after doing more than 20 miles on Saturday, he probably needed a break.

Since it was muddier than expected, we mostly stuck to the road for this ride instead of taking the somewhat parallel single-track. I suppose that means we were road biking, but it's good that we had fat tires with knobs. On this trail -- er, road -- it was easy to feel like we were out in the wilderness. Aside from the tracks in the mud and the snow made by jeeps and ATVs, and the trails in the sky made by airplanes, there was hardly a sign of man's influence anywhere.

Progress was slow and challenging. We often rode on the snow because it provided a firmer surface than the wet ground beside it. In some areas the sand or clay or earth was dry, but mostly it was not. Typically, as responsible conscientious mountain bikers, we avoid riding trails when they are muddy. On this four-wheel drive road where ATVs and 4x4s outnumber bikes, our shallow tire tracks seemed relatively benign. Below, Heather is descending with Chris up ahead taking the fork to the right.

We stopped for a rest at the time of a climb. Is Heather shaking her finger at Chris?

Stopping short of Heather and Chris's usual destination, we rested at the lookout before turning back toward the trail head.

The descent from the lookout was really fun, with large rocks obscured by snow. Taking it fast required a certain level of confidence, some trust that the suspension and tires would accommodate whatever lay underneath, and a good dose of adrenaline-induced stupidity.

We got through it. Here's Heather coming in near the end of the snowiest.

Check out this rock!

And click here to see the GPS log from Sunday's rides. I forgot to start watch until we'd gone a couple of miles, so the track is not complete.

And then I drove back to Denver. It was a really fun weekend. It would have been much much better with the whole of scaq. I miss them all so much (even though we talk every day).

The interesting thing about doing these rides without Cindy, Abbey, and Quinn, was that I really wasn't without them. The whole time we were riding, especially on Saturday, with the scary cliffs, I was thinking about what it would be like to do the ride with Quinn on the big black tandem. Which climbs and ledges would Cindy and Abbey be able to thrust the green Cannondale over? Would Quinn and Abbey be too scared to ride along the exposed ledges? Would I be too scared to let them? Cindy? Even though they weren't with me in person, they were in my mind.

More Boulder Area Mountain Biking

Today the air was cooler, but it was still a good morning to get out for a ride. I dressed a little more warmly than yesterday, with tights, warm gloves, and an ear band. I also wore my windproof cycling boots.

I drove out to Heil Ranch, which is just north of Boulder, and rode up the Wapiti Trail to the Wild Turkey Loop. The trail was in good shape (not muddy), with only a few soft or snowy spots. Since I went in the morning, the soft spots were frozen and I left no ruts at all. My tires stayed clean.

The Wapiti Trail is really rocky and it's a pretty long steep climb for the first few miles. I shed my warm gloves and donned some standard biking gloves before I'd finished the climb. I also took off my ear band at some point. My toes stayed cold.

Once on the Wild Turkey, the grade leveled out and the trail was easier and faster. I think it might have been even more fun if I'd run the loop in a clockwise direction. Therer were some flowing, smooth sections that would have been a little downhill and fast and fun. In most places the trail is still quite rocky, which pretty much enforces a speed limit. I was very glad to have my dual squish bike for this one! Once again, the Nickel seemed like just the right tool for the job.

By the way, the wild turkeys were not on the Wild Turkey Trail, they were down nearer the parking lot where the Wapiti Trail begins. On the Wild Turkey I saw lots of deer, and they stayed right beside the trail as I rode past. Where were the wapiti?

Although there were quite a few cars in the parking lot, I felt alone most of the time on this ride. There was a large group of runners on the trail, one group of maybe eight cyclists, and a few other single or pairs of walkers, runners, and cyclists.


Click to see my GPS log.

The scenery was nice:

We're not in Michigan anymore!

I have taken a job in Denver, CO, so over the next few months we will be ripping up our roots again. I'm afraid my roots have been pulled from the earth so many times that they just don't grow very deep anymore. Our poor kids, their roots are still fresh and not accustomed to such disturbance. They find this process quite disconcerting, maybe even painful. I really hope we can find someplace they call home. I'm feeling really positive about this job opportunity, and I'm hopeful that this one will last as long as I do.

We're not exactly sure how this move is going to work out, since we've got to find someone to buy our house in Michigan before we can really settle in Colorado, but we are moving. In the mean time, I'll be hopping between Michigan and Colorado quite frequently. For my trips to Colorado, Bob and BJ have been grateful enough to let me stay in the guest room in their house in Boulder.


That means I get to enjoy Boulder. Today I rode north from the house in Boulder to explore the Boulder Valley Ranch Trails. These are out on the plains, not in the mountains, but I chose them because I was pretty sure they were dry enough to ride. I had a lot of fun, but I was lonely. I sure wish I'd had the whole of scaq with me.

Click here to see my Garmin log.

Iceman

I've been thinking of posting a blog entry on our experience at the Iceman Cometh Challenge, a race that we did last fall, but I just haven't found time. It was a really fun experience. The Iceman is a huge big mountain bike race that takes place up north in Michigan's lower peninsula. We rode it on our two mountain tandems. This race is really the reason we ended up setting up the two mountain tandems. Little did we know this would be our last big bicycling event in Michigan. More on that another time.

There were 3757 finishers, so it was a crowded course. We were started in waves over a 2 1/2 hour time interval.  The Garmin indicates we ascended 1450 ft and descended 1540 ft, so it's not a huge amount of climbing, but just a constant up and down, with some climbs that were very steep -- as in tire-spinning steep. 

Quinn and I did pretty well, I think, finishing the 29 miles in about 2:43 (that's hours:minutes, of course). I had optimistically predicted we could finish in 2:30, but that was really more of a guess than anything. Quinn was a little racing machine; there were only two hills we were unable to climb, but we spent a lot more time than I'd expected in our lowest gear! Quinn didn't want to stop to rest or eat or drink, he just wanted to win. He rode really hard and I often had to ask him to take it easy so he didn't burn out. He was ready to do it again and do it even faster, and was wondering if he could do it on his own bike. We had so much positive feedback from other riders while we were riding, I think it really made Quinn feel proud. We passed a lot of other riders, often while climbing hills, and I'm sure 3/4 of them had some sort of encouraging comment. Many expressed some friendly disgust or resignation at being passed by tandem with a kid on the back. Those that passed us also found positive words for us. Once we stopped because Quinn really had to pee, but he was very concerned about losing ground at seeing all the riders flying past. He did his business quickly and then it was, "Come on, Dad, let's go, we're getting behind!" Soon, however, we caught up with the pack we'd been with before we stopped.  We passed a number of riders for the second time. Poor guys!  

The fastest times, by the pro riders, were around 1:33. The fastest tandem team was 1:56. There were 24 tandem teams and we came in 17th of 24. Cindy and Abbey came in 23rd. Because I rode with Quinn, it's difficult to find any benchmark against which to assess my performance. I did not see all the tandem teams, but all that I did see were paired adults. One guy that I know from the mid-state MMBA, and have ridden with somewhat competitively, with rode in about 2:20. Based on that, I think 2:40 with Quinn is good enough.  

Cindy and Abbey finished in 3:55. Cindy's goal was to beat 4 hours; also just a guess, but she did it. Cindy did not enjoy significant portions of the ride, particularly the narrow single track, which has over the years become a larger portion of the course (the rest being wider two-track logging roads and old gravel roads). All tandems with captains that had not ridden Iceman before started relatively close to the start (wave 27), so there were lots of faster riders that needed to pass Cindy and Abbey, which was problematic on the narrow tight single track where the girls needed to go slowly to squeeze through the trees. They felt like they were a bottleneck at times. If Cindy and Abbey had started in the wave with the 40-year-old women (as was originally planned), she would have been in a wave that started an hour and 15 minutes later. That would have been better, because all those fast old men would have started ahead of them instead of behind. Some portions of the ride were enjoyable for them, but by the end they were also extremely tired. The course was hilly and very challenging. I'm glad they did it, and I think eventually they will look back and also be glad they did it, but Cindy and Abbey said they would most likely not do it again next year. They have instead considered doing the Slush Cup on their singles, which is the shorter race course (8-miles) at the Iceman. The Slush Cup has no singletrack.

Overall, the weekend was fun.  We stayed at the host hotel, which is a really nice resort and spa.  Despite Cindy and Abby feeling a little overwhelmed during the race, I think that overall the weekend was a success.  

Click here to see my Garmin log.  Note that I started the log 10 minutes before we started riding just so I wouldn't forget to turn it on.

Click here to see a video of Quinn and me.

I've got a couple of pictures of the girls that we purchased from Action Sports Images LLC. On some other storage device, in some other state, I've got a couple of pictures of Quinn and me. I'll see if I can add them sometime.