Lunch Loops

Sunday was not a cycling day for day Heather since she had a nine mile training run on her schedule. She was nice enough to offer to stay home with Cailan in the morning while Chris and I went and rode some of the Lunch Loops trails. The Lunch Loops trails are just inches outside of Grand Junction. In fact, except for the challenge of riding down the road with Utah, it would have made almost as much sense to ride to the trails as to drive.

If I've got this figured out right, we actually started at the Tabeguache Trailhead and headed southwest until we reached Pet-e-kes and then climbed up to the Holy Cross trail. We followed Holy Cross to Holey Bucket, then the Ali Loop, Ali Alley, maybe around Curt's Lane, and then finished out with Kid's Meal. It's quite a network of trails, and it was good to have an experienced guide. 

Click here to see the Garmin log. Of course, I thought I started the Garmin when we set out, but did not, so I missed the first segment of the ride.

The trails were very fun, and on a much tighter ribbon than the wide jeep road the day before. It was also very nice to be able to follow my guide, Chris, through all of the really difficult sections. I would simply watch him go through and then do it myself by following his path. I must admit that there were quite a few spots, especially going up Holy Cross, where Chris cleaned sequences of obstacles on the trail and I did not.

The trails around Grand Junction are not quite so rocky as what we'd ridden the day before in Moab. The Lunch Loop trails comprise quite a bit more clay and sand, but there is plenty of exposed rock to make for some good challenges. The scenery is nice, stark, and the features of the landscape are more subdued and maybe not quite so creatively sculpted as those in Moab.

The Holy Cross trail presented some really fun challenges. Most of them were rideable. Some of them appeared to be possibly rideable, but not obviously so; I tried a few of those. And there were those that were clearly not rideable by the likes of me; Chris tried a few of those.

The images below were some that Chris and I took after spending some time scouting out the feasibility of riding this obstacle. My initial thought was, 'No way!' But after we walked around it, we began to think it really fell into the second category above: possibly rideable. Chris decided to give it a shot, so I got out the camera to capture his fall. As it turns out, the only tricky part is getting lined up and clipped in to get started, since the trail comes out of a steep drop and turns sharply right before hitting the first big rock. Once you're on the rock, you turn left and drop onto the second rock and then just roll on through. Chris liked it so much he did it twice.  

Chris made it look so easy I had to try it myself, while Chris took pictures. You can see in the first picture how the trail turns sharply as it approaches the first rock. It took me a couple of tries to get going. Then I was on first rock...

... and carefully turning down and left...

... and then just rolling on out.

Somewhere near the end, where Curt's Lane turns back toward the parking area at the top of a bluff we had a great view of the bike park and trailhead. 

And then a quick lunch and I drove back to Denver with two white bicycles on my truck.

Amasa Back 40th

Last weekend I made another trip to Grand Junction. I had three primary and not-entirely-distinct goals for this trip: One was to help Heather and her family celebrate her 40th birthday. Another was to go to Moab to pick up a used bicycle I found for Quinn. Another was to ride by own bicycle in Moab, which, despite calling myself a mountain biker, I'd never done.

After having a great time meeting and talking (bikes) with a bunch of Heather and Chris's friends at Heather's birthday party Friday night, we got up Saturday morning, loaded the bikes into the truck, and Heather, Chris, Cailan, Bobby, and I drove to Moab Cyclery in Moab where Quinn's new bike was awaiting us. Quinn had pretty much outgrown his little 20-inch wheel bike you've seen him on so often, and we've been watching for a replacement for the last year or so. This Santa Cruz Juliana, has 26" wheels and extra small 13.5-inch frame. The XS Juliana had been one of our preferred options for Quinn, but it took us a while to find the right one. Anyway, here it is, photographed back at Heather and Chris's house. With white paint and the same decal design, it looks very much like my Nickel, which is off to the right. The Juliana had a good first year of life in Moab, so it's a bit scuffed up, perhaps mostly from transport to and from the trail head, but it appears to be in excellent mechanical condition. And it sure looks nice here. Poor Quinn has a new bike and won't even get to touch it until he comes out to Colorado to visit me in a month. Even then, after the visit, he won't get to take it home! Maybe it will provide some incentive to make him want to move out here to Colorado with me.

While we were at Moab Cyclery buying the bike, we had a PBJ lunch at a table in front of the shop while we waited for friends Heidi and Marie who were joining us for the ride.

The Amasa Back trail climbs about 1000 ft mostly on sandstone in the middle of big meander of the Colorado River. It's supposed to be a jeep trail, but I'm betting that most of the year it seems more bicycles than jeeps. Of those bicycles, what portion are tandems?

Most of the trail is easy enough to ride. It is only moderately steep, climbing 1000 ft in about five miles, and much of the tread is smooth sandstone. Despite the name "slickrock," the sandstone is anything but slick. It's actually quite grippy. It feels somewhat like medium grit sandpaper and provides plenty of traction for pedaling up very steep inclines. Of course, that means you have to have strong enough legs and lungs to maintain power to the tires for those climbs.

The biggest challenge presented on the trail are the boulders and rock ledges. Some of them are just too big to climb, others are somewhere in between and present a fun challenge. Often the ledges and boulders come in rapid sequence making for some really tricky, technical riding. Going up those ledges was sort of like rock climbing; picking the best path with careful tire placement and balance, and then powering up at just the right moment. Going down required a different strategy; it was less like solving a puzzle than it was like flying - or even falling. Okay, on to the pics... 

Heather and Chris pedaling hard on sandstone:

Heather and Chris climbing on sandstone:

Heidi and Marie grinding up a long flat on sandstone:

In some places the trail was too close to the edge. We survived, but I was not comfortable pedaling close to a cliff!.

Heather and Chris on sandstone, pulling off an especially impressive climb:

Heather and Chris at the top with my Nickel:

It was definitely one of the most scenic rides -- if not the most scenic ride -- I have ever done. If only the rest of scaq could have come along (although then those sheer cliffs really would have scared me). It was challenging, too, but we moved at a reasonably gentle pace so it was not difficult or particularly dangerous. Even with five people and four bikes in our group, in the end we all were somewhat surprised that there had not been a single crash on the entire ride.

Click here to see the Garmin log for the ride. You'll notice it took us two hours to get up and only one to come down.