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Today the weather forecast was looking bad, so we opted for a shorter ride and then getting back over the mountains before the crap weather sets in for a few days.
We went out and enjoyed some of the fine buffed singletrack out at the Bookcliffs; climbing up Prime Cut, blasting down Joe's Ridge, cruising up the road, and blasting ear-to-ear down Kessel Run.
The temps were again high 30's when we started, so layering was the order of the day. Today I had one whole more layer than yesterday and was much more comfortable. What I need to do is put my wind-blocking vest inside my long sleeve outer though, I look such a dork once I put on the vest. I don't care much though as it was a fun ride.
There was some moist area, and after the snow and rain that they're getting over the next couple days it's going to be bad conditions until they get another good week of sun and wind to be sure.
What we sampled is not a technical trail set, but is fun, and would be a particularly good group ride area.
The climb up Prime Cut from the 18 Road parking area is a pretty steady grind. Not steep, just steady. Towards the end it has some minor "punctuations" that are fun.
The cruise across the feet of the cliffs to the top of Joe's Ridge finishes out your climbing with some steep rollers. Nothing granny-gearie necessarily but tasty. Some of the damp areas made it a bit more challenging to keep good traction considering I was riding semislicks (Kenda Short Tracker's).
But, once pointed down Joe's Ridge, it was hard to reel in and stop at all until the end. Just stupid fun. The headliner feature of the trail is where the trail comes down the top of the spine of a ridge. For some this represents a lot of exposure and makes them wary, it is a lot of fun to run and man can you just ROCKET down this.
Just don't fall off the trail. If you've got 24 inches of earth to play with I'm impressed, and the penalty for digging out would be a long dirty roll to the bottom of the hill. Should be pretty harmless, but very dirty for sure.
We then looped back up the road instead of Prime Cut, to save time, and caught the top of Kessel Run and just simply bombed with stupid grins and whoops of joy emitted regularly. Kessel Run trail is very buff, and follows a "draw" in the land form down for a mile or so, continually slaloming back and forth across the draw; around trees; over rocks to be jumped; until finally ending at a wash near the 18 Road parking area.
After that run we thought about some more riding, but threw the dice and checked the skies and decided it was time to head south, which turned out to be a good idea.
In the now-traditional fashion, every time the Bear travels south on 550 there must be snow on the hill, and in the air. Or something. By the time we had climbed up past Ouray the sky had totally closed down behind us, and by the time we got to Silverton we had driven through some serious snowfall, with more apparently on the way. The roads were freezing up and starting to get snow covered, and slushy in other areas.
But, Mother was good to us, and gave us an uneventful drive into Durango, getting there just before dark.
Google Earth file - fire it up in Google Earth for a really nice 3D view that you can play with.
Trailsurfer cruising up Prime Cut, note the high confidence inspiring him to ride without even a camelbak!
Enjoying the view at the top of Joe's Ridge, our car is waaaay ooouuuuuttt theeerrreee
Bear rolling down the ridge, nice fun, which is was like 5 miles long though.
Looking back up the spine trail section, can you see it all the way up?
Trailsurfer finds his smile again,
and reinforces it highly on the run down Kessel
So, why is it, when I go south here I have to drive through snow storms? The last time was on May 1 2005, just FYI.
Sure, it's a little off the beaten track, but how about a summer home on top of a CO mountain?
Back safe and sound, livin' large at the grace of Trailsurfer and his wonderful wife.
Tomorrow?
Hmm. Tough. I was going to drive onto St. George, but I think I'm taking Trailsurfer up on his offer to take me up to Purgatory and go skiing for the day on some fresh snow. Terrible, just terrible, I say.
( this also lets me put off the decision on guessing what the weather is going to do over the southwest )
Wheeled adventures to continue...
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