My 1st Epic Ride in Colorado

I've officially lived in Colorado Springs for three months now. I have just finished my first "epic" ride since moving here. It wasn't the longest or even the most difficult ride that I have ever done, but the elements and the hike-a-bike sections certainly made it memorable.

From my house I can ride less than a mile up my street to Stratton Open Space and link up to a virtually endless network of singletrack and old rail road grade gravel roads. The road you see on the bottom left side of the pic is Gold Camp Rd. It's an old narrow gauge rail bed that used to run from the Springs up to Cripple Creek carrying gold, supplies and laborers. I've ridden that thing numerous times since working at the Academy. We offer rides that start in Cripple Creek and end in the Springs. Downhill for nearly 32 miles and goes through four tunnels.

Between the multi-use trails and gravel roads I could probably find a way to ride across the state. Hmmm...Don't think I haven't thought about it because it crosses my mind almost daily.

So anyway, my roommate (also a Saluki) have been shuttling up Cheyenne Canyon and riding Captain Jack's trail back down to our house. It's about a seven mile ride which is mostly downhill. This just doesn't cut it for me. I need some lung-busting style climbing in my rides. So we stopped into Old Town Bike Shop today to get some advice on adding mileage to this ride. Mechanic, Ted gave us lots of options so we headed out at about 3pm.....bad idea. Summer poses afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains almost daily.

So begins the epic-ness. We parked at the Gold Camp lot and rode a slightly uphill bit of Gold Camp Rd looking for some singletrack on our right hand side. We found some that was marked and the sign read two miles to where we wanted to go. That was the craziest two mile climb of my life. About twenty percent was ride-able. This really sucked for Joe who is not into climbing at all. I guess that's why he owns a fifty pound Santa Cruz VP Free downhill bike. Ouch!

In the middle of our crazy two mile climb it starts thundering. I keep pushing on, determined to earn some downhill. Then it begins to rain. Keep pushing on. Then it begins to rain harder. Keep on keepin' on. Then Joe and I take cover when the thunder gets real loud and the rain gets real heavy. After about a ten minute break, the rain lightens and the singletrack is ride-able....for me. Then we hit an awesome section of Aspens and it starts to hail, hard. Too far in to turn back, we keep on.

We finally see a trail marker but it has been destroyed by vandals so we have no idea which trail we are about to take. All we care about is that it heads back east. I ride ahead and find out we are on Pipeline Trail, not Buckhorn like we thought. Ah well, we've seen it on the map and know it will come out somewhere close to home. I just hoped it wasn't too far on pavement since I had Sydney (my dog) with me and I didn't want her running in traffic.

Pipeline was mostly downhill which meant it was finally a chance for Joe to ride his bike. This would be the first time he rode his bike since we left the car more than two miles ago. After Pipeline, Joe says the whole hike was totally worth it. Wow, I thought he was gonna be pissed after carrying his heavy freakin' bike up a mountain for a couple miles in the rain and hail.

Pipeline turned into Bear Creek trail which was almost as awesome as Pipeline but more climbing. Then Bear Creek met up with Captain Jack's and we were finally free of the rain. Sydney was dying by this point and we still had about five miles to get home. I had to keep yelling at the mutt to keep up even though her tongue was almost dragging on the ground. I felt bad but I wasn't gonna be able to carry her back.

So we're all home safe after a four hour day on the trail. Takin' some customers mountain biking at Monarch tomorrow so I'll have even more pics and stories. Sweet.