Buffalo Creek Again

We're purposefully pushing ourselves to extend the length and intensity of our rides so that we get strong enough to ride more of Colorado's classic mountain bike rides. As the dad, and, as the Rocky Mountain National Park ranger named me, "the group leader," I have to be careful to make sure that I'm not pushing too hard. No one would thank me for that, but so far, I think we're all on board with the concept. And since I'm no longer running, I need to do something to stay strong and stave off love handles and beer belly.

So for today's adventure, we stitched together a Buffalo Creek area ride that would give us more than 20 miles of riding and about 2,000 feet of climbing. It worked out well and we all had a great time. Click here to see our route. We started up the Buffalo Creek Road, a mostly closed road that follows Buffalo Creek upstream for about four miles, while gaining an easy 500 feet of elevation. At the top, where the Gashouse Gulch and Mount Baldy trails depart to the north, we stopped for butterfly break.

We followed Gashouse Gulch Trail uphill through a large burned area until we reached Redskin Creek Trail, and re-entered the forest. Even though we'd started at 9 a.m., the sun was hot and we were relieved to find shade in the forest. This area burned about 20 years ago, yet there are almost no new trees sprouting up. It's a stark landscape, dominated by gravel, grasses, and small shrubs. The round pink lumps of granite add texture. It's wonderful.

Redskin Creek Trail connects with Gashouse Gulch Trail at about mile six. We'd just reentered the forest, having climbed about 1,000 feet in the sun. Redskin Creek Trail wound quickly down to the Creek, descending about 150 feet. It was a really nice smooth, roller coaster sort of flow trail. A pleasant surprise.

But before we got going on Redskin, we spent a little time slurping water and being silly.

Redskin Creek Trail took us to the Colorado Trail, which we followed back to the east for about eight miles. It climbed, mostly gently, for about 1,000 feet, and then began to descend. The Colorado Trail is really nice. Most of it is within the forest, running along the north-facing slope above Redskin Creek. The trail is mostly smooth and gravelly with lots of roots and a few rocks to keep it interesting.

By the time we finished our eight miles on the Colorado Trail, Quinn was beginning to feel a little dizzy or light-headed. We weren't sure exactly what the problem was; he'd had plenty of water, we'd had a good snack along the trail, and it wasn't overly hot. Still, I was worried about possible heat exhaustion, so we stopped at a picnic table at the Little Scraggy Trailhead for fairly long break so he could cool down and, we hoped, start feeling better. He had a snack and rested, and improved somewhat, but still didn't seem to be quite 100% when we got back on the trail. Since the rest of the ride was downhill, I figured he be alright. And he did indeed improve, but was left with a bit of a headache.

We went north from the Little Scraggy Trailhead on the Buffalo Burn Trail. The view out across the valley was incredible, with puffy clouds moving in as predicted.

When the lightning began, we felt too exposed on Buffalo Burn and the Nice Kitty Trail, but that just helped us pick up the pace towards the valley.

Abbey is lost in the forest of skeletons on Nice Kitty Trail.

Nice Kitty is a new trail, but is fairly similar to other Buffalo Creek trails. Lots of smooth flowing trail punctuated by interesting rock obstacles. Quinn took this one easily, of course.

We did not get struck by lightning. The bridge at the north end of Nice Kitty Trail takes us across Buffalo Creek and connects to the Buffalo Creek Road, just about a half mile up from the parking area. Of course, we hit the parking area just as the rain hit, so we spent some time sweating in the truck while we waited for the rain to pass.

It was another great trip, ending up at about 22 miles, just under five hours, with about 2,000 feet of total climbing. Very fun; very pretty. As for Quinn and the dizziness, our best guess is that he was just getting tired and hungry. So next time, we'll try to feed him more often, but otherwise we'll just keep at it and see how it goes.

Dakota Ridge

Dakota Ridge Trail is one I'd ridden alone a couple of years ago (click here to review), and found to be quite challenging and almost fun. It's one of the north-south hogback ridges that comprise the first wall of mountain on the west side of Denver. Riding it is just as challenging as you might imagine it would be to ride along the fracture-surface of a mile-long, broken slab of limestone jutting up 300 feet out of the ground at 75 degree angle.  In terms of distance, I'm sure I was able to ride more of it than I walked -- or dragged my bike through -- but in terms of time, I'm not so sure: it's possible that I spent more time bike-dragging than bike-riding.

So I thought Quinn would enjoy it. Cindy and Abbey were busy, so on 13 July 2014, Quinn and I rode the ridge from north to south and then returned by way of the much smoother Red Rocks Trail. I screwed up the Garmin track, so I have no link to the route, but it was similar to that of my previous ride at the hyperlink above.

This is the view from the north end of the north end of the trail, looking south and a little west, towards the mountains of Southern Colorado. Here the trail is smooth.

But it doesn't stay smooth.

I'm not sure what to call them, but these log-ramps are common on the heavily-used Front Range trails. They are good fun, up or down.

It is possible to ride this stuff, if you're young and strong and Quinn and crazy. But it's best to wear a lot of padding.

This was a nice smooth climb, reminiscent of some of the trails in Moab.

The views were incredible in both directions. We had a lot of fun, and finished unscathed, but for a few small bruises and scrapes, including those that spanning the space between my chin and my nose; fairly minor once I dug the sand out from under my upper lip.

Independence Weekend in Fraser

We are staying so wonderfully busy that it's nearly impossible to make time for updating this blog. This summer Abbey is volunteering at the Denver Zoo, which seems at times to be a full time job, excepting the pay, of course. And she's keeping up with her trumpet, mellophone, and singing and guitar playing, as well as spending too much time texting boys. Quinn is spending too much time with his phone, too, although in the form of gaming more so than texting. He is continuing trombone lessons and playing in the Colorado Honor Band. And learning to ride wheelies. Cindy and Abbey have been running, and we're all trying to log as many miles as possible on our mountain bikes so that we can comfortably do some more ambitious, longer, higher elevation rides this summer and fall.

So I've failed to post a few significant events. One was this Buffalo Creek ride with Heather, Chris and Cailan. It was the same loop I'd written about here and here. It was especially notable because Chris and Cailan rode our black Fandango tandem. I forgot my camera, but Cindy caught this one with her phone:

But that was back on May 10th, and this story isn't about that. This story is about our Fourth o' July trip to Winter Park and Fraser....

It was sort of last minute, or last week, when we decided that we ought to get together for the extended weekend and do something fun in the mountains. We scrambled a bit to figure out we could do that would work for all of us, and wouldn't break the Cindy-doesn't-drive-a-bus-during-summer-so-we're-short-on-funds bank account. We ended up renting a townhouse in Fraser for a couple of nights and riding the now-familiar Winter Park trails. No lift-served rides this time, to Quinn's dismay.

For the record, here's what we did:

• July 4th: First a Blue Sky area loop with some "D" trails mixed in. Then, after dinner, a loop around Creekside and Flume. All of that was caught on a single GPS track: Click her for the Garmin link. It includes the drive to the house, so don't think the 50 mph max was done on my bike.
• July 4th: Another loop, nearly in the dark, around Creekside and Flume.
• July 5th: Devils Thumb Ranch. This was new for us. Sort of interesting, a private ranch with cross country ski trails open to bikes during summer, but not likely something we'll do again.
• July 5th: After some lunch back at the house, Elk Meadow, Sunken Bridges, Zoom, and Chainsaw. This was nice, but Zoom is really getting rough. We heard from a local that there's a secret, rogue, alternative trail that is better designed and may soon replace Zoom altogether.
• July 6th: To wrap things up, the Tipperary Creek loop. This trail is becoming Cindy's nemesis.

It's getting to be time to replace my old camera. Most of the pictures on this blog, and the original scaqabout were taken with a Canon Powershot A1000 that we've had for years. Not sure if this is really possible, but I think it's not focusing as well as it used to. And now it's lens cover is sticking half-way closed. So I'm probably going to need a new camera, but I'd rather get a dropper seatpost.

Amos came with us on our first loop, Blue Sky, but his pads weren't up to the abuse and he was limping on injured feet by the time we were done. We think he had a blast, but after that first ride, he spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in the house with Sharon. Poor guy could hardly walk, so he didn't seem to mind staying behind.

Devil's Thumb Ranch had some really nice scenery, and some of the the trails were good, but many of the trails had not really been built beyond a rough cut into the hillside for skiing, and others seemed to disappear into the forest, grass, and marshes. This is Quinn and Heather taking in the view.

The Elk Meadow Trail was nice. Plenty of cruising through forest on smoothly flowing trail.

Sunken Bridges, obviously. Lots of caddisfly and mayfly larvae in this little pond. Some other critters, too. Cailan may remember all of them.

Heather and Abbey finishing out the ride on the last bit of Chainsaw.

After a few miles of gentle climbing on a gravel road, the Tipperary Creek Trail climbs right at 1,000 feet in two miles. It's a smooth trail, so it's not terribly difficult, but it tops out at over 10,000 feet. So before we started the big climb, we stopped at the sign for peeing and a snack.

This is the first crossing of Tipperary Creek. It was nice and easy this time, but last summer, you might recall, there was quite a drop from the trail coming into the water, and Cindy took a chilly splash.

It's a beautiful valley. The sunny meadows are hot.

We were all impressed by Chris's strength and determination in climbing Tipperary with Cailan on the tandem.

The second crossing of Tipperary Creek at the top of the steepest two miles. The cold water was a welcome refreshment for our overheated bodies.

The descent from Tipperary back to Flume and on down Creekside to the parking lot is speedy. At the top it's very loose and very steep. Rather hazardous. Cindy took a nasty, scary spill at cruising speed, bruising and scraping most of her surfaces. She's OK now, still sporting bruises and scabs and either a bruised rib or a pulled muscle in her back, but she seemed a bit shaken up at the time. 

And then we engulfed a delicious high-calorie lunch at Elevation Pizza in Fraser before heading home.