Waterton to Indian Creek Loop

The previous post was way too long, so I'm really going to keep this one short. Today I got an early start and rode a big loop.

I used a Google Android app called My Tracks to log my route. Here's a line to a map with my GPS log: Click Here!

Here are some stats:

Total Distance: 32.6 miles

Total Time: 5 hrs 17 min

Moving Time: 4 hrs 5 min

Elevation Range: 5365 to 7821 ft.

Below is a graph I made in R showing my speed and elevation. My Tracks did not give me a measure of distance in the tabular data output, so I used time on the x-axis, but would have preferred distance. There's probably a way to calculate that from the coordinates, but I didn't take the time to figure it out.

The road that goes up Waterton Canyon, alongside the Platte River, is closed to public motor vehicle traffic. It's about 6.5 miles of smooth gravel, and apparently is very popular with runners in the morning and with families of bicyclists in the afternoon. It's really quite beautiful, and the canyon is home to many bighorn sheep, which I did not see. This is the road along the Platte River:

At the end of the road is the dam that holds back Strontia Springs Reservoir, one of the major sources of water for Denver area residents. There are some big pipes that cut through the mountains to move the water from the reservoir to the city. I only wished there was a way to see the reservoir. The dam, while impressive, hardly seemed like a suitable destination for a mountain walk or ride.

I was feeling overly ambitious, anxious to take on more than I could handle perhaps, so I planned this big loop that linked together several trails for an epic adventure. After riding up Waterton Canyon, I followed  a short segment of the Colorado Trail, and then took Indian Creek Loop Trail into the western edge of Roxborough State Park, where it turned south and climbed and climbed and climbed.

Eventually, after about 3 hours, I reached the Indian Creek Trailhead and took a short break at the vacant equestrian campground (pic below). At this point, after more than 3 hours of riding, I'd finally crested the high point of the ride. I was incredibly tired, and if it hadn't been mostly downhill from there, I never would have made it. What was I thinking?

It was a very pretty ride, and the thick vegetation was such a contrast to what I had seen in Grand Junction the weekend before. Also, by getting out for such a big loop, I saw few other riders until I was near the end of the ride. In fact, from the time I started up the Colorado Trail, at less than one hour, until I was nearly to Indian Creek Campground, which was more than an hour later, I saw only two other riders and one runner on the trail. That has to be rare for riding in the Front Range on a Sunday.

I would definitely be up for doing this one again, but I don't think I'll put this on the list of family rides we'll do this summer. However, the road up Waterton Canyon to the dam will definitely go on the list, since it's smooth and quite gradual.

More Traveling

I covered a lot of ground in the last week. I just got back from a quick trip to Newark, NJ, for a conference on contaminated sediments, something of which New Jersey has plenty. Perhaps the highlight of that trip was the sunset cruise on New York Harbor. It was the first time I'd actually seen New York City.

But to dwell on that adventure would take us off the central theme of this blog. Now, the Friday before the trip to NJ, I had traveled across the mountains to Grand Junction for some more of the usual two-wheeled, non-motorized adventuring.

The first notable event of my weekend adventure was the snow storm and closure of Interstate 70 just to the east of Vail Pass. Presumably as a result of the snow storm, an accident in the vicinity of Vail Pass forced the closure of the highway for at least an hour. I sat in my truck in one spot for about 45 minutes while I waited for the road to clear. The line of cars must have been miles long.

The next morning after a delicious breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs at C&H's kitchen, we packed up the bikes and headed to Fruita, CO. Cailan sat this one out, so H&C were able to get out on their big red tandem. We got a great start on Mary's Loop, just outside of Fruita. I say a great start because we'd had a great breakfast, the sun was shining, the scenery was spectaculous, and we were out riding on a dusty rocky desert trail. It was, as usual, exceptional. We made it around the south and west side of Mary's and turned off on Steve's Trail when the rear tire on the big red tandem started going thump, thump, thump. It looked like this:

That big bubble showed up on the rear tire, and that ended the ride for the tandem. Chris tossed me his keys and sent me after his truck.

So I headed off alone on my bicycle in the desert with only a vague idea of where I was going. Actually, I wasn't the least bit worried, because I knew the river was generally to my southwest and the highway was roughly parallel to the river to my northeast (although at the time I would have said west and east, respectively). Regardless, there was no way I could get lost, even if I made a wrong turn or two.

I made no wrong turns as such, but the most painful event of the weekend did occur only a few minutes after leaving H&C with their bulging tire. I attempted to ride down a challenging trail feature without adequately slowing down to prepare. The feature is simply a series of maybe five or six large squarish rocks that have been lined up to make a smooth (almost) ramp down what would otherwise be about a three-foot drop. I'd ridden down it once before quite easily. I'd even considered trying to ride up it (but decided against it) on our way in that morning. Several other riders traveling in the opposite direction were carrying their bikes up the steep ledge when I reached it. I had already decided I would ride down the rocks, but I did not slow down as I approached the line, and much to my surprise, something went awry. I had not even reached the series of rocks that comprise the ramp when my front tire unexpectedly came to an abrupt halt and I found myself tumbling and rolling down the steep drop. I distinctly remember seeing my feet and my wheels above me with sky in the background, before I came bouncing to a halt among the rocks. After a few seconds, I stood. The other riders seemed genuinely concerned that I might have been broken. I had landed on my Camelbak, which cushioned my fall (how many times has that water pillow on my back been there to catch me?). I was mostly uninjured, and my bike was mostly undamaged, but we did leave some skin and paint on the trail. Payment in flesh for our passage. A little shaken, and very dusty, I continued down the trail to the white Nissan, which I drove to another trailhead to find H&C. My worst injury was a significant bruising of my arm. A photo from the following day.

Since the bulging tire had put an early end to our ride, and my crash had left me dazed, we decided to stop for pizza at the Hot Tomato in Fruita. It's wonderful pizza, made for mountain bikers by mountain bikers. I don't think that's their slogan, but it could be. And a pint of beer to go with  it.

After getting home a while later, and spending a little time recovering, Chris and I made the short trek down the street in Grand Junction to the Lunch Loops. Heather's hand was still sore from a crash a couple weeks before, so she graciously sent us off. But the sun was hot and the air was warm, and pizza and beer were not the ideal fuel. I felt like a slug trying to pedal a bike uphill on hot day. We climbed a great piece of trail that I would love to do again on a cool morning with a belly full of granola and coffee. It was sort of like riding up a creek bed. Loose rock, and rock ledges, continuous with no breaks, a long slow challenging climb, but we made it to the mushroom:

The view from the mushroom was quite nice.

After a little snack and a rest at the mushroom, we started heading down. Whether it was the speed, the wind chill effect, the rest, the snack, or the mushroom, I don't know, but I began to feel better. Among others, we took the Holy Cross Trail down, which I'd ridden before with Chris. It's a tricky, techy, trail with lots of challenging rock obstacles. In the photo below, Chris is going down an obstacle that actually isn't all that hard, but when you approach it, the rock appears to disappear as though you were facing a 10-foot fall, and it is very important to pick the right path to avoid the steeper slopes to either side.

Chris caught this video of me riding down another tricky spot. Chris and I worked this obstacle out together last time we'd ridden this trail, so it didn't seem quite so scary this time.

Sunday morning we got out for one more round of rides before I had to get on the road to get back to Denver. We went to the 18-Road trails near Fruita and rode Prime Cut, Joe's, Kessel's Run, and the new PBR. Chris and Cailan rode the big yellow tandem, although not on PBR, which rather like a downhill roller coaster. We had other riders with us, including another couple on a tandem, in the background of the picture below.

Joe's is a little spooky as it runs along the tops of a few tall steep ridges. Running off the trail would result in a long slide down through the desert scrub. If you look really hard in the photo below, you can see the big yellow tandem team part way through Joe's Trail. Cailan seemed to enjoy the adventure, and even got his push bike out for a little bit of trail riding.

And that was it. Back to Denver I went.

Little Scraggy Burn

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Colorado. Some cool air blew in last night, creating lighting and wind, but with a sunny sky and a temperature of around 40 F this morning, I should be out on a trail instead of sitting at my kitchen table in front of a computer. Alas, I have to take the lawn mower I rented back to the Big Tool Box at 9 a.m., so I'm sort of stuck. It is a nice opportunity to slowly work my way through some coffee.

Yesterday morning I rode a really nice section of the Colorado Trail, starting at the Little Scraggy Trailhead, and this morning I was anxious to review my photos from the adventure. It was an especially nice trail, and, in contrast to some of the trails I've ridden recently, it did not begin with a huge climb. Instead, it began with a gentle winding descent. There were no really long hard climbs on this ride, but plenty of moderate ups and downs. As with all of the Buffalo Creek area trails, the surface of the trail was gravelly, making it a little soft and slippery in places. The little balls of gravel-sized granite, if that's what it is, roll underneath tires and hence don't provide great traction; cornering requires extra caution. This trail was much less rocky than the trails in the parks closer to Denver, but plenty of exposed roots added interest to the ride and made me appreciate my double squishy bike. It was not a difficult trail, and will be another one we can do with the kids. I'm sure that Quinn and I could ride the whole thing on our Big Black Tandem.

I left our Garmin Forerunner in Michigan with Cindy so she could use it to track her runs. I didn't remember to bring our other GPS unit back to Colorado with me, so I installed a GPS app on my phone that sort of allowed me to track my route, but there does not appear to be any way to access the data using the via the internet. Consequently, I don't have a GPS log to show this time, so I've inserted a link to maps that include the trails I rode today. It also has some of the trails I've written about previously: Click here to see the FRMBP maps.

This section of the Colorado Trail winds through a nice pine forest for most of it's length. In places there are great views across the valley, but I found the many protruding lumps of rock most interesting. Some of those lumps just beckon to be scrambled upon. We'll have to find some opportunities for boulder scrambling once the Cindy and the kids are here.

I followed the Colorado Trail west for several miles and then made a loop to the south on Green Mountain Trail.  There was a little more sustained climbing there, but it was well rewarded by a speedy descent. The photo below was taken near the apex of the Green Mountain Trail. The trail in picture doesn't look all that steep, but my 43-year-old heart had to turn over 200 beats per minute on the ascent to supply my equally old legs with sufficient oxygen.

With the Green Mountain loop one on the west end, this ride was what we'd call a "lollipop" route. On the outgoing portion of my ride, perhaps six miles of trail, I saw only five other riders and one walker. That was mostly because I beat the crowds to the trailhead. Once I'd completed the loop and was heading back east on the Colorado Trail, I encountered many more cyclists, a few hikers, and one large group of horses, dogs, and ponies (after which there were lots of additional obstacles in the trail to avoid). There were also a few climbers out on the rocks:

This is a not-so-spectacular example of some of the boulder piles that are scattered about the area. Many of these are near the trailhead, and probably make great substrate for family picnicking and play.

The lollipop route added 17.5 miles to my Nickel's odometer, but I finished before noon, and the lack of hard climbs left my legs with plenty of energy to burn. After a little snack on my truck's tailgate, I rode the Buffalo Burn Trail, which also begins at the Little Scraggy Trailhead. This little loop zips gently downhill, winding through the open forest until it reaches an overview of an area burned in the 1996 Buffalo Creek fire. The trail is quite narrow, obviously a newer trail that receives limited use, and was clearly designed by mountain bikers to be a fun bit of twisty single-track. I will ride it again!

With no standing live trees (16 years after the fire!), there are some really great views across the valley. The exposed rock and skeletons of old trees make for spectacular, even apocalyptic, scenery.

The photo below is most definitely my favorite from the ride. And look at that big chunk of white crystal! What is that?

The Buffalo Burn Trail brought my total distance for the morning to just over 20 miles. I was tempted to stay out in the Buffalo Creek area and continue riding through the afternoon, but there were chores to do back home. I'm really looking forward to getting Cindy and the kids out to this area. It's about 50 miles from our house, and will be a great place to spend a couple of days and nights riding and camping, and exploring those boulder piles!