Bear Creek Trail

On the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, we made a short trip up to Mt. Falcon and to Lair o' the Bear parks. This was a six-person and one-dog trip, having added Grandma and a friend of Abbey's to the usual mix. It was a good trip overall, but we did run into a few minor logistical issues. The first was that we forgot to get ice until we were well past the best ice-getting places. Then, in the process of finding somewhere else to get ice, I missed more than one turn. It was sort of humorous, but sort of frustrating; we drove some extra miles and wasted some time and gas.

Eventually we made to Mt. Falcon (coming in from the high side on the west) and enjoyed some beautiful sunny weather while walking around the high meadow trails. We've been on these trails before: Click here for a recap from last year's trip with the other grandparents. We'd expected some crowds, since it was a holiday weekend, but it really wasn't too bad, although the parking lot did fill to capacity for a while in the late morning. After our walk, we had a nice picnic in the shade of a stone shelter with a splendid mountain view.

The picnic over, we set out on the more complicated part of the day. Since the Mt. Falcon parking lot is close to Pence Park, which is at the top of Bear Creek Trail, and since we were in two cars to accommodate our over-sized group, I thought it would be a great opportunity to do a shuttle ride on the Bear Creek Trail. So after lunch Cindy, Quinn, and I went to Pence Park with the truck and bikes to start down the trail while Grandma took A and D and The Mouse down to Lair o' the Bear Park to meet us at the end of the trail. It almost worked pretty well.

The difficulty was that, although Mt. Falcon Park was just at capacity, Lair o' the Bear was over capacity. So the second set of logistical issues for the day was related to finding someplace to park at Lair o' the Bear. It took Grandma and the kids the better part of an hour just to find a parking space. They did, eventually, but not much before we finished the ride.

Here's a link to the Garmin log from our ride.

The ride was really fun (although we tried not to let G, A, and D know just how much fun). About six miles, mostly downhill, although at one point Quinn seemed convinced there was more up than down! I'd ridden this trail once last year in both directions, but we hadn't done it as a family because I knew Quinn would find the climbing pretty tough. Doing it as a shuttle made for a good family-friendly solution.

Here's a picture of our Frontier with its new topper and the same old bike mounts we've used for years. We can get at least five, maybe six bikes up there. So far we're just set up for four. Of course, that step ladder beside the truck is almost a necessity for getting the bikes up there.

The Bear Creek Trail is a very pleasant ride through the forests and meadows on the mostly north-facing slope above Bear Creek. I think maybe the trail actually starts in Meyer Gulch, which is a tributary of Bear Creek, and then traverses a couple of ridges and drainages as cuts down to Bear Creek. There are no wide-open views, so it's not supremely scenic, but occasional glimpses of surrounding peaks and a mix of meadows and forest make for a very pleasant trip. The riding is mostly smooth and easy, not too steep, with only a few challenging rocky sections. There are some trail segments that involve navigating some larger boulders; a few of these I haven't been able to clean. The most memorable sections are near the top where the trail cycles back and forth and up and down in fast, smooth roller-coaster fashion.

Here's Mom on the trail, just getting through a short, rocky section.

Here's another tough spot; Quinn and Mom both dismounted here. The trail goes steeply up amidst boulders, and turns sharply right, and is along a small, but noticeable ledge.

And there's the staircase, pictured below. I tried riding up this section last time, but didn't quite make the corner at the top. Riding down really isn't hard, but it is a little intimidating. This time, I rode down, parked my bike, and walked back up to spot Quinn at the tricky corner. He rode the whole with no problem, although it would have been OK if he'd gone just a little slower!

Perhaps still on a high from his successful descent of the staircase, with an audience, Quinn found himself off to the side of the trail rolled into tangle with his bike. I had actually stopped to get some pics of him coming around a rocky corner, and was waiting with camera in hand. When he reached me and came into my view, I was surprised to see him riding a front wheelie. His rear wheel was at least a foot off the ground! This is a difficult situation from which to recover, but I thought briefly that he might, and then his front wheel hit a little rock ledge and quickly turned 90 degrees. With that his bike shot sideways and he continued right over the bars, still clipped to his pedals, somersaulting down the hillside. Luckily, large rocks have significant stopping power, and so he didn't tumble far. Once stopped, he yelled, "That was awesome!!" Then he realized he was bleeding. Cindy pulled him up while I took pictures, like any caring father would. With some sense knocked into him, and some significant pain in his arm, he kept it to a safe 80% of full throttle for the rest of the ride.