In the morning while were eating breakfast, Sharon mentioned that we'd better start riding soon because there was front coming through around noon. The weather apps on our phones said otherwise: the front wouldn't be here in until evening. Foolishly, we ignored the conflicting information and packed up the bikes, along with not nearly enough cold weather gear, and headed for Heil Valley Ranch, which is a little north of Boulder. It was nearly 40 degrees when we left home, but about 15 minutes into our drive, as downtown Denver came into view, we could see a thick, low cloud approaching. At the same time, the wind picked up from the north, and the temperature dropped quickly from the 40s to the 20s. Sharon's forecast was right; ours was not. We turned around and headed home.
Frustrated and disappointed, I was reluctant to give up. Could we find somewhere that wasn't cold yet? It was still warm to the south, so we gathered up gloves and warmer layers, replaced shorts with tights, and headed to Monument, which is maybe 40 miles south; a few miles north of the Air Force Academy. For future reference, we followed ride 23 in our Mountain Biking Colorado Springs guidebook. I still haven't found my GPS unit.
We parked at the Nursery Road trailhead. It was 55 degrees and now we were overdressed. Nonetheless with the front on its way, we packed extra warm clothes with us as we set off on the ride. We followed the trail aroud the north side of the "the maze," which is an area that apparently has a confusing network of unmarked trails. We figured if we stuck to the side, we could get through without getting lost.
After a mile or so, we came to the monument that gives Monument its name. It's a big rock, seemingly plopped down in the middle of a field.
We followed another mile or so if nice smooth singletrack until we reached a road. Up to this point, the singletrack had been smooth and easy. Fun for just about anyone. The next bit of our ride was to follow a smooth gravel road for another three miles up, and eventually return on downhill singletrack. Three miles of uphill gravel road was just about Quinn's limit. He was getting irritated and frustrated by the time we reached the trail. So we stopped for a snack. We were sweating from our uphill climb, but the temperature was starting to drop. A snack always helps.
This is where the trail takes off from the road. It appeared that if we continued on the road, we'd be getting into more snow.
The trail dropped fast, with lots of rocks, loose gravel, and snow. It was tricky, crazy, fun. We found ourselves in a narrow canyon with steep walls far above an icy creek.
There were footprints, but no tire tracks in the snow. It was apparent that this trail receives little use, relative to many of those we ride here in Colorado.
The return ride was tough. We had burned most of our downhill early with that steep descent. After that we followed a couple miles of really rough, rocky trail, that was probably mostly downhill, but was dominated by constant ups and downs. It was hard, but I think we both loved it. I'm amazed at Quinn's rock-crawling capabilities.
Eventually we got out in the open, the rocks got smaller, and the trail flowed nicely for some more relaxing fun. The sun was slipping behind Mount Herman.
We found the monument again and followed a similar route around the maze. When we returned to the trailhead at about 3:30 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 36 degrees. Our total ride time was around 3 hours and 30 minutes, our distance around 9 miles.
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