We hoped he could make it as far as the Crags then bail out down to hwy67 and back to the Springs.
We headed west up the Midland trail and on into Manitou Springs. A left turn up Ruxton ave headed to the cog railway station. Just past the station we took a right turn onto what we thought was the Ute Pass Trail. Come to find out we missed the trail and climbed a nasty hike a bike. Though it did end up at the UPT and we got to ride some nice single track. Once I started doing the steeper climbs I realized that my gearing on the single speed was not quite right.
Next time I'll put at least a 20 tooth cog in the back. Running an 32x18 just was not enough for that much climbing.
Again we missed a turn and finally ended up about 3 miles up the pass from where we wanted to come out. At this point Bob's back was really killing him and he decided to head back down the pass.
Now solo I decided I would continue on and see how far I could make it. So on up the pass to Chipita Park and the steep climb up Picabo rd to find the Mt. Esther trail head. At the top of Picabo the road turns into Mountain rd and heads west. As I made it to the top I spotted a friend of mine's house. Now I remember that the trail is just east of his house so I turnaround and there it is off to the right on a short dirt road.
It's a 30 minute hike a bike up Mt Esther trail to the top and a right turn onto single track. Once on the single track I'm reminded that I should have put a 20 tooth cog on. Sort of became my mantra for the day "32x20" next time.
Lots of climbing up to the Catamount connector and then on across the dam more climbing on fire roads with lots of soft washed out surface. Although the view was great with vistas of Pikes Peak that not many people will see. Riding around to the south side of Catamount I see the RTP sign point to more single track. This section was really nice and some fun downhill on it.
I passed a group Seniors hiking up the trail with packs on, good for them.
The single track dead ended on another fire road with yet more climbing and more mantra. It slowly turned into a single track but continued to climb. My stomach was letting me know that it was time to stop and have a bite to eat. I didn't take very much time to eat as I wanted to get as far as possible so I saved some time and head back to climbing.
As I got closer to the Crags I notice clouds building from the west, this only means one thing, thunderstorms. When I got to the Crags campground I made the decision to bail down to the highway and back home. Unfortunately I didn't make it to far past Divide before the clouds started dumping rain and hail. I found some shelter and waited out the storm, then got back on the road only to catch the storm again. More shelter and wait it out some more, then this time I was able to get down the pass and to the brewery for a cold beer and glass of water.
Bob came down to have a beer with me and recap ride rest of my ride. So 68 miles and close to 8 hours with over 5k of climbing on the bike.
More recon rides in a couple of weeks.
Sent from my iPad
0 comments:
Post a Comment