Sam on his K2 Zed 20 sizing up the descent.
Atypically, I’ve just finished up a three-day weekend and all kinds of two-wheeled fun was had. But, best of all, Suzee and I celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary. The 5th is the actual day but truly, we simply prefer the first Saturday in October, especially when she’ll be on call at the hospital on the 5th.
Before our big anniversary dinner. Delayed shutter bliss. The posse at our lunch stop.
To start, we took our boys plus a friend out for a great mountain bike ride at Hartman Rocks. We did a pretty nice loop - some decent mileage, too, considering the three younger boys are riding tanks, one of which has just 20″ wheels. It was a bluebird day and we took our lunch high atop a granitic formation out there affectionately knows as the Pimple, the Zit or Boobies. It’s some sort of igneous formation jutting out of the barren sage landscape that looks just like a zit on a teenager’s face. It’s also one of the highest vantages at Hartmans and offers a spectacular 360 degree view of the heart of the south central Colorado high country.
Later that evening, just the two of us headed downtown, a hearty almost three block walk, to our favorite restaurant, Sugah’s Cafe. The proprietors, Matt and Charlotte, relocated to Gunni from Memphis just over a year ago and brought with them killer southern fare and a chill atmosphere. Anyone who ate the post race meal at the Growler knows what I’m talking about. They also have Dr. Pepper in cans and mellow Nawlings jazz piped in. Very cool!
But it was a three day weekend so I must now back up a day to Friday and the epic attempt of the Mendicant Ridge trail in the West Elk Mountains. This is a trail that I have seen on maps for years and I’m sure has been ridden numerous times. I just have never heard of anyone who has ridden it; didn’t want any beta on it from anyone who had if I could find them; and was/am also sure that if it was a really sweet trail, we probably would have heard about it by now. That has hike-a-bike written all over it if you ask me, not to mention that the West Elks are not known for great mountain biking, although the majority of the range is in wilderness and off limits to bikes. I love the unknown and Yuki and Jeff were coming along for the ride!
Yuki with a mouth full of PowerBar and Needle Rock in the background.
On my GPS, I plotted an overly ambitious route that would have us ride the Piburn Trail and the Bald Mountain Tie-In Trail first, before we even got to the start of our actual goal: the Mendicant Ridge Trail. The M-Ridge looks to be about 8-10 miles long, undulating and then dropping quickly. There is another trail adjacent to the M-Ridge called the West Dyer Trail and either of these would be plenty epic on their own. But once I was set on descending 92 to Crawford and then heading to the east to the Piburn, well, that just put it a little over the top.
The beginning of the singletrack riding....walking....pushing....hiking.
Things were foreboding from the start when the GPS route I had chosen terminated in a gate, private property and no trespassing signs. There was an old hippy nearby chopping wood outside of the old school bus up on blocks that he lived in and he told me that “there are some sketchy characters up there.” He recommended a different approach and we agreed. That approach took us into Crawford proper and then east directly below Needle Rock, the core of an ancient volcano that sits very near Joe Cocker’s place, the Mad Dog Ranch. This detour put us behind at least an hour but was very scenic as we plied deserted roads and jeep trails through blazing red oak brush that gave way to vast stands of yellow aspens.
A weird picture of Jeff pushing his bike through Yuki's armpit that is strangely in focus.
Finally on the Piburn trail, we had some decent singletrack riding with just an occasional downed tree across the trail. Colorado had experienced a vicious wind storm the day before (Monarch Pass reported 84 mile an hour winds and anyone in the high country that day reported numerous close calls with blown down trees, big ones!) so we knew we might be in for it. Sure enough, occasional turned into multiple and before long we weren’t able to ride very far each time we did get on before we were forced off again. Some of the trees were new but you could also see that some had been there for a while, too.
"Hey Yuki, have you seen me flex?"
We came to some downright time consuming places to get through, like the confluence of three drainages that all had flash flooded and totally jacked the area with precipitous little cliffs, snags and generally nasty terrain to get through. Finally, we popped out and the downed trees, for the most part, were behind us. Now we just had a narrow trail with a nice surface. The only problem was that it was fricking steep! Really steep! Serious pushing of the bike and fresh, we were pretty sure, bear turds on the trail. We knew we needed to gain a butt load of vertical to attain the back of Black Mesa and the beginning of the M-Ridge trail. Long story short, we pushed a lot, rode a little and finally got to where the trail began.
Where we should have been at about 11am, not 3pm.
However, it was 3pm now and if there were significant downed trees on these trails, we easily could find our selves darked and spending the night out there. We each did have space bags, fire and headlamps, but still…. We made the call to bail out and descend the road back to the FJ and call it a ride. As it was, My Suunto said 6400 vertical and we were out about 7 hours. But it was a glorious day and I loved every minute of exploring a place I’d never been before. If the weather cooperates and the snow stays away, I’d like to get back down there and do one of the two trails, just without the massive prelude. We’ll see.
The Mendicant Ridge trail, still unexplored by me, mocking me. We wimped out and bailed the other way.
Finally, today was Bronco Sunday. If you’re like some cyclists and hate the whole team sports/pro sports thing, just stop reading right here. But I like team sports. I like football. And I love the Denver Broncos. When they won their first Super Bowl, I saw people rioting in Denver. I was in Gunni but decided I should riot, too. I was the only one rioting and I was trying to tip cars over by myself and the police kept telling me just to go home. I finally did. You get the picture, though, I bleed orange and blue.
Oh yeah! Bronco Sunday!
My Sundays in the fall are often the same: ride in the morning and then watch a little Bronco football in the afternoon, usually also completing some major task around the house. Football is great like that as there is only what, 6 or 7 minutes of live action in an entire game? I can pay attention to it, see every play if I want to, but also be totally productive due to all of the breaks in the action. Today before the game I did a great ride with Mountain Flyer editor Brian Riepe and art director Chris Hanna. Chris loves football and the Broncos while Riepe is less enthusiastic, so when Chris and I would start talking football, Brian would torture us by dropping the hammer on his sweet Ibis Carbon singlespeed spanking us ’til we were too tired to speak. I think I left a lung out there somewhere! So my bronkies beat the Dallas Cowboys today (sorry Lance) and are 4-0. It was a great weekend! Goodnight!
Hey Lance, sorry about your Cowboys!
