Staying Local

I had a great three days of riding high country around Rico. I got off work at 7am on Saturday morning and Laura and I took off to go ride up Hillside Drive up to the Colorado Trail and come down Salt Creek Trail. Shawn Gregory joined in a bit later and rode the same route. The ride was 37.5 miles and  4448 feet of climbing.I rode the full rigid Airbrone with a 32x20 setup. Laura was on her usual Ti 29er geared 2x9. Any bike is good for this ride.  It is a great training ride with gravel roads and super epic singletrack. We seen a few CTR riders and encouraged them on. I'll be there next year. The vacation time is already secured.

Day 2 I brought out the fat bike and rode from Rico north to the Dunton Road and on to Eagle Peak Road, hiked up the East Fall trail to the Calico. From the Calico I headed south to Horse Creek Trail. Down Horse and back to Rico. The weather was ideal with some threatening clouds and lighting nearby but nothing on top of me. Just epic riding. This ride was 28.5 miles and 3817 feet of climbing. Horse was in rough shape.

Horse Creek drain in the background where I would soon drop down into.

. 

Almost 12k up.

Day 3 I again brought out the fat bike and rode from Rico south to Hillside Drive, up 13 miles and came down Rough Canyon Trail which dumps you onto the Roaring Fork Road a mile from HWY 145. I rode back to Rico with no weather to speak of. Ride states were 36 miles and 3131 feet of climbing. I felt it.

Rough Canyon Trail. Sweet singletrack.

In the three days I covered 102 miles and over 10k of climbing. The fat bike is a great training bike being that it is heavy. The gears are nice to have on that beast. Time to taper off a bit for this weekends XC race in Dolores and the  next weekends 24 hour race in Gunnison. Solo single speed! Time for redemption.