Ring around the Reservoir

We did a fun ride around the Rampart Reservoir to enjoy the fall weather. The trail was pretty dry and the scree wasn't very forgiving and caused a few slides and scrapes. A fun ride though, with some great views! Hard to beat a 68 degree October day in Colorado!

Summer isn't over Monarch Crest

We did it!!! We have all ridden the Monarch Crest and want to do it again.

For those of you not familiar with it, here's the skinny:
1) Catch Monarch Crest Shuttle in Poncha Springs at ~7k ft
2) Start at Monarch Pass ~11k ft
3) Ride ~8 miles of killer single track between 11k and 12k ft
4) Descend ~4 miles and ~2k ft to Marshall Pass
5) Call it good and return to Poncha Springs via Marshall Pass if your arms and butt hurt
6) Push on and ride Silver Creek and Rainbow Trail for 20 more miles of singletrack
7) Drink fruit slushies when done
8) Camp and watch the stars

The start of something good!!!

Looking to the west


Approaching 12k feet, need oxygen

Still climbing

Columbines

Finally, some downhill, yahoo!!!

"My brakes don't work"

A flat tire adding to the fun.

Patching my tube a 2nd time...

Are we there yet?

Who hid the gold?


Can we do it again?

Escaping summers heat

July - What happened?

Manitou Downhill - Its worth the climb

Last week Ron and I did a summer solstice ride up Ute Trail and down Barr Trail. After the ride we finished things off with a beer at Kinfolks. While at Kinfolks we met a group of riders from Manitou Springs that ride around Manitou Springs every Thursday. They invited us out and we joined them on a killer downhill.


That's a crew


I want to see someone ride this


What a view


Chilling at the finish

Ute to Barr Trails - Summer Solstice In the Dark

It was just me and Ron tonight. We were going to try Jones Downhill but got a late start and decided on something shorter.

We started from the Waldo Canyon parking lot and headed south. Ute Trail was a brutal climb and took longer then expected. We had hoped to ride Elk Park but even on the longest day of the year things started to get dark. So we cut the ride short and headed down Barr Trail.

It was a good thing we headed down when we did. Before we got half way down things were dark and we were stuck negotiating the trail with our tiny headlights. Ron had a minor spill but he survived. When we made it to Manitou Springs we finished the night with a beer at Kinfolks where we met another group of Thursday night riders.

Urban Assault Ride

New Belgium is sponsoring this crazy event called the Urban Assault ride. Is anyone interested in doing this? It is done in teams of two and the entry fee is 90 per team. The race in seattle last year was won by a guy who rides for Rock Racing and Denver was won by a Trek rider, so not likely that we'd win but it would probably be fun!!! If anyone is interested, email me and I'll coordinate.

Spruce Mtn - AKA Paradise

Yesterday was another beautiful ride for Scott, Ron, Jake and Mark of RDBM. We rode Spruce Mtn open space which seemed like paradise because everything was so green, lush and peaceful. The open space is just north of Palmer Lake and west of Greenland. There was a brief rain earlier in the day which elimanted any dust or loose sections and made the trail fast and sticky. We road a short 6.5 mile loop which included some nice climbs, fantastic views and fast downhills.

Spruce Mountain

This Thursday we are going to ride Spruce Mountain Trail in Spruce. It is quite likely that none of us will have ridden the trail tomorrow, so as always be prepared with the camel pack J . It is a short ride (4.5 miles), and does not have any significant elevation difference, so if we are left unsatisfied with the ride we can always piggy-back with Spruce Meadows Trail, which is a little longer. Pets are allowed (leashed) if you would like to bring your dog (or puma) along.

We will meet at the trailhead at 5:30. Hope to see everyone out there tomorrow!

Link to Trail Map

Weather forecast for 6:00 PM Thursday – may want to bring a rain coat ;) :
53 deg, 60% rain, from NW 14 mph

Here is the information copy/pasted from the website:

Highlights:
Spruce Mountain Trail ascends Spruce Mountain through a ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forest. The first lookout offers breathtaking views of Greenland Open Space, surrounding buttes, Pikes Peak, the Palmer Divide, Carpenter Creek and thousands of acres of protected open space. There will be plenty of opportunities to gaze off rocky lookouts in all directions. Bring your camera!

Trail Rating:
The 4.5 mile shady hike, although fairly steep and narrow in the beginning, will take you to a wide and gentle trail that circles the top of the mountain. Ice and snow can build up on the shaded trails. You will encounter switchbacks on the ascent and back down again, and may need to step off the narrow trail, or back up, for passing trail users. Depending on the time of year, the trail will have its challenging sections and very easy sections. Small children have been known to hike it well, but keep an eye on them at the rocky lookouts!

Trail Length:
4.5 miles from Spruce Mountain Road parking lot, roundtrip.

Trail Surface:
Natural; some rock; steep and narrow 1/4-mile climb on north side with switchbacks.

Uses:
Hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, and pets on leash can use the trail.

Amenities:
There is a temporary, small grassy parking lot that will accommodate cars and light trucks only. Sorry, there is no room for horse trailers here. Trailers may be parked at the roomy Spruce Meadows Trailhead along Noe Road to the NE, adding a couple of miles in each direction to your ride. One port-a-potty is available. Please pack your trash out. There is no water available at this site. Water is available at stock ponds along the Spruce Meadows Trails and at nearby Greenland Open Space Trailhead.

Location:
From I-25, take the Greenland Exit (167) to the west and travel 1/4 mile west and 1/2 mile south. Bypass the Greenland Trailhead and continue right on the main gravel road (Noe Road) over two sets of railroad tracks and continue another mile to Spruce Mountain Road. Take a left and head south for about 3/4 mile to the small parking area on your right. Remember, cars and light trucks only.

Or, travel about 4 miles south of Larkspur on Spruce Mountain Road and the entrance will be on your right.

Contact:
Douglas County Open Space and Natural Resources at 303-660-7495.

Saturday Morning Ride

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) we are planning on riding the Falcon Trail at around 9:00 AM.

We'll meet at the B52 parking area and head out for the trailhead.

High Drive, bring the suppl oxygen

Ride today, meet at the trailhead @ 5:30 J

Sounds like the winner is to park at the lower High Drive parking lot, ride up High Drive, down Lower Captain, and the coast back down Gold Camp to the cars.

For anyone that’s interested in riding but is curious how tough the ride will be, there is not more than 50 yards of technical’ish riding on Lower Captain Jacks, but the trek up High Drive is a 2200 ft elevation gain in right at 4.5 miles, so it’s fairly steep.

Map to the parking lot – http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=17864434727070059528,38.819679,-104.892426&saddr=W+Federal+Dr,+Colorado+Springs,+El+Paso,+Colorado+80921,+United+States&daddr=High+Dr+%4038.819679,+-104.892426&mra=pe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=11&sll=38.904432,-104.83834&sspn=0.285873,0.573349&ie=UTF8&ll=38.870454,-104.820557&spn=0.143005,0.286674&t=h&z=12

Hope to see ya out there!

Riding day moved to Thursdays

Wednesday is turning out to not work well for multiple people to ride, so we are going to move the rides to Thursdays starting, well, this week.

Section 16 - Forearm Exercise

You may have noticed that our communication on where and when we were riding this week was a bit lacking - we'll try to pick up the slack. Well, most of the day Thursday was filled with cloud cover and it wasn't looking to be a dry day of biking, but not 15 minutes before we hit the trails the skies opened up to blue sky, the wind died down, and the temperature was in the mid 60's. We had an awesome clockwise ride starting from the Section 16 Trail head. We finished in58 minutes of ride time according to Ron's clock, which is a decent pace, courtesy of our pace leader and triathlete Roger.

I'll upload the one picture we got soon.

Fun times.

Starlight Spectacular

Is anyone interested in an RDBM-Starlight Spectacular?

Midnight Bicycle Ride throughthe streets of Colorado Springs, June 21, 11:59 pm, Garden of the Gods Visitor Center.

" It provides financial support to the Trails and Open Space Coalition (TOSC) to help us advocate for cyclists. In 2008, TOSC will be working on the concept of placing sharrows on city streets, developing additional bike lanes and trails in the city, funding additional signage to connect streets to trails and vice-versa, and improving the wayfinding system for cyclists on trails and streets to assist in navigating this rapidly growing community"

I bet it would be a blast and benefits a good cause! 35 dollars, but if we register as a team of 4 or more, it is only 30 dollars.

http://www.starlightspectacular.org/

Cheyenne Mtn State Park, New Territory

We are going to try something new this week and head out to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. I've heard only great things about this new park - how beautiful it is and how well maintained the trails are. The park's website is located here if you want to check it out, and a link to the trails.

Meet time
Since the days are longer and people may need to travel from work, we're going to push the meeting time back to 6:00 PM. The plan is to keep it that time in the future.

Weather
As usual for the Wednesday rides, Mother Earth may have some tricks up her sleeves tomorrow. Forecast is temps in the 40's and chance of rain %60, so don't forget the rain gear! Anyone that shows up and has ridden the area before can show us the ropes, or else we'll be in exploration mode!

Directions
Take I-25 to South Academy, head west on South Academy past Pikes Peak Community College, continue west to Highway 115, turn left (south) on 115 to the first stop light south of Academy (also the light for Fort Carson Gate 1), the park entrance is to the west. Go west and follow the road into the park. Look for state highways signs directing you to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We'll meet in the Visitors Center parking lot, then shuttle through so we don't have to pay as much. Fee is $6 / vehicle, so bring along a couple dollars if you'd like to help out.
Google maps from LM Building 2 to the park

Beer
Oh, and Scott will bring the beer tomorrow ;) .

Bristol Bear Tacos

Spring is here and so are the thunderstorms. While we were blessed with clearing skys by the time we started riding, the trails were still soaked.

There were four of us today and we started out on one of the Bear Creek single tracks but barely made it 50 yards before our bikes were so full of mud that our bike wheels would not turn. We then regrouped at the trailhead by cleaning our bikes and cleats. The regular Bear Creek trails looked less muddy so we tried those next. They were just as muddy and slippery so after a 100 yards on the main trail we concluded things were not ridable.

All of us still wanted to ride but the trail conditions were implossible. Where should we go, we asked. Bristol Brewery!!!

We ended up doing a 7.5 mile loop down to Bristol and back. The beers were good and there were some fun hills in between so we still had a good ride. However, our friend Ryan has a seat that looks like a taco and hurts like hell. Hopefully he gets a new seat before our next ride.

Email - get it, if you want it

Our friend J.R. has created an email list for us. You can sign up here and point your friends here if they want to receive the latest RDBM happenings.

http://mail.semi-numeric.com/mailman/listinfo/rdbm_semi-numeric.com

5/7/08 - Bear Creek @ 5:30

This week we are going to ride Bear Creek. It is a combination of new single track and existing double track. The plan is start at the bottom of the park, work our way up the valley on the south side towards Gold Camp Road, then take Bear Creek Road to the nature center and ride back down the valley on the north side.

We will meet at Bear Creek Park on the north side of Argus Blvd and 21st Street.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=12927519044836842172,38.820384,-104.863043&saddr=colorado+springs,+co&daddr=38.820401,-104.863043&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=17&sll=38.821003,-104.859406&sspn=0.00321,0.009323&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=17

Any beer volunteers? Last week we enjoyed some refreshing Moosehead courtesy of Ryan.

This ride is not very long or technical which should be a relief to those who were on last weeks ride. Last week John, Cheryl, Ryan and I rode Mt. Herman / Raspberry Gulch. It was a great ride but the first 4.5 miles were a steady climb and the last hour was in the dark. Luckily we had just got off the trail when it got dark but finding our way from Palmer Lake to our cars took some time. The total ride was just over 13 miles and took about 3 hours.

Note - The days are getting longer and this ride is short, however it never hurts to be prepared. If you have a headlamp or bike light, you might want to bring it. They were worth the extra weight last week.

Here are some pictures from Mt. Herman on 4/30/08.

4/30/08 - Mt Herman @ 5:30

This week we will be riding Raspberry Chautauqua Mountain Trail / Limbaugh Canyon Loop on Mt. Herman in Monument.

It is a 9 mile loop and should take between 1.5 and 2 hours.

http://www.singletracks.com/php/trail.php?id=20

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=BGR069-045

The weather forecast is 73 and breezy.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Monument&state=CO&site=PUB&textField1=39.0701&textField2=-104.857&e=1

We will park in the parking lot on Red Rocks Dr just off of NF-320.

http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Red+Rocks+Dr+%26+NF-320,+Monument,+CO+80132&geocode=&dirflg=&saddr=monument,+co&f=d&hl=en&sll=39.089102,-104.910722&sspn=0.017887,0.033817&ie=UTF8&t=p&z=14

Hope to see you out there.

4/25/08 - Some like it sloppy... A Red Rocks update

Some rides you remember and some rides you never forget.

Red Rocks this week is a ride that will never be forgotten.

Scott, Jeremy, Jake and I rode on Wednesday despite the freak snowstorm and it was amazing.

We left the parking lot by 6 and cruised up the east side of Red Rocks to Section 16. The last 0.75 miles Section 16 was covered in 4 inches of snow and the bike tires would no longer roll so we had to carry and push the bikes. Once on Section 16 we rode over to Intemann trail and tried our best to stay on top of our bikes as we slipped back to the parking lot.

The total ride was about 4.5 miles and took us almost two hours because the conditions were so tough.

I am also working on a website and Jeremy is helping me with a mailing list that people will be able to subscribe to.

Hope to see you next week.