Bonus Time

A bit of a surprise that I read in the local paper that the Park Service decided to open up Fall River Road to hikers and bikers. There has been repair work going on all summer, post flood, that has kept it closed. Kudos and thanks to the Park Service for opening it up for this short window before winter sets in. It would have been pretty easy for them to just say "heck with it" and keep it closed up until next spring/summer.

So with the opportunity....how can I possibly pass it up??

Here we go!

Every cyclist dream.....a closed to vehicles but OK for cyclist road block!!

Up and Up we go!
Fall River road is a pretty steep affair, gaining a good amount of elevation over its ten miles or so route to the top ending at the Alpine Visitor Center.

I had a nice day working here, sun was in and out, about 58 degrees starting out.
Plenty of places to stop and enjoy the sun and Fall River, get a drink.........just be happy I am out!!

A future S'Mores roasting opportunity

I seemed to have most of the road to myself. There was a young guy who zoomed by me going up and a gal that was starting as I was unloading my bike. I never caught her until she was coming down as I reached the top. There was a group of two families that were riding down from the top. They had young kids on bikes that were having fun with the downhill run from AVC. Otherwise, a quiet and peaceful ride today!!
Fall River road is pretty relentless in an uphill grind, not any flat places to gear up your bike and stretch out, you earn every mile!!

Switching back and forth!!

Always cool things to look at if you keep your head up!!
Some rock formations going up the flank of Mt. Chapin

There is still a bit of perma-snow in the ski-able chute coming off Sundance. a little fresh snow on it that makes it look better than the rock fest it actually would be on some skis!! Early summer is the time for tackling this because you can just about ski right up to the road. I am a big talker here....I have not skied Sundance for many, many years.

But....First tracks here!!! Just for you Mike Monroney!!

Note to self.....Remember that this is here for the trip down and slow down!!

I got up above treeline and just enjoyed the view. Three weeks ago after our trip up and over Rollins pass I really figured that my time above treeline on a bike was over for the season. Yet here I am. 19th of October and still enjoying. This has been an exceptional fall season for getting these late high elevation rides in.

I decided to not ride all the way up to AVC. Put on a couple of layers and gloves and my helmet for the downhill run. As expected, a bit different weather up here, my little bike computer tells me 42 degrees. It was a nice cruise back down. The road is in fantastic shape because no car traffic on it except the occasional Ranger in his patrol truck. You have to ride the brakes a bit because you can not just open it up like you can on the pavement on Trail Ridge, but still pretty nice riding. I tried my hand at a video, but not very successful, plus then I have to figure out how I get it moved around on my computer to attach it. Maybe the next post.

Hey! Thanks for following along and reading!!

Everybody have a great week!!
Jim

Clean it Up!

Third week in a row that I got out for a ride with Kyle. We are cleaning up rides that we have talked about but have not found the time to do until one just makes the time and get out and do the rides!

This week we are going to ride from the Devil's Backbone area that is just west of Loveland following the hogback north and popping out at the south marina at Hoesetooth Rez. It was a cool day with rain predicted so we get a nice morning start at nine after I drive up and pick up Kyle at his house in Ft Collins.

Off we go. First part of the trail you come up on an interesting geologic formation called Devil's Backbone. Cool rocks protruding up above the ridgeline.

You climb up some switchbacks the east side of the valley onto a ridge and have a nice view looking back at the  Backbone.
Ogre approves of the view!!

The trail then tracks up and down along the top of the ridge. It is a rocky trail so slow going for me with some hike-a-bike tossed in.

I have the strength and power to ride these trails, just not the mountain bike skills. The rocks and sudden curves and finding the right gear at the right time is something I need to get more experience. For now it is, fall off the bike or hike-a-bike.

I hike it up over the top of the ridge again and it is back down the west side into the valley and onto the Blue Sky Trail that takes us north to Horsetooth.

The youth and strength that is Kyle rides down........no way for me.....pretty good drop off here in the no crash zone!!

We then rolled up that valley on some nice flowing single track that really made the ride for me. I sure like that kind of riding vs the challenge of the rock garden riding. I equate it to skiing the steep bumps. I can do it but I sure would rather ski the big flowing GS turns down the hill.
We have one more climb up the hogback ridge out of the valley to a trail junction that can take you east to the Coyote Ridge trails that drop you out on Taft road between Ft Collins and Loveland.

Trail coming up. So much nicer......Steep but not as rocky....ridable!!

Here is Kyle with his new helmet and Go Pro looking fresh as a daisy. He has some video that I will post up.

And of course our cycling hero looking a little less than fresh.

We finish out the ride getting to Horsetooth and then some road riding back into Ft. Collins to Kyle's place.
What did we learn from this ride????? Well about a fourth of the ride I was in over my head cycling-wise. I had a few crashes, one that I sprained up my foot pretty good. Ironic that I rode in this morning and it feels great to ride with it but I am limping about for walking. I also had to shave my calf so I could pick the cactus barbs out of my leg. I am feeling pretty good that it was my leg instead of my ass that took on the prickly pear cactus!! This was a great time of year for this ride. Anytime in the summer would have been hot, plus it is perfect rattlesnake habitat.
Three great weekends of rides that Kyle and I have wanted to do, plus just getting to spend time with one of your kids is so much fun!!
He is busy next weekend so I'll probably be back on a road ride by myself which is OK, at least I won't be falling into any cactus!!

Thanks for reading along!
Everybody have a great week!!

Jim

Make a plan....work the plan

Over a year ago Kyle and I made a plan to ride the Rollins pass road over the top, Rollinsville to Winter Park. We had the logistics figured out with a shuttle driver being Kyle's girl friend, Lea, and we were set to go the first weekend in September. Then the flood hit and all normalcy of fun in life stopped for a while.

On to this year and Kyle and Lea both had job changes and it was tough to all coordinate the same day off. This Sunday it all came together for days off and we got this ride in! It was a bit frustrating because we have had two solid weeks of fantastic fall weather, cool mornings but warm and dry days. Of course our Sunday to ride had a cold front blowing in about noon with rain. So it goes....

Off we go from our start point, the famous Moffat Tunnel.

Like so much of Colorado there is a history about this ride and Pass. It was a narrow gauge RR that went up and over and was a major connection from Denver to points north and west in the early 1900's. It was a tough ride over the top especially in winter with the train often being stuck and people losing their lives from exposure, derailments, train cars rolling off the mountain. David Moffat started to build a tunnel to solve the problem. After a few starts and stops on the location he started building the tunnel where it currently is. He did not live to see the completion of his project but it remains today and serves as a major RR transportation link through the Rocky Mountains.

First part of the ride is up through the Ponderosa and Aspen forest.

I have to tell you that the Aspen colors this year have been nothing short of spectacular. Maybe because of this nice stretch of weather we have had while they have turned. We have not had that normal September cold snap or snow storm or big wind storm so the Aspen have turned and stayed on the trees. Maybe in my mind it is better because we did not have an Aspen season around here last year. We had summer, then the flood, then it was winter.
We worked our way on up the road. The surface became a rock garden, pretty typical of a 4WD jeep road. Slowed our pace down picking a line through the rocks. There were about four or five of these cuts through the rocks. You can just see the RR tracks in your mind running through these cuts back in the day. It is cool for me to retrace these routes on my mountain bike

There were these signs all along the way which I am sure had some tie back to a book about the route.

A couple hours of riding bring us to tree line and Yankee Doodle lake. There is a real payoff here because you can see the destination top although there are switchbacks to go! We will soon be on that ridge above that snow field.

First Kyle

Then our cycling hero

Yes Richard, I am lugging up a pannier of crap. But we would soon be happy about that as we roll up into some weather.
Being a RR grade this road never got too steep, just a relentless up and up pace to the ride. The rocky surface made for some challenging cycling. Riding mountain bikes is more of a total body workout than road rides which are more about the legs.

We start to see the clouds moving in....either that or we are moving up and ready to ride up into the clouds!

One more time through a cut in the rocks and this will put us on the last mountainside that drives up to Needle's Eye Tunnel.

Some fantastic views up here even though the clouds were sitting there right above us. It was spitting a little rain here but both of us wanted to push to the top before changing into dry warmer clothes and not sweat up our warm stuff.

That is Jenny Lake down on the right. We decided to not take the side road in there as we knew we were chasing the weather a bit. You can see the Needle's Eye tunnel up the trail there on the curve of the mountain. You can also see the bypass trail to hike up over to get to the other side. The tunnel has been closed off for years with a big blockade that you can not even bypass with a bike. So it is hike a bike if you want to continue on over the other side.

The hike-a-bike trail was ridiculous steep with loose shale footing. Richard, I was regretting my choice of bringing the extra pannier until we were on top and the storm hit. Hail and rain. We scrambled to get on clothes. Nothing like getting pelted on bare skin as you change shirts, plus the new shirt does not go on quick because you are cold and sticky from the rain. But Kyle has a smile on here because we came prepared!!
After going over the top we hiked back to the tunnel to check it out. Sometime back in the 70's a rock came crashing down from top inside the tunnel so they closed it off and have now barricaded it to keep people out.

You can peer over the edge and look down on Yankee Doodle Lake where we were a bit ago.

We were completely immersed in the cloud cover now and almost made our first mistake on choice of route. We came up on a small turnaround place for the 4WD vehicles that come up from the west side to look at the tunnel, and find ourselves hiking up a steep road. We went about two hundred yards and I say to Kyle that this is not right....no way a train climbs this hill. We back track down to the parking area and find the old RR grade again up through some rocks that they have piled up to keep vehicles and 4-wheelers out.

Down the trail we go looking for the old RR trestles that remain to span across gaps when they built the RR track that literally was hung on the side of the mountain. We come up on the first one!

No Way....this is the coolest thing I have ever ridden my bike over. Off to Kyle's right it drops off!!! I have seen pictures when the sun is out and this whole section is the one, flat, carved out part of the mountain. Steep going up to the left and steep going down to the right. For us today it was just a mysterious fog either way. probably made it easier to ride across because there was no vertigo to overcome!!

This must a been a total white knuckle, pucker factor to ride this train in 1905!!!
Here we go across the second trestle.

We roll along through the clouds until we come to the west side rock barrier.

A little further and we come to the top of the pass. It was really raining now so a brief stop for a picture and head on down the west side.

 The rain was not so much a problem as the temp has dropped so much. It was cold, my bike computer told us 35 deg. Fortunately the driving rain was at our backs as we headed down, so, it could have been worse!
We both had winter pants in our bags but we both wanted to keep them warm and dry for something to put on for the end of the ride and the trip home. It was cold!!! I had three layers on....could have used one more...maybe a fleece vest.
No pictures going down as I put away the camera. We got back down in the trees and it stopped raining and even the sun popped out a bit but never really warmed up again.
Almost down, you can see the ski runs for Winter Park up in front of Kyle

We got down to where the road hooks into US 40 and the plan was to ride down into the old town of Winter Park for a beer but we were shivering cold and only had to wait about ten minutes for the girls to pick us up right there.

What a great ride this was. Challenging for the riding part and the weather part. A confidence builder in that I know I can tackle tough rides if I want to. Always great to spend time with Kyle doing something we both enjoy.
Thanks for following along!!
Have a great week!!
Jim

Park It!!

There are not many summer type days left to enjoy the Park before the winter type days arrive. It was time to get up there and enjoy it all.
This was the weekend I had a small tour planned through Northern Colorado that I set aside so I can help Debbie as she heals up from her broken arm/horse incident. All good because we always have a pretty nice National Park right here in our backyard!!
Saturday afternoon we headed up to check out some Aspen leaf changing. I had heard from a friend who works up there that it was peaking for the season. We decided to ride the shuttle up to Bear Lake and a very short and easy loop hike to Bierstadt Lake. The morraine that Bierstadt sits atop is always a pretty show for Aspen.

We will let the pictures do the talking!!

What a nice day!!!

PICK IT UP!!!

You remember we left our hero a few weeks ago at upper Hidden Valley and having to race back down the mountain to tend to a broken arm and all that horse business. On Sunday the idea was to pick up where I turned around.....although....I had to ride back to upper again. No free rides here!!!!
Sunday morning turns out a bit overcast to start, but warm for a Late September day. After a nice cuppa and some oatmeal at Kind Coffee I head up through the north entrance and on into Horseshoe Park where the sun pops out. I love when you catch the Aspen changing but there are some with their green left to really give you some contrast.

The hillside right below Hidden Valley rivals the Bear Lake corridor for beauty with its willows leading up into the Aspen grove.

Trucker is the bike choice now for this season. I like having the larger bag to carry lunch along with extra layers, beanie and gloves if needed as I head up to timberline.

I chug on past Upper Hidden Valley with no phone texts or messages of disaster going on below!! Yea!!!
There is a stop at Rainbow curve with a gazillion people and begging chipmunks and grey Jays. I was getting a bit tired of the traffic zooming by me.....comes with the territory of riding on a fall Sunday. I did talk with a nice fellow who was admiring my bike. He had a new Surly Travel Check with the S&S couplers for packing and airline travel. We also traded stories about the Katy Trail. I had my shirt on and he told me about riding it a few years ago.
On we go up above Rainbow Curve where the Tundra starts and you roll up over the 11,000 foot level.

Not yet....Not today!!!!

Look at that!!!! Look where Trucker took us today...up onto the tundra!!

The goal of the day was to ride to Rock Cut but I was just tired of the Sunday traffic so turned around a bit below Forest Canyon overlook and decided one more picture before the big downhill blast. I had to put on a long sleeve shirt for the downhill roll.

The local Rotary Club puts on their fall fundraiser downtown, Beers, Brats, and Bands. What could possibly go wrong with that kind of program. I cruise into downtown a little shakey after a long downhill with elk watching tourists clogging the roads at a moments notice and brake pull!!
One of my favorites, The Wendy Woo band was the headline act for Sunday afternoon

Nuff' Said!!

Everybody have a great week!!

And thanks for following along!!

Jim