So we were camping in the South Park area for the weekend and let the wives get out Saturday and hike the high country. Sunday we broke camp and got things packed up so the wimmen could drive the kids home at their leisure.
The boys packed their bikes and headed up to Kenosha Pass. The usual route up here is to take the Colorado Trail west and do Georgia Pass/Jefferson Creek as an out->back or a loop. We'd done that a couple times and decided it was time for something undone.
So we headed east. It was warm when we started and it just got warmer as we climbed some steep, rocky, loose singletrack. We crested a ridge and started the swooping descent into the first gulch. A fairly quick climb out and we reached a forest service road with a trailhead. We decided to continue on the CT even though we weren't sure if we could get out to avoid the Wilderness area.... sure enough we couldn't.
oster_oops:
So we turned around and backtracked up the hill we'd just descended and took the fire road down to Lost Park Road. did a few miles of road work to the next trailhead (past the Wilderness Area) and started to climb. Missed the *obvious* sign and proceeded to climb straight up the hill. We climbed 1K in about a mile.
Oh, and it was strewn with roots to boot. Luckily we met right back up with the trail we had missed at the top.
Rode through a little meadow and then were greeted by beautiful headwaters of the North Fork of Lost Creek. What a picturesque mountain valley this was... with classic high country singletrack the whole 6 miles down. We descended all the way to Lost Park campground to replenish our water. We'd initially estimated the ride to be at least 30 miles, but at the water pump we were around 21, so we knew we were in for it.
Turn around and climb back up the meadow... luckily the ascent didn't involve a ton of vertical. Back up at the head of the valley we picked up the "proper" trail and blazed down it. What a great section of trail... Popped back out Lost Park Road and did the requisite road work back, climbed the FS road back to the CT and reversed the last section. Needless to say it was getting late-ish when we arrived back at the cars (~7pm).
Drove back into town to some well deserved green chili cheese fries and rellenos.
After a month on the couch nursing a severely sprained ankle, 42 miles and 7K of climbing may have been a bit much for a "reintroduction" to mt. biking.
Total suck views right from the start:
Morryjg climbing a bit of the hot track:
Wildflowers out in force:
Whoops! Wrong turn, but at least the descent was fun!
Whoops! Missed the switchback... headed straight up instead.
Headwaters of the North Fork:
Columbine is purdy... hey! WTF is that fly doing there?
We gets to ride wayyyyy down there... around the corner... and then some:
It was like this for 6+ miles:
Headed home... it's gettin' late, no?
Ride stats:
The boys packed their bikes and headed up to Kenosha Pass. The usual route up here is to take the Colorado Trail west and do Georgia Pass/Jefferson Creek as an out->back or a loop. We'd done that a couple times and decided it was time for something undone.
So we headed east. It was warm when we started and it just got warmer as we climbed some steep, rocky, loose singletrack. We crested a ridge and started the swooping descent into the first gulch. A fairly quick climb out and we reached a forest service road with a trailhead. We decided to continue on the CT even though we weren't sure if we could get out to avoid the Wilderness area.... sure enough we couldn't.
oster_oops: So we turned around and backtracked up the hill we'd just descended and took the fire road down to Lost Park Road. did a few miles of road work to the next trailhead (past the Wilderness Area) and started to climb. Missed the *obvious* sign and proceeded to climb straight up the hill. We climbed 1K in about a mile.
Oh, and it was strewn with roots to boot. Luckily we met right back up with the trail we had missed at the top.Rode through a little meadow and then were greeted by beautiful headwaters of the North Fork of Lost Creek. What a picturesque mountain valley this was... with classic high country singletrack the whole 6 miles down. We descended all the way to Lost Park campground to replenish our water. We'd initially estimated the ride to be at least 30 miles, but at the water pump we were around 21, so we knew we were in for it.
Turn around and climb back up the meadow... luckily the ascent didn't involve a ton of vertical. Back up at the head of the valley we picked up the "proper" trail and blazed down it. What a great section of trail... Popped back out Lost Park Road and did the requisite road work back, climbed the FS road back to the CT and reversed the last section. Needless to say it was getting late-ish when we arrived back at the cars (~7pm).
Drove back into town to some well deserved green chili cheese fries and rellenos.
After a month on the couch nursing a severely sprained ankle, 42 miles and 7K of climbing may have been a bit much for a "reintroduction" to mt. biking.
Total suck views right from the start:
Morryjg climbing a bit of the hot track:
Wildflowers out in force:
Whoops! Wrong turn, but at least the descent was fun!
Whoops! Missed the switchback... headed straight up instead.
Headwaters of the North Fork:
Columbine is purdy... hey! WTF is that fly doing there?
We gets to ride wayyyyy down there... around the corner... and then some:
It was like this for 6+ miles:
Headed home... it's gettin' late, no?
Ride stats: