First *epic* ride of the season
Jeny and I had talked about doing the Waterton Canyon/Indian Creek loop on Sunday(4/9). it's a good ride at about 26miles and 3000ft elevation gain. I wanted to take the SS - but as I recalled many of the climbs are 8+ percent grade and the thought to attempting on 1 gear was scary. So i broke down and took the FS geared bike (boy - was I glad I did!)
Got off to kind of a late start - my friend Sasha decided to join and we met Jeny @ 11:45 and started riding around noonish. Now Sasha and I had did a road bike race the day before(Sasha kicked butt and I got my butt kicked!) and weren't looking to put the hammer down -but it's hard not to go hard when you are riding with Jeny. She's a super strong rider on the climbs and descents. (sigh...I *wish* I had her lungs and talent!)
As we were getting ready - I noticed the guy that parked next to us had a nicely decked out NRS and he looked pretty fit - we started before he did and I wondered how long it would take him to catch up to us. The ride starts off with an easy gravel road climb for ~6miles - the 1/4 mile ~8% climb to the trailhead.
Of course Jeny reaches the trailhead before us and we stop to chat with another rider. As we are talking to the other rider the NRS guy rides up (I think to myself "wow - I'm surprised he didn't catch us on the road part - cool for us") He rides on by and I tell Jeny "go get him!" Off she goes - Sasha and I take off soon after I can see Jeny riding that poor guy's wheel. Sure enough Jeny passes him and is gone. Sasha and i catch the guy and he's suffering pretty good. hmmm...maybe I don't suck!
The ride is going pretty good until mile 9 and then it gets really muddy and sloppy. We were worried about messing up the trails so we walked part of it and when we rode we were cringing hoping we weren't damaging the trails too much. We reached the Indian Creek campground (mile 12) in 1:50. Welll...Sasha and I reached the campground in 1:50 - Jeny had been waiting for our slow butts for quite a while maybe ~10-15minutes.(yikes!)
At this time Sasha and I were hurting pretty good - we didn't bring much food and we were worried about the conditions of the trail. We climb more and for the next 2.5 miles we are doing a lot of pushing through the snow.
Sasha and Jeny pushing through the snow
Finally we hit some downhill that's in good condition. Since Sasha and i were suffering so bad - Jeny parked us at the state park and rode ~4miles to get the car. We had been out for 4.5 hours with 3.75 hours of riding.
We were pooped, muddy and HUNGRY!
Loading up the bikes...
The good thing after a ride like this is you can eat all you want without guilt. All-in-all it was a great ride and I'm glad I got the first epic ride of the season out of the way! :)
Got off to kind of a late start - my friend Sasha decided to join and we met Jeny @ 11:45 and started riding around noonish. Now Sasha and I had did a road bike race the day before(Sasha kicked butt and I got my butt kicked!) and weren't looking to put the hammer down -but it's hard not to go hard when you are riding with Jeny. She's a super strong rider on the climbs and descents. (sigh...I *wish* I had her lungs and talent!)
As we were getting ready - I noticed the guy that parked next to us had a nicely decked out NRS and he looked pretty fit - we started before he did and I wondered how long it would take him to catch up to us. The ride starts off with an easy gravel road climb for ~6miles - the 1/4 mile ~8% climb to the trailhead.
Of course Jeny reaches the trailhead before us and we stop to chat with another rider. As we are talking to the other rider the NRS guy rides up (I think to myself "wow - I'm surprised he didn't catch us on the road part - cool for us") He rides on by and I tell Jeny "go get him!" Off she goes - Sasha and I take off soon after I can see Jeny riding that poor guy's wheel. Sure enough Jeny passes him and is gone. Sasha and i catch the guy and he's suffering pretty good. hmmm...maybe I don't suck!
The ride is going pretty good until mile 9 and then it gets really muddy and sloppy. We were worried about messing up the trails so we walked part of it and when we rode we were cringing hoping we weren't damaging the trails too much. We reached the Indian Creek campground (mile 12) in 1:50. Welll...Sasha and I reached the campground in 1:50 - Jeny had been waiting for our slow butts for quite a while maybe ~10-15minutes.(yikes!)
At this time Sasha and I were hurting pretty good - we didn't bring much food and we were worried about the conditions of the trail. We climb more and for the next 2.5 miles we are doing a lot of pushing through the snow.
Sasha and Jeny pushing through the snow
Finally we hit some downhill that's in good condition. Since Sasha and i were suffering so bad - Jeny parked us at the state park and rode ~4miles to get the car. We had been out for 4.5 hours with 3.75 hours of riding.
We were pooped, muddy and HUNGRY!
Loading up the bikes...
The good thing after a ride like this is you can eat all you want without guilt. All-in-all it was a great ride and I'm glad I got the first epic ride of the season out of the way! :)
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