White Rim ride
I've never really been interested in doing this ride because I heard it was all jeep road and if i'm gonna be on my mtn bike then i want some singletrack!
but alas - it's been a rough winter in Boulder(funny how your prespective changes when you can't ride dirt) - we were pretty much snowed in for 3 months and no riding was to be had unless it was on snowy roads.
So when I had the chance to do this supported ride on March 16th/17th - ~50 miles per day ~ 5k elevation gain - I jumped. it would be a great early season cardio ride and it would correspond with my trip to Salt Lake City to skate at the Olympic Oval. (they take the ice down next week - so I HAD to skate on it one last time!)
My plan was to keep my heartrate in the 130s and just spin - no hammering or anerobic efforts - I had to save my legs for a week of speedskating.
Day 1
The trip consisted of 11 riders and 2 jeep riders. Not a slacker rider in the bunch - 1 guy even rode a rigid steel singlespeed. His gearing 36x17 - let me tell you that is friggin' *hardcore*.
Lunch was going to be 38 miles into the trail. Camp to be 57 miles. We started @ Mineral Bottom road - after a quick descent into the canyon - then next 25 miles were a slight downhill and we did at an easy 15mph pace. keeping the hr in the 130s - no problem.
Then around mile 30 we hit some pretty big sand traps - hard to pedal through and frustrating. The next 8 miles to the lunch spot went pretty slow - got there in around 4 hours into the ride.
It really is quite beautiful and desolute. Sometimes I'd couldn't see anyone ahead or behind me and i felt like i was the only person on earth. The rock formations were oddly shaped and you'd wonder how some rocks seemed so percariously balanced. And dry - i was sucking down the water as i could feel the sun and the slight breeze take its toll.
We stopped at the slot canyon and some of the more scenic portions of the rim - awe inspiring. my pics don't do the terrian justice.
We were waiting for the 2 jeeps that carried all our water, food and camping gear to catch up to us. After around 1 hour of waiting and being unable to raise them on the radio - our strongest rider rode back 14miles to find that the weight of the gear had caused a wire that regulated the gas to break on one of the jeeps. Luckily the driver was able to figure out the problem and McGuyver it and get the jeep going - but it took time. We were stopped for over 2.5 hours. Many of us were almost out of water because we had planned to resupply when the jeeps arrived - so we all waited.
We ate and refueled and started the 20 miles to camp - the terrian consisted of short steep hills and some descents - but our general trend was upward. Most of us ate too much at lunch and weren't feeling so hot @ 3pm with the sun beating on us and doing those steep climbs. A couple of the guys barfed. I know i felt like it.
After about an hour I felt better - but it was still slow going - i was averaging around 7mph and arrived at camp ~7pm. oh - and i was definitely going anaerobic on the climbs - sigh ...the best laid plans. if i was toast I guess i could take skip skating on Monday - but i was hoping my supply of Sport Legs would do the trick.
we ate well - of course one of the jeeps had a party keg - drank beer and socialized. The temp was in the high 40s and i slept well.
Day 2
After getting an early start @ 10am (maybe drinking that beer wasn't such a good idea) the terrian tended to be rolling with a downward trend. We rode 30 miles to Musselman's Arch and stopped for lunch - took around 3 hours. Musselman's Arch was cool - one of our riders rode over this thing. i can almost barf just thinking about riding on that - I reluctantly walked out to have my picture taken.
Again the terrian and scenery was magnificent.
We were 90 miles into the ride with only 1 major climb and then 8 mile of road to get back to the car.
Shaffer's road is a total bitch. Man! That thing hurt - I swear i was averaging 2.5 - 3 mph - I was alternating between riding and walking and i think sometimes walking was faster. It took me over an hour to ride up that hill - but I was getting a lot of encouragement - all the 4x4ers riding down would roll down their windows and cheer me on.
Whew - made it to the top and then it was a demoralizing 8 mile road climb to the car...I was suffering by this point and my butt (not used to all the saddle time) was sore. I could barely sit. (3 days later i'm still recovering)
Arrived to the car @ 4:30 - our group got cleaned up and went for dinner @ Miguels and then more beers @ Eddie McStiffs. The guys challenged me to pool and tried very hard to beat me - but to no avail. it was so cute they were trying so hard. a good way to end 2 days of riding in the dirt
but alas - it's been a rough winter in Boulder(funny how your prespective changes when you can't ride dirt) - we were pretty much snowed in for 3 months and no riding was to be had unless it was on snowy roads.
So when I had the chance to do this supported ride on March 16th/17th - ~50 miles per day ~ 5k elevation gain - I jumped. it would be a great early season cardio ride and it would correspond with my trip to Salt Lake City to skate at the Olympic Oval. (they take the ice down next week - so I HAD to skate on it one last time!)
My plan was to keep my heartrate in the 130s and just spin - no hammering or anerobic efforts - I had to save my legs for a week of speedskating.
Day 1
The trip consisted of 11 riders and 2 jeep riders. Not a slacker rider in the bunch - 1 guy even rode a rigid steel singlespeed. His gearing 36x17 - let me tell you that is friggin' *hardcore*.
Lunch was going to be 38 miles into the trail. Camp to be 57 miles. We started @ Mineral Bottom road - after a quick descent into the canyon - then next 25 miles were a slight downhill and we did at an easy 15mph pace. keeping the hr in the 130s - no problem.
Then around mile 30 we hit some pretty big sand traps - hard to pedal through and frustrating. The next 8 miles to the lunch spot went pretty slow - got there in around 4 hours into the ride.
It really is quite beautiful and desolute. Sometimes I'd couldn't see anyone ahead or behind me and i felt like i was the only person on earth. The rock formations were oddly shaped and you'd wonder how some rocks seemed so percariously balanced. And dry - i was sucking down the water as i could feel the sun and the slight breeze take its toll.
We stopped at the slot canyon and some of the more scenic portions of the rim - awe inspiring. my pics don't do the terrian justice.
We were waiting for the 2 jeeps that carried all our water, food and camping gear to catch up to us. After around 1 hour of waiting and being unable to raise them on the radio - our strongest rider rode back 14miles to find that the weight of the gear had caused a wire that regulated the gas to break on one of the jeeps. Luckily the driver was able to figure out the problem and McGuyver it and get the jeep going - but it took time. We were stopped for over 2.5 hours. Many of us were almost out of water because we had planned to resupply when the jeeps arrived - so we all waited.
We ate and refueled and started the 20 miles to camp - the terrian consisted of short steep hills and some descents - but our general trend was upward. Most of us ate too much at lunch and weren't feeling so hot @ 3pm with the sun beating on us and doing those steep climbs. A couple of the guys barfed. I know i felt like it.
After about an hour I felt better - but it was still slow going - i was averaging around 7mph and arrived at camp ~7pm. oh - and i was definitely going anaerobic on the climbs - sigh ...the best laid plans. if i was toast I guess i could take skip skating on Monday - but i was hoping my supply of Sport Legs would do the trick.
we ate well - of course one of the jeeps had a party keg - drank beer and socialized. The temp was in the high 40s and i slept well.
Day 2
After getting an early start @ 10am (maybe drinking that beer wasn't such a good idea) the terrian tended to be rolling with a downward trend. We rode 30 miles to Musselman's Arch and stopped for lunch - took around 3 hours. Musselman's Arch was cool - one of our riders rode over this thing. i can almost barf just thinking about riding on that - I reluctantly walked out to have my picture taken.
Again the terrian and scenery was magnificent.
We were 90 miles into the ride with only 1 major climb and then 8 mile of road to get back to the car.
Shaffer's road is a total bitch. Man! That thing hurt - I swear i was averaging 2.5 - 3 mph - I was alternating between riding and walking and i think sometimes walking was faster. It took me over an hour to ride up that hill - but I was getting a lot of encouragement - all the 4x4ers riding down would roll down their windows and cheer me on.
Whew - made it to the top and then it was a demoralizing 8 mile road climb to the car...I was suffering by this point and my butt (not used to all the saddle time) was sore. I could barely sit. (3 days later i'm still recovering)Arrived to the car @ 4:30 - our group got cleaned up and went for dinner @ Miguels and then more beers @ Eddie McStiffs. The guys challenged me to pool and tried very hard to beat me - but to no avail. it was so cute they were trying so hard. a good way to end 2 days of riding in the dirt
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