also not sure where you’re moving from, but elevation is actually super hard (I’m also unfit and haven’t been active what with school). I did golden gate canyon like my second day here and felt like I was having an asthma attack the whole time (used my inhaler, it was totally just the air).
Whatever section is scenic and would allow me to use the bike I already have, ideally. I have some friends from Wisconsin who are coming to ride the whole thing and I’m gonna tag along for a long weekend, very flexible
Moving from Portland so basically sea level. Spent a lot of time BC skiing around 6-8k feet on Mt Hood, so I’m used to being winded during hikes and stuff. But I used to be able to walk around town eating a burrito and now that’s hard
What bike do you have?
There are plenty of great rides on the front range.
I’m putting together a swift campout this year, in Winter Park, which will be incredibly casual.
If you’re near Denver / Boulder / FoCo, there are a fuckton of amazing routes here. Don’t let the elevation scare you off too much.
So the Ralleye got shortened by the weather, they left FoCo in rain and snow and just went up Buckhorn towards Pennock Pass and camped near the first gate. The weather cleared up in the afternoon, but I guess the return trip back down the next day was a seriously muddy drivetrain wrecker.
We left CO for WY on Friday afternoon and stopped for Korean food in Cheyenne. It started to snow when we left, but we drove north out of the storm and got to Glendo with nice weather. The campground was almost totally empty, we just saw some Boy Scouts in one site, and after while setting up camp we saw a van drive by. Once we were set up we went for a little hike around the campground. We run into a greyhound just trotting down the trail (which is weird since you rarely see them off-leash) and then up come the owner who turns out to be someone we know from FoCo. Turns out another group of people decided to bail on the Ralleye and go north to better weather.
Saturday started out cold but then cleared to killer weather and we even had clear skies for the meteor shower, which didn’t really deliver. Vibez were had:
Got in some first real rides with a dropper and 1x, and rode some new trails. Still haven’t covered everything in the park though.
Kind of glad that I decided to skip it then, sounds like the lady would not have had a fun time.
We did buy a new road bike for her, so hopefully she’ll be upping her speed/mileage game.
Glendo is pretty cool too. There’s a couple decent swimming holes up there, and unlike CO they are not absolutely freezing year-round.
[quote=kmcdon]
If you’re near Denver / Boulder / FoCo, there are a fuckton of amazing routes here. Don’t let the elevation scare you off too much.[/quote]
The elevation will be fine in like 6 weeks or so. Can be brutal for some people when they first get here. Had a friend move here last year and after 3 weeks I took him up to Gold Hill and he was dying. And we’re talking like cat 1 roadie fit dude and i was dropping the shit out of him once we got above 8k feet or so cuz he was suffering so hard from the altitude (getting blurry vision, etc).
Geez, that seems a bit worse than usual.
I know it hits everyone differently, I guess I’m lucky that I deal with it pretty well. And Gold Hill is legit as fuck, it’s one of my goto camping spots. Want to do some riding up there.
I’m gonna assume you didn’t come up the lickskillet side? (That road is like 25% grade or some dumb shit).
My one and only time in Boulder, I climbed up to Brainard Lake then down, hitting Lickskillet on the way back on my second day at elevation.
During the ride I felt ok, though I weirdly wasn’t peeing, despite drinking what seemed like a lot of water. However, within an hour of getting off the bike I was absolutely wrecked with headaches and nausea which stuck around for like 3 days.
Elevation is a helluva drug.
I’d still probably do it again though. Front range riding is amazing.
Geez, that seems a bit worse than usual.
I know it hits everyone differently, I guess I’m lucky that I deal with it pretty well. And Gold Hill is legit as fuck, it’s one of my goto camping spots. Want to do some riding up there.
I’m gonna assume you didn’t come up the lickskillet side? (That road is like 25% grade or some dumb shit).[/quote]
Hell no on lickskillet. We took four mile up and came down sawmill to lefthand.
I have a buddy who is going to be in Westminster this week for a conference. He staying a couple of extra days and wants to go riding mtbs on the Monday holiday. I don’t know any trails south of Loveland. Where should we ride near to Denver given that a) it’s a holiday and b) he probably isn’t looking for anything too gnar?
Buffalo Creek is really nice for beginner level mountain bike trails, although it likely will have a bunch of people there. I’ve heard the West Magnolia trails around Nederland are excellent, never been.
Centennial Cone is pretty cool, check the park website because it alternates between hiker/biker days. Boulder has an absolute ton of trails. Marshall Mesa / Flatirons Vista are pretty good.
Amy will know more.
Everywhere will be packed. I’d suggest the Evergreen Mountain/3 sisters trails. There’s a little bit of everything on these trails.
I can’t wait for this weekend. My friends had this genius idea that we’d all go do a road trip on memorial day weekend and find a different dispersed camping spot every night.
We’ll see about that.
Isn’t there some trails you can take the light rail to?
We can go ride north of here (Red Mountain is always empty) but I was trying to save my friend from some driving.
o shit memorial day is this weekend?
dammit I wanted to go camping too
[quote=drwelby]Isn’t there some trails you can take the light rail to?
We can go ride north of here (Red Mountain is always empty) but I was trying to save my friend from some driving.[/quote]
You can take the W line out to Golden and ride some of the singletarck out that way, green mountain, chimney gulch (not easy at all), table mountain (easy)
You can also take the C/D lines down to chatfield park and get easy access to waterton canyon / colorado trail / deer creek canyon
Yeah, the W Line will also get you to North Table (easy) and Apex (intermediate).
West and East mag trails might not be crazy busy and you can take the bus up from boulder. They are generally not crazy technical, aside from a few natural rocky bits here and there.
They have a more woodsy mountain feel than stuff right in town in golden and won’t be packed and hot like North Table.
Marshall mesa and the like in South boulder are super mellow and flat, but have nice views I guess. Parking lots are usually packed on the weekends.
My friend wants to ride Dakota Ridge on Sunday - what would be the best way to ride it and where would you start/finish?