Well it's cold in Fruita, CO. We woke up to below freezing temps and some snow scattered in the hills. In a way it was nice to feel cold crisp air on my face again, but the thought of gearing up to go biking made me shiver a little. So, we just took a relaxing morning, got some egg mcmuffins and some coffee and wandered into town to check out the local bike shop and get some suggestions for the afternoon of riding. The guy at the bike shop was not the most helpful person ever, but he did give us a good map and point us to the two main trail networks in the area, so mission accomplished.
We decided on the Kokapelli network, leaving book cliffs (or the 18 road) area for tomorrow. After a quick unintentional drive through the truck weighstation, we arrived at the parking lot - which was pretty full by the way for late November I thought. Turned out it had warmed up considerably, so I took off one of my layers, and Russell and I represented "Team Don's" for the day.
We rode Mary's loop to Horsethief to Mary's to Steve's to Lions loop to Mack Ridge. I think my favorite part was definitely Horsethief, but Mack Ridge was also a technical blast that had we ridden on fresh legs might have been my favorite. Every day I'm surprised what my little stumpy can ride over/through. I'm getting a little better at technical climbing these days, but Russell still seems to be able to dominate uphill ledges that I can't fathom getting my front, let alone rear tire over. I could rant on and on about the flowy fantastickness that was this trail system, and the GORGEOUS views, but I'll just post pictures... they are worth 1000 words right??
"What? you can't ride that??" The drop-in to Horsethief trail. See this video to see how it's done.
Russell on a fun section of Horsethief
One of the first of many amazing views.
We met up with some badass local riders that showed us the trails and were kind enough to take our pictures before they parted ways with us. Here is us at the start of Steve's trail.
Steve's sweet singletrack along the edge of the mesa.
More awesome views
Looking back on the trail
A brief smooth respite on Lion's loop after making it through a chunky rocky section
And then we climbed to the top!! Pretty!
And then down Mack's ridge. Most of this trail was rocky and technical and we were going too fast and having too much fun to stop, but decided we needed a picture of riding through the snow. After this, we hit fire road back to the parking lot and our ride was complete. 21 miles, almost 1800 ft of climbing, and 2 tonnes of fun. Sunday finished off with cold beers and a barbecue at our cabin, which was now warm after leaving the heat on all day. MMMMM vacation.
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