Category Archives: Biking

Riding with Daddy

This is a blog post I never thought I would be writing, for a couple of reasons. The first is that I continually describe myself as a “rock climber” and mountain biking was low on our list of things to do with a toddler. The second is that I never thought I would have a two year old capable of mountain biking!

Cruising down the little dips and bumps around Fruita

After a spring of snow in along the front range, we have been desperate to get out to the desert. We had such a good time in Pueblo that we decided to make the five hour drive out to Fruita and do it all over again. It turns out, even a rock climbing family can have a lot of fun mountain biking. And it might be time to add another chapter to the story we tell about ourselves.

We chose to spend our weekend riding around the trails at 18 Road, in the desert north of Fruita, because they include smaller loops that allow Mark and I to take turns while the kiddo plays at the trailhead. Also, because the Kessel Run is the most fun I’ve ever had on two wheels.

Hanging with new friends at the trailhead parking lot

The Kessel Run – Miles and miles of just plain awesome

And on Saturday, we got to do just that. Mark and I took turns riding the Kessel Run while the other parent played with the G-kid around the trailhead. Early in the afternoon, though, G made friends with a 4 year old girl who was camping with her mountain biking parents and riding her own pedal bike all around the trails that day. G hopped on his strider and they took off on some of the smaller hills and flat trails around the unrestricted camping area. I had to run hard to try and keep up with him. He is really getting fast!

Taking the Strider out the Vegitarian trail

The little girl’s family had a sweet camp set up in the campground, and they offered Mark and I a place to relax out of the sun and away from the dust and noise in the parking lot. G and his new friend painted rocks (and each other) with water colors, played with shovels and toy construction equipment, and generally had a great time.

While they were relaxing and playing, I took a trip up the Vegitarian loop and around Down-Upity. These trails weren’t on my map or in our guidebook, suggesting some new trail building in the area recently. I had a great time. The technical curves and steep hillsides around Down-Upity were full of delicate, precise riding that helped me feel like I am building more control in my biking. These trails are less popular, and I saw more desert wildlife. Several large lizards and interesting birds ran from the sage along the edges of the trail.

Intersection of Vegetarian and Down Upitity

The Down Upitity Trail

On Sunday we came back with our trailer and nabbed a free campsite as the campground emptied (I’ll write more on camping in future post). G napped in the shady trailer while Mark and I took turns cranking out miles. Mark rode down PBR (Pumps Bumps and Rollers) which was full of whoop-di-whoops and giant bike jumps. I rode up Prime Cut for the first time and remembered how to shift appropriately on short, steep, up-hills. I rode down Kessel run for a second… ok, maybe third… time. Mark took a loop through the Vegetarian to Down-Upitity landscape and enjoyed it immensely.

Up the Prime Cut

And as soon as the Go-Kid woke from his nap, he was demanding bike rides. He probably spent 2 hours flying around the Fruita landscape, scooting, riding, rolling, running, and squealing with joy the whole time.

Go-Kid on a Desert Landscape

Riding around 18 Road

When I was pregnant, I read stories of family adventures and imagined what our story might be like. I imagined sport crags and climbing gear, a kiddo who loved rocks and dirt and sun and … climbing. But what we have is even better! A kid who loves rocks and dirt and sun, and bikes as well, and I never knew it was possible.

Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

-John Muir, Our National Parks, 1901

Evening in the desert

Each time I go out into the world, I feel peace as the sun warms my skin. I feel the freshness of the winds and the energy of the storms. Even in the harsh climates of the desert, where the wind will scour you with sand, and the storms will rock you to the core.

Last weekend, we went looking for some sun and peace in the desert of southern Colorado. We packed up our bikes and trailer, and snagged a campsite in Lake Pueblo State Park. The desert sun and desert winds were there for us to enjoy.

Our Campsite at Lake Pueblo State Park

This was my first time in this state park, and I was surprised at how much there is to do here. The park has miles of exciting single track for mountain bikers. Some trails run along the ridge lines of eroding sandstone bluffs, others wind through narrow rocky canyons, thick cholla forests and dry desert arroyos.

Wanna ride?

G even got in on the mountain biking on this trip. He took his strider out on the Conduit Trail and took off! We were a little worried about his control when surrounded by hazards like cactus and steep hills, but he stayed right on the trail and had a ball.

The lake is the other major draw for this park. The marina and ample fishing make this a big local recreation site. The lake winds between sandstone bluffs, a little like Lake Powell, making a fun place to explore by kayak or canoe as well.

Playing in Lake Pueblo

As the sun set on our day of adventure Saturday, I watched Kelvin-Helmholtz waves appear in the sky above our campground. It made for a beautiful sunset, but as an atmospheric scientist, I should have known what those clouds meant.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Instability

Around midnight, the wind kicked up hard. We had sustained winds of 50-60 mph for two or more hours. Our trailer is all hard-sided, so, thankfully, we didn’t have flapping tents or swaying popup supports to deal with. But it was scary enough in our trailer for us to all huddle together in bed. G slept through the whole thing. Mark and I stayed wide awake, ready to grab the kiddo and take off if needed.

Dusk and Breezy

On Sunday, the winds had calmed and the sun was out. Mark and I each took another loop of riding, and we each found a new beautiful spot hidden back in the canyons. I found a windless and sunny gully to bask in for a few minutes. Mark found a canyon filled with cairns along a trail named “Stonehenge.”

Cholla Canyon

We headed home, noting the swirling dust and sand in the desert north of Pueblo. And then we hit a road-block, as I-25 north of Pueblo was closed due to a sandstorm. We drove off the shoulder of the Interstate onto the outer road, dragging our little trailer through the weed and trash filled ditch and over a small embankment. Then we hit a dirt road next to the interstate and plowed through the sandstorm like we knew what we were doing.

G slept the whole time.

The winds howled down a mountain valley, filling the air with yellow dust and reducing visibility to nothing. The trailer rocked the entire truck when it was slammed by the gust. Mark kept a calm head and drove through maintaining his speed. I squinted into the dimness and prayed that nobody was stopped in front of us.

G snored.

The kid loves camping!

And we made it home. Later than we expected, but otherwise fine. We were sun burnt, wind burnt, scoured, dirty, sweaty, tired, and happy.

On Sunday morning, we were sore. 15 miles in the saddle the day before was rough. But TJ was excited and we still had a full day to enjoy the fine trails around Fruita. So, we ate breakfast slowly, and then headed north to the 18 Road trails.

Photos from the day are up in the gallery.

These trails run up and down the bottom edge of one of the large, sandy mesas north of town. While they don’t climb to the top of any mountains, the long, gradual downhills and uphills in the area make for some fun and hard rides. Plus other trails run over the ridges of petrified sand dunes, with steep drops and roller-coaster like single track.

We started up the road, getting the kinks worked out of our legs and the feeling drained back out of our sore butts. Eventually, we met up with Western Zippity, a “green” trail, and rode the 1 mile until it connected with the Frontside trail, a more difficult route.

Along the Frontside trail, you can hook up with any number of expert, scary looking trails. We ended up riding past all of them, having fun on the rolling single track until we met up with the parking lot at the north end of 18 Road. From there, we all agreed to try Kessler’s Run back to the car. This was a great plan.

Kessler’s Run was the best trail of the whole weekend. We flew down this whoop-di-woop trail, riding up and down an arroyo on the long downhill from the edge of the book cliffs to the trailhead: 2 miles and 500 feet below. We rode sooo fast and had soooo much fun.

When we got back to the car, we ate snacks and drank gatorade, and decided to do it again. This time, we rode straight up 18 road and right back down Kessler’s. I was pretty tired after this 4 mile jaunt, but TJ and Mark decided to do it one more time. So I drove them up the road and met them with the car back at the trailhead, 2 miles down the hill.

It was a great day, and an incredibly fun, fun ride. We logged another 16 miles even with the sore legs. We headed back to town and dropped off TJ’s rental. Next up were showers for $5 at the Fruita Fitness center, and finally, we chowed down on more pizza. In the evening, we played Fluxx for hours, and messed around with long exposure pictures of the lights of town so far below our lovely campsite.

The prelims are over, and I survived (and passed)! The day after the oral exam, we packed up our gear and headed west to the desert with my little brother TJ.

There’s pictures from our weekend up in the gallery!

Friday we drove, through a huge snowstorm, over the mountains and out to the western edge of Colorado. Where the mountains meet the desert and the big Colorado river starts carving its way through red sandstone. Fruita is a small town, west of Grand Junction, that has developed a huge system of great mountain biking trails and a great community of riders.

We spent the weekend camping at the Colorado National Monument, which is perched on top of a mesa south of Fruita. The camping is expensive at $10 a night, but there’s water available, nice bathrooms, picnic tables and charcoal grills. Plus the views are absolutely incredible. Pretty lux, all around.

Saturday we geared up after breakfast and decided to try and find some easier trails to get our groove back. We headed west to the Kokopeli Trailhead, and rode a few of the loop trails in the area.

We ended up riding almost 15 miles on Saturday, over beautiful trails, some fast and fun, some slow and technical, some scary and exposed. It was a beautiful day, a lot of hard riding, and we had a great time. On the map above, we started with the first, smaller loop on the east side, called Wrangler’s loop. This was a little hard for us at first, even though it was graded “green.” But after about 3 miles, we got our legs back, and had huge fun on a fast, long, downhill section of the trail.

Much “WOO-HOO”-ing commenced.

We then set out on the bigger loop – starting with Mary’s Loop, a “blue.” This was fun, but harder. The views were gorgeous, and we worked our way out into the desert. We stopped for lunch at the “Pizza” overlook, where an aid station was helping runners on a 50 mile trail running race. We ate a snack and relaxed for a while, then decided to head down Steve’s loop.

This was a steeper, but very fun trail. It dropped down a steep hill to near the river, and then winds back around some awesome slot canyons. We picked up Handcuffs to get out of the canyon – rated a “black diamond” it was steep and slow going, but we made it out and back to the car. Happy, exhausted, a little sunburnt and ready for pizza and an afternoon nap. In the evening we enjoyed some sight-seeing in the National Monument, endorphins, night steaks, and Fluxx.

Since Mark and I moved to the east side of town, I haven’t been riding my bike as much. I experimented for a bit with driving the first two or three miles and riding the rest, and a few times with linking biking and bus routes. Yesterday morning, I sucked it up and rode the whole 9.5 miles from home again.

The morning ride was surprisingly pleasant. I buzzed up the hill to our department in the foothills west of town in about 45 minutes. Much better than the hour-long rides I used to do when we first moved. I think my little red bike is faster, and perhaps all of the Lumpy Ridge climbing this year helped a bit with my aerobic fitness, who knows.

The trip home, however was MUCH more exciting! At about 1:30p, flash flood warnings were issued for our town. In the past, these late summer storms have produced fast and deadly flooding. I left the department when heavy rain suddenly appeared south of town, and attempted to beat the storm home.

I failed at that. I’d say yesterday was the most soaked I have ever been in my life. I was dripping wet and making squishy noises when I finally walked into the garage. I was nearly struck by lightening, pounded by hail, and road through a flooding creek more than once. Amazingly, my 16 year-old Timbuk 2 backpack is STILL waterproof!

I didn’t get to take any pictures, but you can enjoy a breakdown of the exciting ride on the map below. Click to see it full size and hopefully you can read my commentary. Mark road south-to-north in a break in the weather at around 6p and only had light rain for about 2 miles. Ah, cruel fate.

Spent Saturday afternoon exploring a new trail off the Poudre Canyon. It was sunny and pretty darn hot, but when you’re flying down a rocky trail at 20mph, the heat isn’t so bad. Plus, there were plenty of fun creek crossings, so everything stayed nice, wet and muddy!

Yep! That’s a picture of me (gasp)! We brought along the new little Kodak, and Mark had fun taking pictures a long the way.