It's been three weeks since I bought my first bike and I finally got the chance to take it for a "real" ride. We have a private trail system in our development that is shared with horses and hikers, I wasn't really expecting much. My first observation was that biking in Colorado involves an inordinate amount of going uphill and the trails I was on were about 5 feet wide. I was hoping that the trails would get more technical than just being uphill. I was bound and determined to see just how high these trails went even though I am 44 and weigh about 260. I climbed/walked for almost three hours before I gave up, but I was pretty impressed with the payoff
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My house is about 3/4 of the way to that lake and it is all uphill.
I ran into a very helpful biker on the way up that told me about the local club that builds and maintains the trails and he also mentioned that I was almost to the top and most people use the wide trail to come down. That made me a little curious. I did finally make it to one of the trails going down and I was relieved and very tired. I assumed that I would be able to just coast down, but I was very wrong. These trails were definitely mtb and billy goat only, they were so narrow that I wouldn't have been able to walk my bike through them. I was so tired that I decided to lay down in a big bed of rocks, face first.
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I didn't think that it was that bad of a wreck, I just went over my bars. My bike disagreed though, I'm not sure how I did it, but I ended up bending my rear wheel and busting a spoke. Luckily another kind soul stopped to help me bend it enough so that I could get the rest of the way down the hill.
The maps say that it was only around 7 miles but the 2400 foot elevation difference made it seem like a lot more.
I would like to thank the club that installed and maintains those trails, I was definitely impressed and I am grateful to have such extensive and challenging trails in my neighborhood. I would also like to thank the people that stopped to help me out, I can't wait to pay it forward.
Sorry if this post seems long, but I am psyched.
Adam
My house is about 3/4 of the way to that lake and it is all uphill.
I ran into a very helpful biker on the way up that told me about the local club that builds and maintains the trails and he also mentioned that I was almost to the top and most people use the wide trail to come down. That made me a little curious. I did finally make it to one of the trails going down and I was relieved and very tired. I assumed that I would be able to just coast down, but I was very wrong. These trails were definitely mtb and billy goat only, they were so narrow that I wouldn't have been able to walk my bike through them. I was so tired that I decided to lay down in a big bed of rocks, face first.
I didn't think that it was that bad of a wreck, I just went over my bars. My bike disagreed though, I'm not sure how I did it, but I ended up bending my rear wheel and busting a spoke. Luckily another kind soul stopped to help me bend it enough so that I could get the rest of the way down the hill.
The maps say that it was only around 7 miles but the 2400 foot elevation difference made it seem like a lot more.
I would like to thank the club that installed and maintains those trails, I was definitely impressed and I am grateful to have such extensive and challenging trails in my neighborhood. I would also like to thank the people that stopped to help me out, I can't wait to pay it forward.
Sorry if this post seems long, but I am psyched.
Adam
