With all the changes and exciting things that are happening this year I was bummed out thinking that I might not get in at least one overnight trip this summer. So when the opportunity came up to do one that was on my bike bucket list, I jump at the chance. Ring the Peak is a route around Pikes Peak and it is about 70 miles and about 100 miles round trip from Jays house.
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| food & bathroom break |
Saturday:
I wanted to get an early start on Saturday morning and we kinda did, I was running a little behind even thou I was up early and had my gear packed up the night before. Once I got to Jays house and we were ready to roll it was about 8a.m., so at this point we are about an hour behind the time I was hoping to get started but with many miles to travel I kinda knew that we could make up some time on the bike. We adjusted our headsets and rolled out, man it felt good to have a full pack and only trail in front of us.
Coming into this trip I had concerns about my fitness and how I would handle the hike-a-bike sections and my questions would be answered within the first 3 hours of the ride, because there is a nice hike-a-bike as soon as we hit the Ute Pass Trail. Supposedly there is some singletrack that bypasses the UPT but instead of trying to find it we stuck to the Ring the Peak route. At first it was just a steep hike then my feet started to hurt(damn shoes not made for this kinda shit) and yep I had a blister on each foot and no mole skin or tape of any kind, not the way I wanted to start out a 2 day bike ride but hey I was still smiling and still riding and still hiking so what ever shit happens. After a nice long hike-a-bike
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| the start of the dirt!!! |
my legs are warmed up and feeling good with a little decent down to HWY 24 and what used to be the trail-head parking for Waldo Canyon before some D-bag torched it and that is all I am going to say about it because it just really pisses me off. Now I have done some crazy shit in my life and riding Hwy 24 is definitely up there as one of the craziest and most stressful things I can think of, with cars whizzing by at 50-60mph good thing it is only about 1/2-3/4 of a mile. Once off the Hwy 24 it is a nice cruise up a paved road to Picabo St. with a nice steep road to really get the heart rate up there and with blisters walking is not as much fun so I tried to ride the whole thing and failed but I rode most of it and more than I ever have in the past. Once at the top you get to the Mt. Esther Trail and this starts the part of the Ring the Peak I have done a few times.
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| the start of temporary pain |
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| see still smiling and touching! |
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| Mt. Esther Trail Hike-a-Bike |
I know about Mt. Esther and the hike-a-bike up
and it is steep and gnarly and we made good time getting to the top I think it only took 30-40 minutes and then lunch time and blister fixing time. I knew that after Mt. Esther we would be riding for quite awhile without hiking anything for more than a couple minutes sweet relief in the saddle.
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| SINGLE-TRACK! |
I absolutely love the single-track after the hike up it is just so narrow and sweet, it is what makes me love the ride no matter the situation. Look at the grin on my face I am loving it and having a blast.
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| Toucher |
We made one break along the way for water and I just want to say that I love that water filter so easy to use.
I like this little valley where we get water because I know we are getting close to the Catamount Reservoirs and instead of hitting the single-track along the coast we stuck to the original route and stayed on the dirt road, which saves some time and give us a rest while riding.
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| nice shot of the Pikes Peak |
Once you ride around the Catamounts you jump on this really cool piece of single-track to enjoy before being deposited out in a beautiful little valley where you follow some double-track that is mellow for a while then it gets steeper as you climb up toward Horse Thief Park and the Crags.
When we got to the Crags Campground I spotted a Boy Scout troop and I ask them if they had anything for blisters since I didn't and aren't Boy Scouts always prepared? A big THANK YOU goes out to troop 127 for the tape it helped me get through the last hike-a-bike section, which is not very long and it is a very cool section of trail. Once you drop down to hwy 67 you know you are in for some stress because of the cars but thankfully they are not moving as fast as on hwy 24. This is where we put the hammer down and cruise to Gold Camp Rd.
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| we made it!! |
We hit Gold Camp Rd. just as the sun was getting ready to set and decided it would be a good idea to throw on our lights and jackets and get a move on because we have about another hour or so of riding to go before we camp for the night. There is one thing I wanted to do that I didn't and it was get water from the spring on the side of the road but I have to admit that I saw it and didn't stop for 2 reasons 1) I didn't want to stop riding and 2) I didn't really need water. We finally stopped riding about 8 o'clock which means we have been riding for 12 hours with minimal breaks and I still felt strong super hungry but feeling good. We setup the tent and got everything ready climbed in and made some dinner had a little bit of Rye whiskey and went to bed. Now I have never really had a problem sleeping and after all day in the saddle I can say I slept like a baby.
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| camp site in the morning |
Sunday:
I got up in the morning and I felt rested and not sore at all, we made some coffee & oatmeal in the tent because it was kinda cool out and it was nice in the tent with all the cooking that was happening. The day starts out with a long dirt road climb that at certain points is easier to hike than to ride but with my feet problems it was easier for me to just ride the hard parts because Jay had warned me of a hike-a-bike after the road section so I am happy to say that I rode more of the road than I normally would have and I am proud of myself even thou at times I really just wanted to walk.
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| Lunch at the top |
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| the colors are nice! |
From this point we are in for a treat as we bomb down the 4 wheel drive road 379 and what a fun decent down to Frostys Park where we get on some very familiar territory, we jump on Jones downhill to pipeline and we end up back at Jones downhill.
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| pipeline trail |
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| Jay ripping down Jones |
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| intersection of 666, buckhorn & jones downhill |
We are making good time and we just bomb down 666(bear creek) to high drive and down to the Palmer Trail and we climb up to Section 16 and take the Intemann trail down through red rocks park, where we jump back on the bike path and make one last stop to enjoy a tasty beverage!!!!
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| VICTORY!!!!!!!! |
Overall one of the highlights of my summer I am a very lucky man, I live a pretty damn good life.
The 24 hour national championships were held in Colorado Springs this year and I was signed up on a 4 man team with Jay, Keith & Aaron and my hope was that I was not the anchor. With Jay and his night riding crew there were a total of 3, 4 person teams all with the inflexible theme. 
