BSV Fruita MTB training camp 2011 Day 3: Tour De Book Cliffs

The sun came up and no one was moving very fast. Rabbit Valley had done a number on all of us. Realized that I need to go to the grocery store for bfast food but had forgotten being so tired last night. Yep, I can see we are not going to ride until at least 10:30am again. The goal today was to hit the book cliffs and ride as a group. Some random guy in a red jersey decided to join us today.


The BSV nation packed up and descended upon the 18 road TH and unloaded 11 bikes/riders for as many loops as the legs can muster, or till the team dinner at Hot Tomato called! Who is the guy in the red jersey?
BSV group heading up Prime Cut trail.
Our goal was Chutes and Ladders. Just above Cindy here you can see the trail climbing up the steep slopes. My legs were tired today and I was curious if I was even going to make 10 feet of that climb.
Top of first climb on Chutes with prime cut just down to the left. BSV folks making their way up. I made the first climb, but burned the entire book of matches, or at least it felt!

Happy riders enjoying the view and the fish stories were already being spewed.
Red jersey guy somehow sneaks in again.
Enjoying more of Chutes as it heads East along the foot hills.
Last shot of Chutes as you open it up. Here its game on and super fun downhill back to the car. Decided to take on Vegetarian trail which reminded me of the road conditions in Fallujah. Bombed to hell. So many cow hoof holes.

Here we are on Frontside trail on our second lap from the parking lot. Came back up Prime Cut to Frontside and then off to Joe's ridge. Trails are steller, as always.
Joel showing how its done with big travel and wide tires.

Joe's Ridge--super fun and one roller coaster of a trail!
Some riders on the ridge


We headed down Joe's and then over to meet Kestle run half way down. That takes you on this 25 foot wide wash that the trail pumps back and forth down all the way to the car.

Climbing back up Prime Cut for yet another lap!

Mystery red jersey rider connecting Frontside to the top of 18road where we get on Joe's. Who is this guy again? How did he get in all the pics? ;)

Group shot at the 18road turn around. Smiles all around.
Joe's Ridge from another view.
Joel grabbed a nice pic here also!

Super fun group today and great hanging with everyone. We hit Joe's Ridge again and this time came back to this spot to get the entire Kestle Run in.
BSV peloton making their way up 18 road to let it all loose on Kestle.

Our little lap session on the Book Cliffs. 18.5 miles and 2000ft of climbing.


Here were the loops--great day with everyone. We all went to the Hot Tomato for a team dinner. Chip and Nancy from the Boulder Bike patrol also joined us for a pizza and beer. Great times all around and lots of stories shared. They do a great job there and I highly recommend stopping in. During high season, its a good wait, but well worth it. I have been eating there since 2004 I think. They are back on the side street to the North across main from OTE bike shop. Plan tomorrow is to hit the Lunch Loops in Grand Junction and see what the weather does. Lots of wind tonight and we had to re stake some tents.

BSV Fruita MTB training camp 2011 Day 2: Rabbit Valley Epic

Over night a few more BSV'rs rolled in. Woke up and cooked up a pound of bacon and a huge egg skillet with tortillas to share amongst the roaming BSV folks in camp. Bacon was quite the hit. Nine of us Friday morning heading out to Rabbit Valley to ride the Epic Zion curtain to Westwater Mesa (overlook trail) to Western Rim loop. We had David S, David K, Phil, Cindy, Michelle, Sue, Bob, John P, and Kevin VP going for it! This loop has it all, rock benches above the river, techy drops and steeps, swooping single track, and a small part of the Kokopeli.
Oh yeah, I made it.
Riders ready? Or are we playing with the dog all day?
Ride starts out on the dirt road and you cross the high way heading North.
A climb up the service road gives you a nice view of rabbit valley and the 3,4,and 5 trails.
First stint of single track and then a steep climb--nothing like this to get us all warmed up!
Very unique features here in the Zion Curtain area...

Crazy rock steps to ride up.....

Pump track for a while...

And we were joined by a sheik for the ride. About here half the group turned back and went to ride some other trails. We were down to five at this point, Cindy, David S, Phil M, Kevin VP and myself.

Riding the line--the Utah/Colorado border fence.

Rewarded with the top of the Zion Curtain--views of the Rabbit Valley and river below. Good lunch spot from out 10:30am start.
Here Phil finds some goodies in his pack.
Off along the rim with some small trees and more views--hard to focus as you look at the La Sals in the distance.
Kevin checking the view.
Dave S and Kevin VP riding up a wash

A few more tech spots. I walked it too. Cindy gave it her all and decided to sit down on the job. Cindy repeatedly schooled me on this trail with the techy moves--I was motivated by that and cheered her on.

Big Smiles after the descent on the Zion Curtain--its super fun and fast with a mix of clean trail and slick rock type moves with a few surprises thrown in.

A quick water check as we enter the Kokopeli trail and climb up the hill to West water Mesa to join up with the Over Look trail. Everyone riding strong here after 15 miles so far.
The short steep climb ahead (600feet)--David hit it hard and you can see him ahead.

Once up top, we hit the Overlook trail and is pump track for about 4.5 miles till you reach the pass and lollipop loop. Here Kevin Vp, David S and myself made a fast effort on the loop while the rest of the group hung out at the pass to descend to Western Rim. We did eat well here, and I offered my usual can of tuna, V-8, and salted almonds to those that would take.
Kevin coming down a rock wash.
Dave S doing the same.
Top of the lollipop loop--excellent views again the whole time. The loop is about 7.25 miles. I had though it was only about 2 miles...whoops! Made the rest of the group worry a bit though since it took us about an hour to complete versus the 20 minutes I was thinking. Will do better next time on that.

When we joined back up with the group, we descend the 600 feet down a steep double track and meet up with some single track that leads us to the Western Rim proper. Here we are riding a rib like Joe's Ridge on the book cliffs.

A little sand and loose but nice trail for sure.

Then we joined the Western Rim and the flowers were out a bit.
The rim starts out as a nice single track and then turns into this white stone bench that rides along the cliff for several miles--we had the place to ourselves--not one other MTB rider the whole day!
The sun was starting to set....day light was running out on us.

Playing the white sand stone. Here we were all starting to run out of water.
Back on the double track after climbing out of the Rim. The sand was well compacted and very rideable for those that actually gave it a whirl!
Light was good at this point.
More cows playing on the trails. I think they followed us from the book cliffs.

Cindy and Dave S take a quick pose for the camera here looking South East.
We booked it for the car as the sun went down, skipping the normal 2 trail route back and settled for the road in the wash. It is the Kokopeli proper and was fun to take everyone on for a tour. Got back to the car and Joel had left a note on the window--he had tried to meet us, using our SPOT tracker from his phone to see where we were on the loop but since we had moved slow, it never worked. Joel was able to grab a nice Western Rim and Kokopeli loop though out of the day regardless.
Our Elevation profile from the day. Came out to 5500ft I think climbing/descending.
The route from the sky. This is a wonderful loop and mostly single track the whole way or shared ATV/MTB trails--very nice combo of three loops out there. Its about 44 miles. In the past when I have done this with just two of us, it takes about 6 to 6.5 hours. We did this time in 9 hours even and had a great time, enjoying the day and taking photos. A slight breeze made the temps even better and kept us cool. We headed straight back to camp for some much needed showers and then a chow down at the Hot Tomato in town for some salad and pizza. Joel joined us for a bit to have a beer and hear about the epic day. I do not remember hitting the pillow! Tomorrow tour de Book Cliffs with the whole BSV team!

NOTE: What did I carry on this ride besides my bottomless dueter bag?
Food:
0) 5.5 serving Gel Flask with Carb Boom Apple Pie Gel
1) 3 handfuls of Blue Diamond salted Smoke House Almonds
2) Mini can of V-8
3) 4 Power Bars (chocolate and caramel)
4) 2 Mint Cliff Bars
5) 1 can of Tuna in water
6) 6 Newton brand Fig Newtons
7) Apple
8) Camel Back 100oz bladder full of water
9) 24oz bottle of water
10) 24oz bottle of water mixed with grape low calorie Gatorade
11) A whole lot of faith.
12) David S. carried everything else for me!
I ate everything except the Tuna. I drank all of the water and since we were out for a bit, I should have had one more bottle with me. I meant to bring it anyway, but forgot it at the camp. My cycle computer said I burned 2750calories. Not sure how accurate that is. I chowed that night after and also had a 24oz bottle of Recovery drink in the car on the way back to camp.