Well, there were two rides heading out today, one at 7am to Hall Ranch (organized by Chris Madden) and one at 10am to Heil Ranch (the official Team MTB ride sponsored by Cindy this week). Took off from the house at 6:50am near Airport and Nelson to meet up at Hygiene. The saga begins....
Early morning Sunrise--the weather appears like it will behave, even though the temps are at 30 degrees!
Short detour and a lap around Pella Lakes off of 73rd just before Hygiene--half way through the phone rings, the rest of the group has just arrived at Hygiene.
Okay, this was just funny as I approached the corner market, Looks like Chris has something to say to Kevin!
Heading West on Hwy 66--Kevin and Chris are chatting up their injuries and what to do about mending them.
About to enter the Hall Parking lot off of Rt7--sun is out, day looks awesome--temps are finally warming up and we all have to delayer a little before starting to climb. After hitting Hall last night too to test my newly rebuild rear shock, wondered how the legs would hold up.
Chris working it up the rock garden on Hall
Kevin doing more of the same--these guys both made all of this look pretty easy for both claiming to be injured. I just had to laugh about it and watch them pound up the rest of the trail.
Upper Bench at Hall Ranch--The boys waiting on me to catch up after I tried a few rock sections again--oh and my legs were nice and tired already. This was the last time I took a photo as these guys had to step on it to get back to town. I saw them again on the upper loop, but they were both just blurs as they screamed past me on the downhills! We said our goodbyes and I enjoyed the descent at my own pace.
Headed back into Lyons to refill with water, eat, and just take a quick break. Did get to see the kids of Lyons and the easter egg hunt at the park. Stopped at Redstone to say hi to Dave but he was across the street with the kids searching for colorful plastic eggs. It was pretty near when the whistle blew and about a 100 kids went running all around in hopes to grab their prize.
A sign we all know too well. I headed back out and took a right on 34 towards Boulder. Even though I was running late, I was still going to try to catch up with the 10am group ride at Heil Ranch. I had 10 minutes to get there--no problem, except for toasted legs and lots of wind!
Okay, I am still smiling and about at mile #32...legs were talking to me on 36 though and I was happy to turn onto Lefthand and head up to Heil.
A great sign to see at this point in the ride--now just a short climb up to the parking area and hopefully join up with the group--even though it was now like 10:35.
After waiting at the Wapiti/Ponderosa junction along comes a familiar BSV jersey and its Steve--whom I had not seen for like two years!
Along came Phil just afterwards....
And then Cindy.
We headed out the Ponderosa Loop Counter Clockwise and regrouped at the overlook.
A little taste of Wild Turkey Trail singletrack.
Cindy just finishing one of many of the banked turns on Wild Turkey.
After leaving the Heil parking lot and parting ways with Phil and Steve, Cindy and I headed back to Longmont via Nelson. It was cold and windy by this point with the sun long gone. My legs were pretty beat and I could feel it each pedal stroke. Did a quick stop at BlueSky on the way back and downed an R2 packet...hope that means tomorrow will not be as much limping around the house!
Its funny, after a day like today and its snowing right now as I sit here and type this up. My specs show that the day consisted of 53 miles and just over 4000ft of climbing/descending. 3-D map below shows the route. Looking forward to the next group ride in two weeks and meeting more team members!
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