Breck Epic Stage 2 - Colorado Trail

 

Perfect weather day: sunshine and 50-60 degrees

I woke up feeling charged and ready to give'r!  A brief stint of pavement before we started the brutal 4 mile climb up Gold Run Gulch and Draw Road.  Both were relatively smooth'ish double track but with an average grade of 15% and at times exceeding 22%  I was so glad I was on Blaze, as I was able to granny up the climbs.  But ... there is always someone who thinks they have the quads of Thor.  And this guy kept trading passes with me.  I would pedal past him, only to have him hard charge it for 20-30 meters, passing me, and then blowing up right in front of me.  This repeated itself 3 times, with me having to choose evasive maneuvers to keep from getting completely shut down and having to walk myself. And on these steeps, it is hard to get back to pedaling again.  I had to channel my daughter's "it will work itself out, Mom, so just be chill and don't fret."  But the impatient Carey wanted to throw a large stick into his derailleur.

We were rewarded with a superb downhill on The Bookcase and ZL Trails.  Smooth, flowy, and fast ... all sh!ts and giggles! This was followed by 4 miles on the Galena Ditch Trail, single track along a spine of dirt and rock, hard to pass, as it is tight and falls off on both sides.  But there has always got to be that person who just HAS to get by, despite the fact that there is still somewhat of a train of riders in front of me. I let her, but only when it opened up for a safe pass.  Dave was just ahead of me and was almost used for traction by her when she passed him.

The North Fork descent was blazingly fast and furious.  I was leading and Blaze was having a very good day, railing the turns and eating up the bumps.  Right at the bottom, however, was a hard blind turn to the left, followed by a garden of very pointy rocks.  I found the right line, but Dave did not.  I heard a small explosion behind me and knew instantly that he flatted.  Shit!

We pulled off the trail; it was a puncture to the tread.  After inserting 3 plugs, we knew we were going to have to tube the damn thing.  We had a time tubing it.  At first Dave could not get the friggin' nut off the valve.  Fortunately I had the Wolftooth pack pliers or we would have been screwed.  Then the plugs did NOT want to come out.  It doesn't help when your fingers are covered in slippery sealant.  Dave inserted his Tubolito in and then reset the tire.  But the damn valve on the Tubolito was too short to use a CO2 as it kept pushing the valve back into the rim.  So, 456 mini air pumps later, we had pumped it up (as well as our forearms and shoulders) to a solid pressure, but a section of the tire did not want to reseat up onto the bead.  F it, just ride it like it is.

25 minutes later, we were moving again.  The good news was that almost everyone who passed us asked us if we needed help.  Dave was pretty soured over this, but I told him not to worry, let's just enjoy the ride. I could care less where we placed in the pecking order; I came out here for the experience, not to step up on a box.

The climb up the Colorado Trail was not as steep as the first climb of the day, but very rooty.  That first mile was an SOB as I waited for my legs to open back up. I was happy to have dry dirt under my wheels for this one.  We did pass several Colorado Trail Racers on this section.  I cheered for them as I passed by them as they were pushing their 50+ pound bikes skyward.  Any FOMO about doing this race quickly left me on this climb.

Once the legs were back at it, I felt the best I had all day.  The remaining miles were a little tamer, with smaller climbs and descents and the trails (Hay, Blair Witch, ZL in reverse) were super fun.  One nasty steep climb back on Gold Run Gulch and Prospector  Gulch Road, which was nothing more than chunky rock, where I may have had a Yosemite Sam moment.  The icing on the cake was the final bit of single track to the finish on the Sidedoor Trail.

Our finish time was 6:01, 6th on the day, and still 5th in the GC.  Aside from that little flat fiasco, it was a great day on some beautiful trail in one of the most scenic places in the USA!