Today, we ride again!

We were going to ride the trails on the other side of town from yesterday’s, but found out that they’re closed because of the 4th – fireworks going on out there, so they want people off.

So, instead, we go to Buena Vista – there’s a rails-to-trails out there, nine miles out-and-back, and it sounds pretty good.

We get to the trailhead and decide instead to make a loop of it – we’re going to ride it clockwise, because that seems to work out well – we would come back on the rails-to-trails, dropping all the way, so it should work out well.

Luckily, there are some locals at the trailhead, so Richard asks them of advice – they suggest riding it counter-clockwise! Good to know! In retrospect, a spectacular idea, as it would have been a killer ride the other way.

This is the map at the trailhead:

Damned photo-bombers! Anyway, here’s a closeup:

 

The red loop is what we’re going to do, we’re at the lower left trailhead, then go East on the rails-to-trails:

Yup! That’s the start of the rail bed – looks easy, doesn’t it? Well, it is, except that there are four trestles (bridges) that are missing, and you have to ride down into the ravine, then back out. The down is not the problem! Luckily, the fourth one is down only, as the trail stops there, at the East Trailhead. Along the way, I got this shot of Richard:

Now, we have to ride vaguely North on a dirt road, for probably three miles. Doesn’t seem too bad, until we get there – it’s VERY sandy, and therefore hard to ride.Hard because it pulls your front wheel this way and that, and also hard just because you sink into it about a half to a full inch, and that makes it quite hard going. And it is ALL uphill, with NEVER a respite. Ugh! A few vehicles pass, but fortunately most of them slow down so as to kick up minimal dust, but of course, there’s always ONE asshole in the bunch. Maybe it was Richard signaling for him to please slow down that did it. Who knew that that was rude! He does slow down, but as soon as he gets even with Richard, he purposely gasses it to kick up maximum dust. Nice!

Later he returns, kicks up a bunch of dust, and flips us off. Nice! He must be the ambassador for the area.

At tho point, there are storms in the distance, and we get sprinkled on a bit:

Anyway, finally very close to the top, and soon we find our return route, which we’ve been led to believe is single-track. Ok, no suspense – “they” lied. It’s double-track, but it IS mostly downhill. Ok, to be fair, from here it looks like it’s ALL downhill, but we’re not to be disappointed for a while. It starts its way down, and gradually gets steeper. Here’s a shot from near the top:

It get steeper further down. Fun stuff! Of course, it also gets rockier, with loose, big rocks, and it would have been a BITCH to ride up – SO glad we listened to those guys!

A few hours after we start, we’re done, and it’s time to go somewhere for food! We choose Eddylime Pub and Brewing Company, get some beers, and some pizzas. The beers were good:

The pizzas were good too, but only good. Moonlight Pizza has nothing to worry about!

Tomorrow, we try the Monarch Crest Trail!