Meandering Velonauts

Eric and I set off to ride Indian Creek after work yesterday. He’s been railing on and on about how this trail is some of the best single track on the eastern slope. Not wanting to missout of experiancing such a ride I agreed to ride on Wednesday. So on Wednesday we left work a little early, scarfed down some pasta for dinner, and raced to the trail head. I knew the ride would be 3+ hours, so I brought my larger pack, extra water, food, and lights.

We left the trailhead around 5:30 PM MDT. The first 1.5 miles was streight up (gaining around 400 feet). Not having warmed up I had to granny gear it the last 200 vertical feet. The climb kicked my butt. Eric told me someone who road it on Saturday vomitted at the top of the climb. I suddenly didn’t feel that bad.

The next 8-9 miles were almost entirely downhill. Some singletrack, but mostly fireroads (Never having seen the trails I took it a little easy on the course. Although I was enjoying the gravity ride, I couldn’t help but wonder how much we would pay later climbing back to the cars. At one point we took a break on the downhill to make a few field repairs on Eric’s bike. The trail was beautiful. The downhill was fast fire roads, tight single track, rocks, roots, hardpack, and loose soft forest floor. Eric was right, it truely was the best Colorado trail I’ve ridden since moving here.

Once at the bottom we decided to take a new trail, that took you up to the fireroad for an easier and faster climb out. The next 3.5 miles of climbing (at grades of 8%-11%) were in very tight single track, with high grass on both sides. The trail was muddy with a number of stream crossings. The trail now looked and felt like east coast riding wet, muddy, roots, and itchy. Many of the stream crossings were remenicent of many of the trails in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. Somewhere on the climb, exhaustion made climbing, balancing, stearing, and thinking too much for one person and we started to reach our limits. Itching from bugs and plants we continued up to the fire road.

One on the fire road a feeling of relief was quickly drained from my body as we realized how much climbing was left until the top. It was nearly dark and seeing was becoming a problem. Time to attach and switch on our handlebar lights. We started climbing up the fire road. the climb wasn’t easy but at 6% it was warmly welcomed. We reached the summit of the fire road around 8:40 PM. Not quite dark in the open, but night in the trees. We took a fast breather and adjusted the lights for downhill. We kicked off and started a slow 1.5 mile decent in the darkness. It was then I appreciated Eric’s light system as I struggled to see rocks and roots in my path.

We reached the car exhausted, hungry, and defeated. Prior to our little afterwork ride I was pretty confident in my fitness. Indian Creek tested my resolve and won. Eric told me to hold off judging the trail for a day or so. Well a few days later, and some local trails later, I can really appreciate Indian creek. Staring at my GPS information I am already planning my next trip to Indian Creek. I think next time I’ll opt for a early Saturday or Sunday ride.