Hurl!

Wednesday afternoon I set out to conquer the Hurl. Its been awhile since I climbed the Hurl. For those that are in pretty good shape it can be a cardio challenge the first half mile or so. Short steep ups that are loose and rocky followed by switchbacks...and the more loose rocky climbing.
I felt pretty good though the initial climb but soon realized that I was getting too hot and needed to shed a layer. The overheating seemed to have sapped my strength to a degree and I climbed on feeling lousy at one point and good the next.
Along the way I had plenty of opportunities to stop and take some pictures and goof around with camera settings. Usually you don't run into anyone on the Hurl and this day was no different. Too bad really, I would have liked a few shots of me riding along with the mountains in the distance. I did manage one timer shot but the effort it takes to set something up wasn't worth the time today.
This day my goal was to ride the Western Portal back west and scout out a possible connecting trail into the Driveway Trail way down below. There aren't a lot of options as the land quickly dumps back into the Cottonwood valley below and steeply in most spots. Finally I found the spot I was looking for and made a mental note for further exploration on another day.
After a short hike a bike back down to the valley floor it was time for some fast cruising thru the cottonwood trail network, seemingly much more easy after climbing the Hurl.
A beautiful few hours spent riding, exploring, soaking in the quiet calmness of the desert, looking forward to my next ride already.

Two weeks

Almost two weeks since I rode last. Two weeks doesn't seem like a long time unless you use to ride every other day like I did. I don't feel whole unless I get my weekly ride in and this past couple weeks has been worse than normal. One more day and I'll be back out in the desert, soaking it all in once again, restoring  my sanity for another week. This week: climbing the Hurl and exploring possible trail sites for bypassing a hike a bike section. I can hardly wait..

Keep it Single

Christmas has come and gone and now I have to concentrate on getting thru the next week or so. Six day work week, 12 hour days, when the heck am I suppose to ride??? I did manage to get a few pictures downloaded from my last ride showing some nice new trail on the South side of the Cottonwood trail system. I hope to ride this trail again in the coming weeks. Also, as if I didn't have enough gadgets to carry when I ride, my wife bought me a helmet/bike video camera to try out next time. Im not complaining, she really is the best!

Climbing

I parked at the new trail head today after deciding that climbing the Hurl would have to wait for another day. I just didn't think that I would have time to climb that bear today. Instead, I opted for exploring a trail that I had seen when climbing towards the Potosi mountain range.
Normally, you would climb almost directly west towards the mountains ending in a tough but short climb to the top of the trail. Instead this trail meanders in a more SW direction. I guess the climbing isnt quite as strenuous but my heart rate was still pounding in my ears a few times. A fairly new trail by the looks of things with ribbon still in a few places where the trail builder forgot to take down. Eventually, as I found out, I ended up connecting into the same trail at almost the same height as the original trail, I just had a bit more fun doing it.
As I stood at the end of the new trail debating what to do next I realized that the sun had dipped behind the range and it was getting pretty darn cold. What better way to end the ride this day then to ride the new trail back down, experiencing the trail in a new way and in a much shorter period of time.
I did stop to take a few pictures and a short video clip as I neared the end of this days ride. Here is the video clip. You can hear the cold wind blowing and see some snow up in the Potosi foothills.

Untitled from Shawn Young on Vimeo.

One more day...

...until I can go for another ride. The weather looks like it will be about 50 degrees which is fine by me as long as the wind has died down by the afternoon. Truth is, I only have one day to ride so it doesn't matter what the weather is like. Hail? Done it. Snow? Yep. Fifty mile an hour winds? Sad to say, yes.(Gooseberry no less) I'm already getting a little jittery for a ride, counting down the hours until I can start getting dressed. Just for a little stoke I decided to put together some of my favorite pictures into a slide show. I cant wait for tomorrow....are we there yet??

Here we go again

I never get tired of the Cottonwood trail system. Even when I rode every other day I just couldn't get enough of the riding there. There are 4 or 5 different places to park to start the ride and what seems like an endless array of intersections and choices in direction. Some may tire of the same old scenery but to this day its my number one choice. Click on picture for a small collection of pictures from my last ride.

Cant we all just.....stay on the trail?

One thing Ive noticed this year is how many tracks go off the trail and then come back to the trail at some other point. This braiding of the trail gets me fuming mad. Is it really that hard for someone to learn the etiquette of the sport? I see people do it and I just want to scream. I have gotten into the habit of stopping every time I see a rider to give them clear passage and yet that doesn't even work.
Case in point: On my ride Wednesday I see a rider coming towards me. I can see even at a distance this guy is a newbie to the sport. Long white tube socks, some kind of Hawaiian shirt and shorts, sneakers, etc. I stop my bike on the trail, lean it away from the trail and wave him on. Instead he stops. Cool I think to myself, he actually knows the rules. I start pedaling towards him only to realize that he has ridden off the trail about 6 feet to give me "room" to get by. I start to say something and off he goes, oblivious to what he has just done.
As I drive home I start thinking of ways to educate the the new riders as more and more show up at our new trail-head. I have a few ideas but I think some fliers for the parking lot to start. At least one for the door to the restrooms perhaps. We have to start somewhere before our single track turns into a fire road.