Sunday Bike Ride - Bike Harder

Route: Switzerland Trail - from Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead counterclockwise, closing the loop with Sawmill Road, Gold Hill Road, and CO 72 (Peak-to-Peak highway)
Distance: 22.88 miles
Time: Approx. 2:30

This week's long ride is one I've been meaning to do for quite a while.  I made a sort of aborted attempt last summer on a whim, but mostly I've only done out-and-back on the south branch, which is only about ten miles and really easy (bar the altitude and bone-shaking descent).  The Switzerland Trail is an old railroad grade, and according to the mapmyride.com software, the average grade is 3.7% on the trail itself.

 What isn't really clear in these pictures is that the dirt road that is the Switzerland Trail has some tricky gravel patches and also rocks.  Lots of rocks.  They aren't huge rocks but they are rough and all over the trail, so while going uphill is fine, picking up speed going downhill will really rattle your teeth.

 It is also that time of year in Colorado when there are tons of wildflowers in bloom in the highlands (the altitude goes from about 7700-9300 feet)

 Sunset Township is basically a little cluster of houses on the lowest point of the route, which can also be reached by Fourmile Canyon Drive.

 This is looking across the valley at the descending side of the trail, after starting up the other side.  It is a 4.64 mile climb (category 4 according to mapmyride.com) and it's not difficult, but it is loooong.

 At this point I was starting to get a bit worried about those rain clouds in the distance.  But I kept going, because I was almost to the top of this climb.

 This is the Mount Alto Picnic Area, which is an official picnic area because the National Forest Service says so.  There is an official picnic area sign, even, though I didn't get a picture of it.  In addition to this giant chimney there are also smaller barbecue pits.  I took a nice long lunch here, although I just ate this "sweet and savory" maple pecan bar that I got at REI and washed it down with plenty of water.  Regrettably it had chocolate in it that melted, and I don't really want either to wipe chocolatey fingers on my cycling gear or lick my fingers, so I was kind of annoyed at that.  I guess I didn't check the label closely enough to notice the chocolate, but really, energy bars shouldn't melt when it gets hot out!

 This is just past the picnic area, where you can see the Switzerland Trail clearly winding along the mountains.  Obviously there is quite a bit of elevation gain on this trail.

 So here is the thing: the Switzerland Trail intersects Gold Hill Rd (GHR) and you can either turn off onto GHR or stay on the trail.  But my map said that the trail ends in a scree slope next to Sawmill Rd, which didn't really tell me much but it seemed like it wouldn't be too difficult to hike to the road.  Above is looking back from the end of the trail.  Below is the actual end of the trail.

 

Yeaaaaaah.

Well this last leg of the Switzerland Trail is about 4 miles, so I'd have to ride back 4 miles (over some tiring scree sections, as well) to get back to GHR.  So instead I left my bike and hiked up to see how bad it was.

 Well this is looking down from the actual road to the scree slope I had to hike.  I did just carry my bike up, it was fairly short, and the most difficult part was just being tired and that the tree there snagged my bike tire as I was hiking past it.  But if you do the Switzerland Trail all the way to the end, this is what awaits you.

 The view across the valley is nice from Sawmill Rd, though.

 Remember those rainclouds?  Yeah, I hit those right at the highest elevation of the entire route, on GHR.  There was lighting.  I ended up walking my bike up a good chunk of GHR because with the wet gravel, rain, general fatigue, and a guess that it would be better to not actually be on the bike with lighting around, I decided to just go ahead and take longer.  GHR is the steepest part of the entire route, and after 12 miles of riding with a long, sustained climb for about half of it, I was too low on energy to tackle it properly.  I'm not sure if I needed more food or not, but I think it couldn't have hurt.

 But at last there is the intersection with highway 72, and it is all downhill from there.

And this is taken from the south branch of the Switzerland Trail, looking southwards.

It did not rain on the south branch, actually, and while when I started off on the branch I was riding through a muddy, foamy rivulet on the road, I actually outran it onto dry ground.  So the rain was pretty much localized in the most annoying place on the entire route.  Hooray!

Would I do this again?  Yes!  Despite the exhaustion and rain, I had a blast.  The long sustained climb was challenging, but mostly because it was so long, rather than technical difficulty.  There are really spectacular views on the entire route, and while I would probably just go onto GHR at the intersection with the Switzerland Trail, rather than following it all the way to the scree slope, even hiking my bike up that wasn't too bad.  If anything I was defeated by not quite having the endurance at 9,000 feet that I do at 5,500 feet!  But next time, I definitely will start earlier in the day to try and avoid the afternoon storms.

Sunday Bike Ride - Bike Hard

Route: Betasso Preserve Canyon Loop (clockwise) / Community Ditch Trail
Distance: 3.22 miles / 4.44 miles
Time: approx 30 min / approx 25 min

This week's Sunday Bike Ride was originally going to be two or more loops of Betasso Preserve, but due to inclement weather (i.e. thunderstorm) I ended up bailing after one loop.  I still wanted to bike more, though, so I drove down to the Doudy Draw trailhead and did a fast out-and-back on Community Ditch.

Betasso Preserve restricts usage by mountain bikes - it is closed to bikers on Wednesday and Saturday.  Bikers are also restricted in what direction they may travel on the Canyon Loop trail, which is the main trail (there is a junction to another loop but it's not on my trail map and I don't know where it goes, as I haven't biked or hiked over there yet).  Signs are posted directing bikers in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, so you won't meet any other bikers head-on.  However, hikers and horses are allowed to go whatever direction they want.  I have never seen a horse, but I have seen evidence of horses, by which I mean you may bike through some horse poop.

 Betasso Preserve is scenic singletrack through a wildlife preserve.  There are benches at a few points on the route with a good view.  This picture is taken from the first bench going clockwise from the west trailhead.

Going clockwise, the beginning of the trail is more of a dirt road than singletrack, but soon enough it narrows down.  There are some rocky sections but only one or two that are technical at all, and those aren't very difficult, and they are short and easy to hike past if necessary.  Because I ride a hybrid mountain bike, there are a couple spots where I can't quite get the proper traction and I have to dismount briefly, however this shouldn't be a problem with a good mountain bike.

What isn't really evident from most of these pictures is that for a good portion of the trail, the singletrack is cut into a very steep slope.  It is a sharp dropoff in sections, and there is one corner that I dismounted for because it was too sharp and steep for me to trust myself not to skid out.  There are sections where it would be very bad to go off the trail.  This is not a good route for people who are afraid of heights or cliffs or feel shaky on singletrack.

 Here's a view from another bench, you can see to Boulder from here.

The next pictures are from Community Ditch trail, starting from the Doudy Draw trailhead.  The trailhead is on CO-170 and does require a $5 parking fee if your car isn't registered in Boulder County.  Community Ditch trail is essentially a road, but it isn't used by cars any more and is overgrown so that it is more like three singletrack trails running side by side.  It's flat and fast and very easy.

 Looking west you can see the storm in the mountains that I was avoiding.  It got pretty windy on this ride, but remained sunny.

Overall I would rate Betasso Preserve as easy/intermediate, and Community Ditch as very easy.  I don't really like splitting up my bike rides like this, but I wanted a longer bike ride and the weather wasn't cooperating.  Mostly I should get going earlier in the day to do rides before the weather comes in, but Sundays are great for sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast.  I still had a good day, and I didn't get struck by lightning, and that's what's really important.