Riding the Cripple Creek - Pine Junction 300k

I had the pleasure - and challenge! - of pre-riding Vernon Smith's Cripple Creek - Pine Junction 300k.  Riders on the inaugural event last year reported splendid scenery but quite a lot of work involved, as the route has 16,780 ft. of climbing.

Here's the route:

Starting off at 4am, you climb past the tourist shops and vintage motels of a sleeping Manitou Springs and on to US-24, which has good shoulders. 

It's a moderate 2000 ft. climb to Woodland Park at 8,400 ft., with dawn breaking over Pikes Peak.

On past Divide, and you've climbed to Ute Pass at 9,165 ft. before leaving US-24 ... after which you get a break ... before climbing some more.

The approach to Cripple Creek is on generally quiet, winding county roads - punctuated by little climbs - transiting the Florrisant Fossil Beds National Monument.  You can see some petrified stumps as you ride by.

On the day I rode, there was lots of frost from Divide through Cripple Creek.  Chilly cycling, but the payback was relatively temperate climbing in the afternoon.  This in fact is one of the challenges of this course: higher, crispy altitudes at the cool part of the day, followed by long climbs in the hotter part.

A final climb brings you to the "lip" overlooking Cripple Creek and the first checkpoint.

Cripple Creek is nothing if not imbued in mining history.

At this time of the morning, it's still pretty quiet, the hustle and bustle of tourists and gamblers yet to come.

Quiet enough in fact for the daily stroll up Main Street by the town donkeys.

Climbing out of Cripple Creek on Hwy. 67, you reach the high point of the route, at 10,223 ft.

Some fresh snow.  Many trees have leafed out, but some haven't quite done so at this altitude.

Flying back down US-24 to Woodland Park, you head out on the Deckers - Pine Junction road, with Pikes Peak at your back.

In places, Hwy. 67 seems like Forest Fire Alley, as this view of West Creek shows.

In the last decade, the area has fallen victim to the Buffalo Creek Fire, the Hayman Fire, and now the North Fork Fire.  Spring green spruces things up, and you will also see new (replacement) homes in the burnt-out areas.

After prudently tanking up on water at the friendly Deckers store, you face the climb up Six Mile Hill, of which four miles has a climbing lane, which gives you a clue right there.

And yes, that's Pikes Peak on the horizon.

Once you've descended to Pine, made the gentler seven-mile climb to Pine Junction, descended back to Pine, and climbed Six Mile Hill from the north side, it's basically downhill to the finish!

Except for a climb over West Creek, a shallow climb to Woodland Park, a "bump" of a climb at Chippewa Falls, and an uphill grade past Garden of the Gods, which hopefully you are now getting to see in daylight.

♦ ♦ ♦

Vernon's materials and course design are first-rate, including a nice, quiet route to finish in Colorado Springs.  Good thing the scenic content matches the challenge.  Thanks, Vernon!

-jle

Black Forest 300k a Cool Treat!

A cool, damp day with soggy forecast greeted the 14 stalwart riders who started off into the predawn murk on the Black Forest 300k.

Fortunately, the rain held off most of the day, and things even brightened up a bit towards Black Forest.

Paul Foley, Foon Feldman, and Tom Knoblauch blur past Chatfield Reservoir:

John Mangin shows off his powerful hub dynamo lighting system:

Ronaele Foss and Bob Dean:

A fast rider or a slow photographer?

Brent and Beth Myers chat with Tammie Nakamura (who graciously collected brevet cards at the finish!):

Tom Knoblauch banks down Perry Park Road:

Out of a fogbank, Foon Feldman and Paul Foley surmount the big climb coming into Larkspur:

... and pause to enjoy officially provided cookies, water, and coffee in Larkspur, as they arrive before the store opens:

Diane Benoit, similarly early, takes time to grab a cookie for the road:

John Mangin shows off his Selle Anatomica skyward-pointing saddle, joining other fashionable riders such as Steve Le Goff in that seat angle:

Bob Dean pulls into Larkspur, satisfied at the prospect a cool, refreshing ride:

Showers caught some riders late in the day, but a fine rando performance, and, looking on the bright side, no repeat of last year's rain/snow mix!

-jle

Riding the Moab Double Whammy 202km Permanent

I got the chance to try out Richard Stum's Moab Double Whammy 202km Permanent.

The Permanent takes in the two national parks near Moab: Arches and Canyonlands.  Despite being close to each other, they are very different in their formation, what you see, and the way the roads take you through them.

You start with Arches, which is good for several reasons.  It traverses several valleys, so the climbing at lower (warmer) elevation is better when you're fresh and it's cool.  Also, the traffic is less earlier on.

Things get started right away in the scenery department, as you climb from the entrance to the Park Avenue overlook:

You pass various rock formations, such as Balanced Rock ...

... and arches, of course:

The Lasal Mountains form a backdrop:

Nice mountain blooms at this time of year:

The transit between Arches and Canyonlands starts with the path parallel to US-191.  This was actually one of my favorite stretches, as it is very scenic and cut off from the highway.

Next is the 20-mile climb up UT-313 to the plateau.

The prevailing SSW headwinds added effort but kept me cool.

A quiet, lightly-travelled highway with a big shoulder.

Atop the Colorado Plateau, it seems you could be somewhere in the grasslands of Wyoming, but just out of sight are the canyons ...

... which you look down on once you enter the park:

The Colorado River has cut very deeply into the plateau - there are many overlooks with vast expanses like this.

The Green De Rosa - resting here against a juniper-branch fence - had a good time on the Double Whammy.

So did I and I bet you will, too!

-jle

P.S. Richard has done an excellent job designing this route and creating materials for it. He tells you exactly where you can get water (only three spots along the route), which makes a difference even in the moderate 70's and 80's when I rode it. (There are no places to get food, but it is easier to carry 200k-worth of food.)


Richard Stum at Last Chance 2008 finish

A Breezy Stove Prairie 200k Brevet!

With sleet, showers, and snow flurries gracing Stove Prairie 200k's of the past, sunny temps in the 60's didn't seem too bad.  A nice start seemed to bode well.

But a flag pointing straight east gave a clue for the "extra effort" riders would be putting out all day, starting into a westerly wind that veered as the riders turned to provide perhaps the most total headwind of any Stove Prairie to date.

The Stove Prairie climb is strenuous enough for most of us, but Steve Le Goff, preriding the brevet, used his saddle angle to "accentuate" the grade.

Foon Feldman, Lloyd Jones, and Steve Rudolph turned in a good performance, pleased that Foon had aero bars to take some edge off the wind.

John Mangin, Will deRosset, Paul Foley, and Brian Rapp had a fine ride working together.

Bob Dean says with two 200k's under his belt for April, he's ready to move on to the big rides next month, as  Cary Stewart looks on.

And Beth and Brent Myers reported quite a successful ride - a good finishing time, with the fun and camaraderie that sometimes accompanies tandem riding.

We had dry, sunny weather for the three 200k's on successive April weekends: Drake Doubleback, Falcon-Limon-Kiowa, and Stove Prairie.  A number of riders did two, and Foon Feldman, Scott Herget, and Patrick Nourse did all three!

There are two 300k's and a 400k or 600k in May, so plenty to look forward to now that you're trained up!

-jle

VGV (Vail - Glenwood Springs - Vail) - 200k of Tailwinds?

Last week I got to try out Catherine Shenk's VGV 200k Permanent.  Though a mountain route, it can be ridden most of the year, depending on road conditions.  You are surrounded by mountains but protected from higher, exposed terrain.

Sign of a warmer-than-usual spring on the Vail ski pistes:

From Vail, we take US route 6 past sage and red cliffs.

A tranquil scene, with a cabin along the Eagle River:

 

After a bit of traffic through Avon and Edwards, the road is quiet and serene through Walcott, and in places seems out in the midst of nowhere.

There are recurring hints that you are going downhill. 

(Vail is at 8,150 ft.; Glenwood Springs at 5,761 ft.)

And the occasional diversion, such as Eagle County's "Rare Duck" Open Space:

These typical geological formations ...

suggest Parachute, CO, further down the road.

At Dotsero, the Colorado River joins the Eagle River, and we're about to enter a "narrower" landscape.

In addition to a Kingfisher and a Great Blue Heron pair, I saw quite large hawks soaring on thermals west of Dotsero.  Here's one.

The treat of Glenwood Canyon is the great canyon scenery combined with a quiet trail to bike down (watching out for casual users, of course). 

The engineering achievement of the I-70 transit of the canyon - the last piece, nationwide, of I-70 to be completed - is impressive.  Kind of a canyon version of the elevated engineering of the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway - the Parkway's final segment.

Eastbound lanes, westbound lanes, and the path intertwine, and occasionally I-70 disappears in tunnels:

Across the river, some locomotives in the midst of a sizable coal train.  The rightmost engine shows the historic Southern Pacific livery preserved by Union Pacific after acquiring the SP.

As the remnants of US-6 trail off near Glenwood Springs, rockslides have encroached, leaving it bikepath-wide.

These Canada Geese were sitting in this relaxed position as I swept around the curve.  Clearly not much traffic on this segment!

Lots to crane your neck to see on the VGV.

Mt. Sopris beckons in the distance at the turnaround point on the Roaring Fork path.

Catherine's prospectus says you may enjoy tailwinds homeward bound.  In fact if you're lucky, as I was, you'll get tailwinds both going and coming back.

I thoroughly enjoyed the VGV and imagine you will, too!

-jle