Canyon Perms Ready for You to Ride

While last September's flood still has an impact on our riding in local canyons, and a number of Permanents remain off the riding list, there are some you can ride now and have some fun with:

• James Canyon Jaunt 200km
• Golden Gate Gadabout 200km
• Brainard Lake Breeze 103km Permanent Populaire

What these routes have in common - with their temporary re-routing - is scenic Lefthand Canyon (and yes, that's a dirt section in the photo):

Of course the re-routing means that the James Canyon Jaunt offers you just a brief glance at James Canyon, as you bike past - since it's only open to residents.   Same for the Brainard Lake Breeze.

The irony is that, despite its 29 dirt segments in the lower two-thirds of the canyon, in contrast to the CDOT highways which actively discourage cyclists, Lefthand is only signposted "possibly adverse" (to everyone).

What you will get ascending or descending Lefthand is less traffic (as Forest Service areas are closed, and  non-residents can't visit the Jamestown Mercantile) ... and a rustic ambience.  But descending, you need to read the dirt sections for washboard, potholes, irregular surfaces, and possible issues when wet.  And ascending or descending, where the flood scoured away the entire creekside lane, you will be sharing the road with oncoming traffic.

I rode the revised Brainard Lake Breeze on June 14, which reminded me how scintillating this ride can be:

Now is a great time of year to ride this one, because you can get wonderful conditions, but the road is still barricaded at the entrance, so you are only sharing the road with hikers, dogs, and some other cyclists. 

Then again, it may not be smooth sailing all the way to the Mitchell Lake trailhead:

Finally, it's worth mentioning another great canyon perm, a bit further west, Catherine Shenk's Vail - Glenwood Springs Vail (VGV) 200k:

Enjoy!

-jle

Poudre Canyon 400k/600k Pre-Ride

On May 3, I checked out the new Poudre Canyon 400k/600k course.  It's an alternative to our traditional routes that use Lefthand, St. Vrain and Big Thompson Canyons, all hit by last September's floods.

A nice, quiet early morning climb over Horsetooth.

 We dip down to Overland Trail on the west side of Fort Collins heading to the checkpoint at Vern's.

On this ride, Poudre Canyon was very quiet going up and not bad coming down.  But rafting hadn't started up and, with no shoulders, you need to be aware and ride single-file.

Entering Poudre Canyon, the trees are just greening up.

 It's a long, 31-mile stretch of canyon climbing to Rustic, but the grades are very shallow for the most part.

Verdant, but you can also see burn areas from the 2012 fire.

Bob Dean is also pre-riding.  We hope our combined perpectives will be useful.

 The Glen Echo checkpoint store in Rustic is friendly, with some but limited items, as it's a camp store.  Friendly staff.  At this point you're at 7160ft., only about 2,000 ft. higher than Ft. Collins, but the high point of the route.

One of my favorite stretches is this narrows section, about 20 miles up, or 10 miles zooming back down from Rustic.

 On the descent, keep an eye out for crowds at trailheads like Gray Rock, and at the Mishiwaka venue.

Back at the base of the canyon, you turn left at Ted's Place up US-287 (the highway to Laramie).

US-287 is not a quiet road, but it has a shoulder, and an open western kind of beauty.

There is also the U of W (Wyoming) painted rock to take a gander at.

You can see the Wyoming bronco in there if you look closely.

The road is bounded by hogback formations.

You cut through the formation on your way to the turnaround.

This scenic cut at Owl Canyon is part of the final climb to Livermore.  The passing lane gives a clue to the grade.

The Forks store and deli checkpoint at the Livermore turnaround (at the junction of Red Feather Lakes Road) is well-supplied and a friendly place.

Descending is in general more fun, but there can be gusty upvalley and crosswinds.  

There are also a couple of sections where the shoulder narrows and there is sand, so you need to keep an eye out.

After passing back through LaPorte, you're entering the Plains segment, and viewing the other side of the US-287 hogback from Rd. 19.  Turning on Rd. 70, a bright and pastoral scene.

 

Much of the route is now similar to our traditional 400k's and 600k's ... except that we head east to Severance.  You approach Severance on pastoral Rd. 23, bordered by a ditch that winds its way under the road.  In the rushes you may see red-winged and even yellow-winged blackbirds.

Severance used to be a quaint crossroads - it is now a quaint crossroads with a nice convenience store (the checkpoint).  As on our normal 400k/600k routes, as you come into Windsor you may see cormorants and white pelicans (as I did!).

Past the Johnstown store, it's the familiar way back via Rd. 13 and on through Erie.

Sunset nears with Longs and Meeker Peak as a hazy accent.  

And it's been a good, scenic 400k (or first 400k loop of the 600k)!

The final 200k of the 600k is our familiar Kersey Kick and the prospect of burritos in Kersey.  Nothing new to report on this stretch except for wearisome downslope winds on the homebound segment.  Still, a nice ride!

-jle

New Randonneurs Mondiaux 1200k Medal!

The RUSA Store now has a supply of the new Randonneurs Mondiaux medal for 1200k and longer events.  It is larger and heftier than the previous edition.

This medal, designed by our friend Ali Holt (who also designed the High Country jersey and medal), just came out.  You can order it for 1200k or longer RUSA events you've completed direct from the RUSA Store, whether or not the event provided a custom award (as the High Country, Last Chance, Cascade, and Texas Rando Stampede do).  You can also have it engraved on the back.

- jle

Return to Lefthand

Back in January, you may recall we checked out the lower portions of Lefthand Canyon, with this greeting (which is still there, and for good reason).

Even then we saw cyclists heading up the canyon, but it took me until March to work in a couple of climbs ... before the canyon closed again the latter part of April for debris removal in advance of the spring thaw.

I counted a couple dozen dirt segments (well, 29½, including the one-lane dirt section at Lick Skillet Road), 16 of them between mile 2 and the fork to James Canyon.  But you don't really notice as you're climbing and just enjoying this great scenery and being in the canyon again!

Most of the damage is lower down, but even at milepost 15 (and above), some washout.

It was still a snowy scene at Sawmill Road, which climbs to Gold Hill ... while folks down on the plains were biking in shorts. 

I found these climbs restorative, all the more with the low traffic volume, and the smattering of dedicated cyclists.

Here's hoping for some good "mixed-terrain" riding once the canyon reopens to cyclists.

-jle

Paris-Brest-Paris 2015 Planner

Thinking about riding Paris-Brest-Paris in 2015?  

The Audax Club Parisien (ACP) already has info on their PBP site.  And Randonneurs USA will be adding and linking to more info as it accumulates via the RUSA PBP page.

Here, we'll be offering an overview oriented to local riders, answering questions you ask, and providing hints, starting with what you should be thinking about in 2014.

What to do in 2014?

Pre-Registration

Registrants get to "pre-register" (register before having completed qualifying) earlier depending on the longest ACP brevet or Randonneurs Mondiaux 1200k+ randonnée they completed in 2014.  The longer your longest brevet, the earlier you get to pre-register.  Earlier means higher priority for getting into the event.  (There is a maximum rider limit.)

A 1000k or 1200k should put you in excellent position, but even a 400k or 600k should help a lot.  We don't know, of course, whether the rider limit will be reached, but this dovetails with ...

Training

Experienced randonneurs and other distance athletes know that year-over-year training makes a big difference.  The body becomes ever more seasoned, and mentally you gain confidence.  Some options to consider:

• a Super-Randonneur Series (200k, 300k, 400k, 600k brevets) - These are the rides (or equivalent) you'll need to do in 2015 to qualify anyway, but they are good building rides for their training effect the year before.  

• a 1000k or 1200k - Not only great training, but a way to start planning in some ways* for how you'll ride the 1200km of PBP, and fun in themselves.  There are five US 1200k's this year, and one Canadian one.  And there are 20 (!) US 1000k's, many of them scenic.  You should ride a 1000k or 1200k for the fun, challenge, and exploration, though, not because you feel you have to.

• the RUSA R-12 - This award is earned by riding a 200k or longer ride in each of twelve consecutive months. You may wonder how this applies to a 1200k, but the R-12 is a good motivator to maintain conditioning throughout the year, including our wintry months, and ramping up strong in 2015.

* PBP, with its 5,000 riders, is a unique event, so some of your planning will be different from that for other 1200k's. You may wish to look at the ACP's finishing-time histograms to detect where the big crowds are ... and the gaps in between!

Lodging

It doesn't hurt to reserve rooms near the ride start/finish now.  That's assuming you can change or cancel reservations later if needed.  Tour organizers reserve blocks of rooms (and most likely already have), limiting the supply left for everyone else, so book early.

You can get many recommendations by looking around and asking PBP veterans, and you may find great spots beyond the usual suspects such as the Campanile and Hotel Mercure near the start in St. Quentin-en-Yvelines, or nearby at the Holiday Inn or Novotel.

♦ ♦ ♦

These are simple steps for 2014.  The most important, I feel, is training, and experience in distance events.  They will pay you back with valuable conditioning, logistical lessons learned, and a wealth of confidence.

-jle

Two New 400k Routes

As you know, last year's floods affected canyons used by the Lefthand 400k and St. Vrain 400k loops.  Several events are affected:

400k/600k on May 17
400k on June 7
400k/600k/1000k on June 21

So here are a couple of ideas for new 400k routes we could use this year.

Black Forest 400k

This is an idea from Charlie Henderson, based on the Black Forest 300k route with a 100k round-trip spur from Elbert to Bennett.  The Black Forest and Back 200k Permanent previews that spur (in reverse).

This route has some benefits, and some challenges, including a 100k climb, quite possibly into the wind, from the turnaround point and course low point in Bennett.

Rustic 400k

The Rustic route has the familiar plains start of our 400k's and 600k's, followed by access to Poudre Canyon via Stove Prairie.  (If that road hasn't reopened in time, we can take Horsetooth Reservoir.)  This is followed by a spur to Livermore.  

These sections have high scenic value, but also some traffic.  As this is a Louisville start, the route could be used for the 600k's and the 1000k.

Let me know what you think!  Alternate ideas are welcome, too.

-jle

P.S. The 1000k may have increased interest this year, as it did in 2010, because of the ACP's pre-registration policy for Paris-Brest-Paris.  So we certainly would like to offer a scenic and enticing 1000k for our guests.  The third loop (up Big Thompson Canyon, and down via Devil's Gulch) will also need some attention or a substitute.

The Hana Hiatus 202km Perm - A Nice Break!

It's been in the teens all day as I write this, with a mixture of snow and graupel ushering in a Colorado month of March.  While many of us have been eking out a Platteville Poke-Along or Kersey Kick permanent in between snowstorms and the polar vortex, a few lucky riders - four so far this season - have been able to enjoy my Hana Hiatus 202km circuit of south Maui, starting with our own local luminary, Ray Rupel.

You can read Ray's write-up in the spring issue of American Randonneur.

- CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE -


The route takes in South Maui, featuring the Hana Highway, the quiet south coast, and the SW flank of the Haleakala volcano.



Here are some photos I took researching this route.  The ride starts in Lihei, on the west coast of South Maui, near hotels and services.  You pass the local rowing club's canoes arrayed on the beach.



A tranquil start on the bikepath from Kihei to Kahului.



Beyond Pukulani is the route's high point, just above 3,000 ft.  



After a flat start, you climb (if you're riding counterclockwise) up the shoulder of the Haleakala volcano to Pukulani. (Clockwise, it's a nice downhill treat towards the end.  There is a runaway truck lane, by the way.)

Some traffic heading down the Haleakala Highway on the way to work.




The road becomes pastoral and even quieter.




Looking up the flank of Haleakala.



Verdant stretches even on this, the leeward side.




The Piilani Highway descends to the south coast.



Nice views of the Pacific and nearby islands.




Some fun on a twisty descent!



This quiet road narrows to one lane.




More volcanic terrain.  Yes, we're looking down on the bridge we just crossed.



Nice outcroppings on the coast.



The segment just pictured has fairly new asphalt, and is in wonderful shape.  What follows is eight miles of rough pavement and (somewhat smoother) dirt. 



This pavement feels even rougher than it looks!



This shot of the bridge shown above - courtesy of Google StreetView - shows the pavement before it was redone.  Now it is very smooth. 




Goats graze on a ridge.




The road traverses volcanic outcroppings.



In this verdant country, even the cattleguards are overgrown with grass.



Deep ravines proceed to the coast.





The services tend to be isolated ranch and general stores.




A tempting sidetrip ... up to 10,000 ft.




Enjoying the beach at the start/finish, looking towards cloud blowing off West Maui.



Jenny and Shawn Hatfield are the latest to have ridden the Hana Hiatus as of this writing.  Check out Jenny's photo report.   And remember to look for Ray's article.

The Hana Hiatus is a tough 200k in some ways.  It has almost 11,000 ft. of climbing.  The south coast can be hot and has limited services.  The Hana Highway - a succession of rollers and bridges over inlets - has cumulative climbing and being on the windward side, can be wetter.  But with the right preparation and attitude, you're in for a rewarding, scenic experience!

-jle

P.S. I have not posted info on the Colorado Permanents pages (because it's not in Colorado), but you can find basic info here and a RideWithGPS map here.