Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

17.3
Definitely all muscle gain in this extra kilo or so during the 10 days of biking ;) and pizza, and ice cream, and Burger King, and burritos, burritos, burritos :)

C • My money is from the second... 1

Left Grand Junction and did one more ride on the way home. Hit the Klondike Bluffs area north of Moab and got spoiled with some warm weather again. Rode up Mega Steps, down Alaska and Dino Flow, then back up Baby Steps and down Mega Steps with a side trip to the dinosaur stomping grounds to see some cool dinosaur tracks in the rock that used to be beachfront mud. A fun finish to a great trip.

Then the long drive, but a good time had singing to too many 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s songs on the satellite radio. Well.... I had a good time. Not sure if everyone else enjoyed it ;).

Lunch Loops near Grand Junction. Feeling tired so some sections felt harder than they should. Good trails, the green one at the beginning had nice flow. Holy Cross, and then headed back to the car via Ali's Alley and Curt's trail. A great flowy set of switchbacks on the way down to the car.
Then lost one more of our crew :(. Carbon is headed home.

C • Sounds like 1

18 Road Trails near Fruita. Up Prime Cut and down Pumps Bumps and Rollers. We were all expecting more from PBR. It was fun but not as good as Dead Ringer. Climbed back up Down Uppity and Chutes and Ladders, then down Kessel Run. Kessel Run was great, a really fun fast flowy series of banked corners. Had to contend with the sun in our eyes at times, but worth it. A great finish to the day.

The crew headed over to the Fruita/Grand Junction area and hit the Kokapelli trails. Mary's trail to Steve's loop which had some great stuff along the edge of a canyon north of the Colorado River. Onto Lion's and the group was feeling a little tired from the many days of riding so I had to pull out a little more cow bell...
Then up Mack Ridge and some long switchbacky climbs where Carbon had a tip-over and was hanging upside down from the edge of the trail, clinging on with both hands and her bike clipped to her. She called for help and sounded desperate, so I set a FKT for running that section in bike shoes and cleats. Got there as quick as I could and rescued the bike.
Then Revy, Bret-Fast and I continued on to Moore Fun. The ascent had lots of punchy climbing sections but I didn't have a lot of punch so I walked a lot of them. The downhill wasn't as bad as I feared based on the trail rating, rode most of it and enjoyed it.
Then off to the bike shops and coffee shops.

Magnificent 7 trail. A big day that saves the most technical stuff for the end when we were getting a little tired. Still, no bad crashes or injuries.

Fast and flowy at first, had a snack break looking over Gemini Bridges and the canyon. A loooong climb up to Gold Bar and another snack break up top. Then along Gold Bar Rim and to The Portal trail. A bunch of us were nervous about The Portal. Even though you just walk the trickiest section, a bunch of us envisioned a narrow ledge that we might fall off. As it turned out, it is just a hiking trail, nothing scary to walk and you could probably bike most or all of it but if you fell....
Then a technical downhill with some chunky terrain and a few switchbacks that made it even a little tougher.
A solid day, I was quite content to be one of the people shuttling back to fetch a vehicle rather than the rest of the crew that rode to town.

A great loop in the AmasaBack area, using more singletrack trails than were available in the past. Went up HyMasa, to CliffHanger, out and back on Pothole Arch trail with a lunch stop at the end point, then Rock Stacker and Captain Ahab until it took us back to HyMasa for the return trip back.

Lots of good ups and downs, with some bigger downs on Rock Stacker and Captain Ahab and then a rockin' fun descent down the last of HyMasa. The 29er and the slacker geometry makes everything easier, gone are the frequent scares of going over the bars on the Spark or the Fuel.

Great riding by all. A few challenges due to some wet sand in spots: the back wheel would sometimes slip out, especially on the off-camber stuff, and it was tough to get out of the gritty pedals, leading to a few falls. Still a great time :).

Milkshakes and fries after.