Cutties

Cutties, my new favorite cornering technique for Durango riding. Yesterday Dylan and I went for a good old ride in the gulch. The route was a new one for me and it was a sweet one. Up horse gulch road, meadow trail, telegraph, crites connect, south rim, up the cowboy trail/road, up sidewinder, up suicide climb, down anasazi, meadow loop, back to campus. Woohee. The trails on the back side of the telegraph ridge were super fun and loose. The turns are swoopy and unridden and allowed for a not so often turning technique to be used...cutties. The trails were way tight and needed cut back. Were were constantly being smacked with branches, don`t ride with your mouth open....

The ride was super fun and around 2 hours at a moderate pace.

Dylan at the top of Telegraph, we only stopped for a photo op.

Somewhere on crites connect taking a piss break.

Panoramic View

Trail Conditions

A quick overview of the horse gulch trail conditions for those Durangatangs.

Meadow Loop—Bone Dry, slightly dusty

Stacy’s Loop—Bone Dry, A little loose over hard pack

Mikes—One or two mud holes, not packed, climb is loose

Cuchillo—Dry, Loose over hard pack

Telegraph—Dry, loose over hard pack.

Anasazi Descent—Dry, Loose, small rut forming

Secret trail—moist

Sidewinder—Dry, one mud hole, tree down

Suicide Climb—moist in the middle, not packed, rideable

Raiders Ridge—Dry, and fun

Lower raiders ridge—Dry and fun also

Crites Connect--Bone Dry, very loose

South Rim--Dry, loose over hard pack

F`kin Pooped

Today I made a quick ride in the Gulch to get a look at the trail conditions on Mikes and Cuchillo. Mikes was almost totally un-ridden and very muddy in spots(hike a bike to avoid trail damage),the upper section of Cuchillo was horrible where the lower section was great. The climb on Mikes was not muddy at all but the previous section was and my tires went from light weight fast rollers to uber heavy doughnuts covered in Durango dirt sprinkles..not so tasty. Not to mention the climb kicked my ass good. I am rarely so tired after a climb, its looking like I need to get my pedal mashing skill back.

A good shot of the trail. This was what most of Mikes looked like, hopefully it will dry out in the next few days. Cuchillo was similar with the exception that the mud was very watery, probably wont dry out for a while.

Hey Handsome

Another panoramic view

Ride in the Gulch

The today was great so I went for a ride in the Gulch. Most of the trails there are dry now with the exception of a few mud holes and trails on the north face.

Panoramic View

The trails were fast and fun. It felt so good to be back on dirt riding a bike.

I rode for around an hour and a half and stopped because I didn't want to miss lunch. I pushed the ride pretty hard and I suffered pretty bad on the climbs and rode not as fast as I would of liked on the down hills but hopefully my fitness will really start to come back within the next few weeks.