Lost in the woods

  I hope that some of you have been reading my Mountain Biking page to hear about how my year of biking is going if not please click on the link or the one above this post.  I have a great tale to share with you about my last trip.  I had been looking forward to this trip for a couple of days.  My wife and kids were heading out of town so that meant I would have the whole day to myself.  I thought what better than a long ride and then home alone.  If no one knew this before I am a solitary person to a point.  I like to be alone for a time but then get lonely pretty quick.  I don’t often go on long rides when my wife has to stay home alone with the all the kids.  I don’t really think that’s entirely far.  That’s her day job and she shouldn’t have to have to put up with them all weekend as well.  That meaning getting the chance to get out for a day without worrying about her is great.  I had planned on going to Centennial Cone for my ride.  I had planned it out because at this time Highway 6 up the parking lot is closed during the week and on the weekends mountain biking is only allowed on even dates. 

I was ready to go but for one little problem.  I checked the county open space website one more time before leaving.  I had missed an important notice.  The Elk Range Trail would be closed until mid-June.  That meant half of the loop would not be accessible.  I didn’t really want to do half the trail the turn around and come back.  So I needed to pick another trail.  I have had it my mind to try out a new area to me called Indian Creek Campground.  The trail I wanted to ride was called Indian Creek trail #800.  I had read various descriptions of the trail.  Some said it was moderate to advance and some sites called it easy to moderate.  I had hiked the trail last year with my family.  I didn’t think based on that experience it wouldn’t be to hard a trail.  I packed my pack with water, food, go goo's, and some survival and first aid supplies.  I am not one to be under prepared but I did forget one important detail.  I didn’t have a good map of the area that will come up later.

  I got to the trail head about 11:30.  I unloaded and meet a fellow biker who was getting ready for a “thirty mile” day.  He and I talked about 29er bikes and the best route.  He recommended going up the trail to a fire road then riding it till it ended turning into a single track back to the trail head.  I thought this sounded like a good ride for me.  He left before me and was gone even before I could clip into my pedals.  The start of the trail was fine.  I had to go down to the granny gear but I have learned not to sweat it since I am not Lance Armstrong.  I am all about getting up the trail in my own time not someone else’s.  I would describe this part of the trail as moderate.  I would huff and puff up a rise this coast down to another rise.  I rode about half an hour before stopping for a lunch break.  There is nothing like peanut butter and honey on the trail side. 


I rode about another half hour until I reached the fire road I had been told about.  I meet a nice couple on the road who had hiked in from Roxborough State Park.  We talked about bikes and animals.  They told me they had seen a bear closer to the state park.  I thanked them for that info.  I then headed down the fire road.  It was a nice ride.  I was on the fire road for about an hour when I got the feeling I was not going in the right direction.  I was going north when I knew I needed to go south to get back to the trailhead.  I finally decided to turn around.  I stopped and pulled out my iPhone.  I used one of my apps to get a fix on my position.  Now remember I had no map.  I looked at the app map and thought I saw a way back the trail head behind me on the fire road.  I put away the phone and headed back.  I reached the junction with a trail whose name I forgot.  I thought it was Saw Gulch or Sawmill Gulch.  The direction of the trail was going right way or so I thought.  I headed down the trail and was immediately stopped by a tree down in the trail.  This seemed odd to me as I had seen several downed trees on the Indian Creek trail #800 but they had all been cut up to clear the trail.  I thought maybe this tree was a recent fall.  It’s too bad I didn’t pack my hatchet or saw I could have clear a least the trail.  Instead I carried my bike over it and continued. 

As the trail continued down into a valley I began to notice troubling signs.  I had observed on the main trail many fresh tire marks from the last day or two.  I also observed footprints and hoof prints from horses.  On this new trail I didn’t see any fresh tire marks and no foot prints.  I saw an occasional hoof print and horse dun.  But they appeared old maybe a month or more.  I also noticed the trail seemed over grown the further down I traveled.  This worried me the most.  I have been hiking and camping since I was little.  I know what a trail that is well traveled looks like.  I even know what game trails look like when they are well traveled.  A well traveled trail means it goes somewhere.  People and animals use the trail regularly.  When a trail gets over grown that’s a sure sign not many have traveled this way recently.  That means it probably is not going to take you where you want to go.  I thought it would take be back south but the valley seemed to curve northwest instead of south.

I soon hit another fallen tree then another.  I think there was more than four fallen trees on the trail.  I should have turned around.  I should have known that more than one downed tree was a bad sign.  But I thought the trail would eventually meet up with trailhead so I continued on.  I tried to get my position with my IPhone again but in the valley I had no signal not even basic cell service.  I rode on.  Farther down the trail the creek that the trail was following became part of the trail.  I was riding and sometimes walking my bike through thick mud.  I continued on.  I eventually met up with some hikers who told me that I needed to take my next left to get back to the trailhead.  I found to junctions but they seemed to go the wrong direction so I continued down the valley.  I was turned around at this point and didn’t know it.  what I thought was west was really north.  I had a compass but didn’t pull it out.  I should have.  I eventually realized my mistake and turned around.  I got back to the junction I should have taken.  I had no energy at this point.  I walked then hiked then walked my bike up the slope.  I had to stop several times to rest. 

I hiked out of the valley slowly.  I was more than an hour late at this point.  I didn’t know if I was going the right way as the trail kept winding this way and that.  Again, I didn’t have a map of the area and I didn’t look at my compass.  Stupid moves on my part but I was sure the trailhead was just over the next rise.  I eventually meet more bikers which was encouraging.  They told me which way to get to the Colorado trail or back to Roxborough State Park.  Not places I wanted to go but I was reasonable sure I could find my way if I got to one of those places.  I had to stop more than twice with painful muscle cramps in my thighs.  Riding was out of the question at this time.  I wasn’t even able to hike my bike I was just pushing it up the hill with me.  I finally made it back to the trail and walked the last mile to the trailhead.  I was two and half hours late but I was alive and still had my bike.  I learned  a lot about the little voice inside me that knew I was getting myself lost.  I also learned that I am not as prepared as I thought in this area.  Still it was fun to be out in nature even if I was lost.

Please leave comments about times you've been lost and please Subscribe.  I hope to share more of my adventures with you.

Conquering the Mountain

One of the reasons that I love mountain biking is constantly pushing myself toward new challenges.  I get to challenge a trail over and over again in order to conquer it.  I have been trying since early April to get to the top of Green Mountain.  Green Mountain is a treeless hill west of Lakewood that is an easy ride for my office.  This May I finally got to the top.

It's a challenge even to get to the mountain because of the climb over the I-70.  The flyover bridge I take is steady climb leading then to a gentle slope down.  I discovered that I didn't need to ride to the main western parking to catch a trail on to the mountain.  There is a concrete path that goes under C-470.  It leads straight to Box O' Rox trail.  The name Box O' Rox is a very accurate name for the trail.  It is a smooth trail at the base but becomes rocky near the top.

Climbing a mountain on a bike is not always fun.  I didn't start out riding Green Mountain for the fun of the climb.  I didn't think the climb was the best part of the ride.  I thought it was the down hill.  I watched videos all winter of the downhill mountain bike races.  I got hooked on the idea that downhill was mountain biking.  But the ride can changed my thinking as I got further up the mountain.  Someday, I would make it halfway up the hill.  Other days I would barely make a quarter of the climb.  It was frustrating at the worst times and at best times would make me feel alive. 

I was able to find a place where the ache of my muscles and the shortness of breath met my sense of victory.  I have heard it called a "Zen" moment.  I was in communion with all the universe just my own body.  To feel that way is enough for me to find peace.  God made my body to move and to be in tune with that feeling makes me feel in tune with God. 

Since I rode to the top I have moved on to other trails (which you will hear about soon).  I cannot always find my peace with every ride.  I know that like everything in life I will be disappointed at times. I also know that there will be those times when I get closer God.  I look forward to those times to come.

A view from the top of Green Mountain

Cottonwood Pass Mountain Biking

Over Memorial day weekend my wife and I went up to Eagle County to celebrate our anniversary.  After going for a walk, I grabbed my bike for a short ride.  Near where we were staying is Cottonwood Pass Road.  I have ridden this road several times before but not with my own bike.  It is a short ride by road to get up to the hills.  After passing two cattle guards there is a road that heads up hill near where we were staying.  Apparently, it's a seven mile loop to from the road and back.  I thought this seemed good enough. 

Understand that when I say road I mean a 4x4 road.  I had seen dirt bikes going up this trail earlier in the day.  It was not a well maintained road.  From the spot where I took the above picture, the road is washed out and rutted all the way up.  It's wide enough to allow for a truck to pass but the going is rough.  I rode the first few miles without much trouble.  The altitude was definitely a factor.  I stopped several times to catch my breath.  I found that each time I stopped the best thing for me was to control my breathing.  I would hold my breath several seconds between breaths.  This would slow down my breathing and help my heart to slow down as well.  Once I got going again I would try to breath about every second or third revolution of my pedals.  That pace kept me moving without losing my breath.

As I said the road was rough.  I had to stay on the peaks between the ruts in the road most of the time.  When the ruts disappeared then I found myself on loose sandstone.  Unlike other rocks I have ridden over sandstone acts differently.  It doesn't form rounded shaped on the roadway most of the time.  That meant when I rode over it I was afraid of a popped tire.  The edges looked plenty sharp.  Sandstone would also break suddenly making the going slow at times.  I rode for almost an hour before I got near the top of the ridge.  My timing was prefect because I didn't meet any motor traffic or dirt bikers going up or down.  My fear with them is that they would be going to fast to avoid me. 

I don't know if I was still on the same loop that the sign had marked when I turned around.  I passed several junctions with roads going different directions.  I just decided I had ridden far enough.  I turned around and coasted down most of the way.  I have noticed that a trail is never the same up as down.  Areas difficult to climb over were now drops and loose areas now had to be negotiated at high speed with my wheels twisting out from underneath me.  I burned up some brake pads going down but I made it.  I enjoyed my trip.  I am looking forward to coming back in August when I can take more time and explore the area more carefully.

Happy Trails, see you next time!!

Promises, Promises

I know that I had promised to get on to a series recently, but things changed.  I am really busy this summer with my summer work time schedule.  I am going to post about my mountain bike ride throughout the summer.  The summer is not a time I want to be stuck in front of my computer all night typing.  I suggest that we all take summer vacation from our technology for a little while.  A day or a week, it really doesn't matter we need sometime off to enjoy our life.  See more of you this fall.  Sincerely, The King.

Learning to be myself

 I am an avid listener to the Podcast "This I Believe."  I have mentioned in previous posts that I wish to submit an essay to the organization but cannot seem to come up with the right essay.  This weeks essay (which you can listen to by clicking on the title above) was about the life lessons that one man learned while hunting with his father.  I am not an avid hunter so I won't try and bore you with a post about what I might be missing by not hunting.  Instead, I immediately thought of the activities in my own life that I share with my children.

I share the activity of biking my oldest princess and my youngest prince.  I taught both of them to ride their bikes without training wheels within twenty-four hours.  It really was simple.  I was patient and kind with both of them as we worked through their fears and set backs.  I am not normally a patient man especially with my kids.  I am scary often overbearing.  So, it surprised me that I was able to get both my princess and prince from not even being able to balance on training wheels to a two hour journey a few weeks ago.  I am a different man on a bike.  I don't feel frustrations the same way as when I am on the ground.  I understand that I have limits, and I accept that not everyone will be able to ride at the same level.  I forgive myself.  I feel a bound stronger than steel with my kids when I am leading them down the road.

The challenge now is to find that same bounding activity with my oldest prince and youngest princess.  Each one of them presents separate challenges.  My oldest son is Autistic which makes him very unique.  He and I run on similar batteries but they aren't 100% compatible.  My youngest daughter is a fiery red head with spirit.  If you think this is sounds pat it's not.  She is exactly as described.  The challenge with her is merely age.  As young as she is now, I just need to take her the nearest 7-11 to get snacks and that is special to her.  I wonder what she will want to do when she's thirteen?  But isn't that the challenge?  As dad's we have to meet our kids half way in their lives to get to know them and conversely they get to know us.   They see use through our activities and we get to see them.  We just have to be open to trying out what brings our children joy.  Good Luck.

Lazy Saturday Ride

This Saturday my oldest princess, my youngest prince, and their friend came with me on a bike ride down the Lee Gulch trail here in Littleton.  We started out by making our lunches then packing up the hydration packs with water and food.  I had not even gotten dressed in my bike shorts when we ran into our first problem.  My princess' back tire was flat.  I had filled it up when doing my safety check of the kid’s bikes.  I didn't really have to more than five minutes and the tire was flat again.  Luckily, we had a secondary bike nearly the same size that would work.  I got dressed prepared my bike, and we were ready to go.  Not yet, once my princess' friend D showed up his chain was falling off.  No problem, the adjustable wrench worked its magic and off we rode.  We rode quickly through the streets getting on the trail.  Five minutes on the trail, D lost his chain again.  I made a quick repair with my chain tool removing a link from the chain.  I figured if the chain kept falling off it was either the wrong chain size or it had stretched out to much.

We finally got on the trail.  I didn't really know if I could keep everyone together on the ride.  My princess and D started out strong leading the way.  My prince struggled up the hills but did pretty good. We recently got him a bigger bike.  I am really glad since the larger tire size means he moves more easily.  D and my princess stayed in the lead till we got to the lunch spot.  I chose a bench near a lake on the trail.  D wanted to show us his secret hide out that lay near the lake in a grove of trees, but I asked him if we could locate it another day.  We got out the turkey sandwiches and trail mix.  My prince asked me if the lake was safe to swim in.  I looked out over the brown water, and I observed the half dozen ducks swimming in the mirror still water.  I told my prince that I really didn't think that it was safe water to swim in.  D chimed in saying that it was probably full of gross stuff.  Yep, ducks got to poop somewhere I pointed out.


Once everyone was fed we were back on the trail.  Everyone rode really well.  Our destination was a dirt jump park setup by the parks and rec.  D was great at keeping the other two going even after they started getting tired.  Both the prince and princess alone don't really have the motivation to make it as far as we were going but with D there he gave them a reason to keep going.  I was so proud of them.  We rode a lot faster than I thought we would.  We arrived at the jump park in little under forty minutes.  When we got there I took one look at the size of the jumps and thought this whole trip might have been a bad idea.  Personally, I look at the jumps and they don't really look all that big.  I am not saying that they are tiny by any means.  To give you some perspective to the size the largest jump is about as high as my shoulder (my height being 5'10").

Taking all the kids sizes into account, I thought they would be too intimidated by the jumps to try.  I was proved wrong right away when D just tore right down the hill toward the biggest jump.  He cleared it without any problem.  He then cleared three more jumps in a row.  My prince took his run next.  The prince like D went for the biggest jump.  To my relief he cleared the top, but then my heart skipped when he turned sharply to the right.  These are table top jumps so imagine a vertical dirt ramp up to a flat top then another steep ramp down the other side.  If one stays straight you'll clear it no problem but off to left or right the sides just drop straight off.  The prince turned sharp right on the top flat move his butt behind his seat and rode down the straight vertical side, pretty impressive for a six year old.  Then I got my turn at a run.  My princess was not going to have any of it, so she would just watch.  I made a couple of small jumps nothing to impressive.  I thought I should give the large jump a try since a six year old made it.  I tore down the hill right up to the jump.  I braked a little too much before hitting it so I was pedaling right up the face.  I cleared the top, though.  Great, I did what a six year old could now on to second jump.  I rolled off the top of the first and toward the second table top.  I don't remember if I had enough speed going into the second, but I can tell you I cleared the top.  Once my front tire cleared, I clearly remember questioning myself as to why I had turned my front slightly to the right.  Before I could answer though physics caught me.  My front tire hit the downward side of the second jump at a slight right angle.  I could see the tire in slow motion lose traction then continue on to right sliding sideways.  I hit hard on my left side taking most of fall in my shoulder and bicep.  God has blessed me with a great instinct on how to take a fall.  Ask my wife and she'll tell you about the time I got throw forward off a horse.

After freeing my foot from under the bike (luckily my feet popped out of the clips), I dusted off and tried again.  This time I didn't fall but I was starting to fell it in my back.  We rode home on the street to save time.  D had to get home on time his mother was taking him somewhere.  I was really happy on the trip home, and I hope that this is the start of a great family activity to share with friends.  To end I will leave you with the only injury I sustained from my fall.  Have a great week.