The first part of the trail is awesome. It feels alot like Fantasy Island. Very twisty and fast. Then you come to cross a dirt/gravel road and the fun ride continues for a bit. There are some pretty tight dipping turns. I actually had a pretty good time on this part of the ride. Soon after however, the low difficulty becomes moderate. Moderate = hike-a-bike.
Some views off the trails
There got to be (for me) some fairly iffy rocky sections that I just felt much safer walking through than trying bust out enough speed to get my bike over them. Plus, the trail usually was sided by a nice rolling ditch that a wrong move would send me tumbling into many cacti. I came close enough to a few as it was. Many sections I spent muttering about how this was low-to-moderate difficulty. Good times. Finally I came up on a picnic area with a bathroom and stopped here (among many other locations along the trail) to rest and catch my breath.
The trail picks back up after this for some more rocky good times. There were even a few places that I wondered how a bike got across. Finally the trail dumps out at the end of Colossal Cave Rd. and supposedly drops into the wash and makes a quick left around a rock. Totally missed that one. Myself and another guy cruised up the road trying to find where the trail disappeared. After hunting for awhile we just decided to call it a day as we were about 4-5 miles into the trail. The total trail was supposed to be about 20 miles r/t and since it was out and back, you could turn back at anytime. When we got back to the first half of the trail we met up with some other people from our group who pointed out the right trail to us. Oops.
We hopped back on the trail and headed back the way we came. Unfortunately, some of the stuff we came out on, just wasn't looking very friendly on the way back so there was a significant amount of hiking the bike. Part of the problem was also that since this part was mostly uphill, even once you passed the rocks that I have no idea how people ride over, you couldn't get going again very well. Plus I'm always in the wrong gear in this situation which makes my starting that much more difficult.
FINALLY, we got back to the less rocky, more fun part. I was bombing through parts of this (ok, its probably still slow for some of you, bombing for me). In fact, I went a little hot through a tight turn and veered myself right off the trail. How I managed to catch myself and remaining standing while leaning down a ditch, beyond me. I'm just that awesome. Once we hit the much flatter, FI-like trails I was back to having a wonderful time. So wonderful that after getting back to the jeep, cruising down the road, carving out a new trail through some brush, I decided to re-ride the first little section of trail. Way fun.
Overall the ride wasn't too bad. We had riden Sweetwater yesterday so I was already a little tired from that so I was feeling a lot of burn. I think as I get better this could be a pretty fun trail. Plus it has some nice picnic areas part way through that make for excellent stops (and bathrooms!).
I got back to the Jeep and changed and then got to sit around and wait for the rest of the group to come back. Not sure how long this really was, probably 45 minutes or so. Finally Erik comes rolling in and we get our stuff loaded up and ready to go as we wanted to stop by TriSports so he can pick up some "stuff" (read - my xmas gifts), and I wanted to check out wetsuit that have on a smokin deal. Then we had to go pick up his new shocks for the Jeep. And a new battery since when we started the Jeep this morning it was a bit slow turning over. No worries though. So in the car we go and he turns the key....and.....click,click,click...nothing. Hmm..battery? At this point I think of pointing out that I suggested he bring that nice portable jumper I got him for xmas last year. I think of it, I don't say it. So we asked one of the other guys to give us a jump. Get everything hooked up and try starting it again...click,click,click...nothing. So we assume it is the starter. Luckily we have a friend who had just left that lives in Vail.
......
After buying a new starter and battery (I actually suggest the battery too since we don't know the starter is the only bad part), we head back out to the trailhead. It is now 3:30 and we'll be losing sunlight soon. The guys get to work trying to get the old starter out and I'm the tool girl. Still a lot of dirt under there from last years 24HOP race. Finally they get it loose and get the new one in. I try to start it and get nothing. Needs the battery too. Get that swapped out and try it again. Success!!! So, at least I learned to change the starter on the Jeep. One nice thing is that you can crawl under that sucker w/o a jack. Needless to say we didn't make it to TriSports or the 4-wheel hardware place.
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