In honor of MLK day and having the work off, I took my mountain bike out for the first ride of the season. And what a ride it was! A while back I met a guy in this bar and he told me you could connect Lee Hill Road to Sunshine Canyon. Right out of a 80's treasure movie, he gave me a poorly drawn and inadequately labeled map. Luckily, working with maps and imagery all day has given me better than average tools for finding routes. It's true, you can connect many of the canyon roads west of Boulder. This ride went like this:
And the elevation profile, labeled with the peaks and canyons. The ride at the beginning and the end was 8 miles of to and from Gunbarrel. (click to enlarge)
The first big climb ends by the Star House, this kind of spiritual meeting place between Sunshine and Lindon. The top is really beautiful!
No error there, my phone freaked out and stopped working, didn't record the sweet panorama I took and cut my GPS of the rode in two. Oh well, you'll have to take my word for it that it was awesome. Plus, another reason to do this ride again. Next was a little road riding and then I got on Betasso from the North. You'll notice my camera was set to "Blue Picture Mode"
This was an awesome ride, and other than Betasso, it was all doable on a cross bike. The mountain bike season has started, people. Quick, get on your bike and start pedaling as fast as you can!
Lee Hill - Sunshine - 4 Mile - Canyon - Flagstaff
And it was epic! Here's a map of the trail:
Ridden counter-clockwise
And the elevation profile, labeled with the peaks and canyons. The ride at the beginning and the end was 8 miles of to and from Gunbarrel. (click to enlarge)
The first big climb ends by the Star House, this kind of spiritual meeting place between Sunshine and Lindon. The top is really beautiful!
The view from the Star House
No error there, my phone freaked out and stopped working, didn't record the sweet panorama I took and cut my GPS of the rode in two. Oh well, you'll have to take my word for it that it was awesome. Plus, another reason to do this ride again. Next was a little road riding and then I got on Betasso from the North. You'll notice my camera was set to "Blue Picture Mode"
Early season Betaasso
The winter biking window was in full effect here. Had it been a little warmer, this would have been a sloppy mess. Fortunately for me, it was cold enough that it was pretty firm. After Betasso, it was onto the newest addition to the Boulder trail system, Chapman Drive.
View riding up Chapman Road
This was an awesome ride, and other than Betasso, it was all doable on a cross bike. The mountain bike season has started, people. Quick, get on your bike and start pedaling as fast as you can!
A picture I accidentally took fumbling my phone
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