A nice stretch of the legs…
Last friday I got this message from a bike friend:
He was planning on doing a ride with a few folks in Henry Coe State Park the next day, and the 10k from the picture was referring to *10000 feet of climbing*.
Henry Coe is notorious for its steep trails, and 10k feet of climbing in over 40 miles sounded like… a good challenge, though of the rather nightmarish kind.
It turned out to be one of the greatest and toughest rides I’ve ever done - Durango was perhaps a bit harder but that was mainly because of the weather conditions and altitude. Some of the climbing on our ‘Kitten ride’ was brutal and relentless and we had to hike-a-bike more than we’d hoped for. A lot of the downhill on the other hand was fantastic and my Yeti was great on this - though a bit heavy and with a non-ideal gearing for the steep climbs (largest cog in the back only 32 teeth), it was coasting like a dream on the rollers and felt awesome on the fast, winding descents. The two thoughest climbs, Mac’s Corral and Vasquez, felt like they would never end though.
As per Jeff, a very nice stretch of the legs indeed!
Here are links to the MTBGuru trip page, to a thread on MTBR on this ride, and to a gallery of pictures including ones not found elsewhere.
Tags: mountain biking, mtbguru
