Yeah, I know that rhymes with squeaky.

We slept a ton, woke up slow, and took our time leaving. Finally we made it for a quick ride at Bear Creek Park and then headed up the road to Pikes Peak. At 14115′, it is the highest the truck and I have ever been. And yes, there are trails to the far below towns which are open to bikes.

Pikes Peak is impossibly high. The drive’s elevation gain is so great the clouds became just about within arms reach.

I chose to take Elk Park and rendezvous and then continue down Barr after some internet queries. Summary is 13 miles with over 6000′ of descent on all double black trails for trip time of 1 h 48 min. Holy shit.

I’ve only once ridden a double black diamond. It was one big rock after another, and miraculously I made it. What stood out for me?

First of all, that’s a lot of descent in a short distance. My rotors have a cool blackish hue on the outer inch, no doubt because my pads were burning from the extensive use. I really needed to use my front brake.

Then how loose it all was. I mean some of the the gravel making up the higher elevation Elk Park’s switchbacks was not necessarily interested in staying on the trail, coming across as happier to head down with me a quicker way. And then even the fast sections were loose. Personally, I find it hard to stop when it is like that, and with the ever reappearing rock gardens I was not excited to go any kind of fast.

Yes lots of stairs. We have elevation to lose team!! Many were roots or rocks or both to be sure. Actually this was the first ride to have roots since the Bay Area. The best appear late in the ride. The final descent into Manitou Springs contains flights of variously spaced and height man made steps and some full on multi foot rock and root drops. Coupled with the endless loose stuff that was out of the park.

The Elk Park Trail also includes sections which have young saplings ready to grab your bars. Plus the same elevation gain as the small ride I did at Joaquin Miller park back in the day, though the low point here was over 10000′. Much of climbing was either plain old too tough or too tough right then because of the elevation. What does too tough mean? Rocks spaced to more easily catch my front tire, going uphill, for sure like approximately 44 miles in length all of them. Sometimes with sections of roots and then these big rocks that maybe someone better than I might possibly hop over? In some places were 6 feet of elevation gain in maybe a yard of travel. It was tough enough to carry up my bike on my two feet, thank you very much.

Of course the plentiful and sometimes lengthy rock gardens were either outstanding or overwhelming. One garden had a rock so large I rode under it!

Then, we have to talk about how constant were these “features.” To be precise, I rarely felt comfortable grabbing the camel bak thing for a sip, preferring instead to completely come to a safe stop.

Sky, trees and cloud. From where Mme Awesome meditated and the start of the ride.

The only thing missing was exposure. I was glad that there was never a drop off. Really, how are cliffs ever fun?

We went to a tasty and satisfying Mexican restaurant after and that’s about it!