Today I had a breakthrough ride. I had some free time and felt like doing a long, somewhat epic ride, and that is exactly what I got. I pulled out my map and saw Kennebec pass at 11,870 feet and quite aways from town. This out and back route would be my goal for the day. I began my journey at the Dry Fork trailhead at roughly 7400′. I climbed up to the Colorado trail to about 8600′ over about 4 miles. The whole time the skies were looking ominous and rain /lightning was threatening to hamper this ride, but I forged ahead anyways. I could see the tree lines of adjacent peaks not too far above me and I knew if I hit that elevation I would have to come back down because the open tundra is no place to be during a thunderstorm.
From there I took the CT north 3.5 miles to High Point at about 9600′. Along the way, I got my first glimpse of high country wildflowers.
Sally and I took a break to enjoy the view at high point.
From High point, it was a descent back down to Junction creek to about 8600′. The descent was fast, swoopy, a little treacherous in some places, and crossed lots of mini creeks, but was very scenic.
After crossing the footbridge, it was nothing but climbing out of junction creek canyon and towards Kennebec. By this point, it was drizzling and the trail had turned from awesome moist dirt into a little mush and lots of slippery rocks and roots. I had to hike a bike a lot more than I wanted to. On the up side, Junction creek offered plenty of scenery with waterfalls and wildflowers.
On the last stretch of ascent out of Junction Creek there is a really cool waterfall to admire.
After the waterfall, the trail climbs out of the canyon and towards Kennebec pass. It got less rocky, but more rooty, and a little steeper in places. By this point, I had gone through my 2 Larabars and was starting to feel drained. My 2×9 gearing is not very low (27/34) and I was getting back up to 10,000 feet, so I was forced to walk some of the steeper sections. I came up to CR 171 at about 10,500 ft and 2 miles from the pass, and decided to pull the plug and take the country road back into town. This would not only give me a loop to ride (instead of an out and back), but get me back quicker since I could coast full throttle on the road ( you can’t really do this on the trail due to the technical singletrack nature, but also because of other trail users) Despite my hopes that I wouldn’t have any more climbing to do, CR had maybe a few extra 100′ of climbing, but after that it was balls to the walls descending back to town at 35-45mph. Before the descending began, I had an awesome view of the valley below and mountains to the east. Notice the rain storm about 10 miles away.
Looking at my map, I noticed a “fun downhill” trail notated as part of the log chute trail system. At the trailhead along the road were a couple of fellows with downhill bikes doing shuttle runs. They told me the best way to ride the trail back down to the Colorado trail, but I was little uneasy about giving it a go seeing as how they had full pads and full suspension bikes with 8″ of travel and I was on a hardtail with maybe 3.5″ up front and XC tires. I forged ahead anyways and am I glad I did! I maybe had a 20 second headstart on the downhillers, but somehow I still beat them to the bottom. I have never in my entire life ripped a downhill like I did this very day, especially on a hardtail. It was a major breakthrough, and a fun one at that. When I got to the bottom, I had a choice to make. I could take junction creek road back into town (downhill all the way) and try to get a lift back to my truck at the dry fork trailhead OR, I could climb back up another 1000 feet to Gudy’s Rest and take the HoffHein’s connect down to my truck. I had already been on the trail for about 6 1/2 hours. I was tired and hungry and ready to be done. I didn’t want to leave my truck at the trailhead though, and so I mustered up some 24 hour resolve and bulldozed up the climb with energy I didn’t think I had. Another breakthrough. I was giddy after reaching the top, because I knew another smoking fast downhill was all that stood between me and my truck. I ripped Hoffhein’s even faster than the other downhill smiling all the way, my third breakthrough of the day. I arrived at my truck both elated that the ride was over, but sad there was no more downhill to shred. Oh well, another day, another trail. That is the magic of Durango.
