Inagural Caribou Classic complete

Heyride on the top of the north Sourdough Trail, heading back west towards the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

A horrible picture of an amazing start/finish area on Caribou Ranch at dusk.  The start of the race saw the lead pack almost get taken out by 50 cow elk.  This place is an elk sanctuary.

Yesterday was the 1st annual Caribou Classic and Sufferfest.  I have a feeling one day this is going to be a pretty large event.  The owners of Caribou Ranch, and the production company they are working with, are gunning for it to be the end-of-season Sea Otter Classic.  We shall see if that's possible, but it's pretty wild that's their goal. 

Other than the 4x4 road and some old mining camps, this place has spots that look pretty pristine.

I was involved at the start up by helping design the course and create the maps to get permits and for riders not to get lost.  I offered to help "sweep" the course with Heyride, and the Pilot and Promoter joined along.

 The southern part of the course took riders from Caribou Ranch around a 4 mile "parade" loop and then south through the town of Nederland.  Right through old-town, up to the High School and left on the newly renovated Sugar Mag trail. From there, there was about 10 miles of the best singletrack Nederland has to offer, before returning back to the High School and heading up to the "505" through the town of Eldora.  Heyride and I flagged the hell out of the West Mag trails but people still got lost somehow.  (No, they likely didn't look at the provided laminated map and step-by-step directions...but oh well! All part of the adventure.)

Heyride and I start out to sweep the 24 mile northern portion of the ride, FS road 505 heading north from Caribou Flat at 10,200ft. In winter, we backcountry ski just to behind those two big spruce trees on the left (Ptarmagin hill we call it).

Promoter on the left on the upper reaches of the Sourdough and Heyride on the right on one of the bridges armoring the trail completed by local trail volunteers

Hunter - the Silverback on the ride (oldest rider to ride the longest-by far) - bloodied but unbowed, continues on down the S. St. Vrain Trail

The course had two options - the southern loop was called the "Caribou Classic" (37 miles) and a split at mile 27 to the northern portion of the course which is called 'the Sufferfest" route (50 miles) by BMA - the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance - who puts on the event each year for their members.  The split in courses occurred at the old Caribou Townsite at around 10,200ft elevation and hits some of the more rugged singletrack of this area - it's fun, but it's super technical up and down, and over time beats you down.  The local joke is, "Oh yeah! THAT'S why we only ride that once a year!"

It took us about 5 hours to sweep this section.  One woman took a wrong turn and went UP South St. Vrain Trail instead of down and ended up at the Wilderness Area boundary a few hours later...total bummer for her. It had us a bit worried that we'd be looking for her in the dark, but she turned up at the aid station in good spirits.  The eldest rider of the day, Hunter, kicked serious ass on the ride but had to bail out early because of a rock to the nose.  South St.Vrain trail is really quite technical, especially after having ridden 30+ miles at high elevation.  He did an endo to face on a large boulder and I have never seen a nose look that bad...it was crazy.

We all got back to Caribou Ranch for the MUCH needed free Oskar Blues beer and food just before sunset.  Most riders had completed the shorter Classic route by 2 or 3pm and had been partying for several hours by the time we got there at dusk.  It was a good turnout of around 120 riders and I can only think it'll grow from here on out.  Some BMA members camped across the street on an old football field (literally, it was the decades old high school field before they made a new one) probably freezing their balls off in the sub 30 degree temps overnight...but that sounded like an awesome way to finish of the day. 

Thanks to everyone who got this event up and running in such a short time and I hope everyone had a blast! Hope to see you next year.

For the Mountain Flyer article by Shawn Lortie and some more photos click HERE.

High Country riding

Headed up high with four Pilots today. At home, we awoke to a chilly 26 degrees...winter's on it's way.  All the critters that left the ranch for the summer and headed up to the high country have now started to come back this week.  Leaves are turning yellow in the colder drainages, I brought out my puff-jacket for this morning's dog walk, people are excitedly chatting all about cyclocross, it's definitely starting to feel like Fall!

The High Country will get a snow soon, usually each September there's at least one early on...so we headed into the high country today just in case it snows soon.  Somehow, 65 degrees in Ned felt like 80 degrees.  I could've taken a nap ala "Sound of Music" at 10,200ft. and woken up with a severe sunburn.

The Pilots arse and Heyride in the center distance heading down Very Male.

Heyride on the Birthday trail, the nice route that bypasses most of  the more heinous 4x4 ascent route.

Pilot heading on the flats before the descent. South Arapaho Peak in the distant right

High Country singletrack where the arnica is still out in full force!

Another job well done by Turn Roads Into Singletrack (TRIS)

Apparently, a couple weeks ago, the Pilot and I set a new Strava record for the "road" you see above. Won't be hard to beat as we didn't even know we were setting it.  Slowest average speed record EVER I would imagine.  We ended the ride today on this road that is slowly turning into singletrack with ours and Mother Nature's help.  It's in the Caribou Classic next Saturday, on the shorter loop, so it was good to get some trail work done today and let it settle in all week.  It's funny...there's some hiker that keeps slashing the trail even though we have full permission from the landowner to use it on bikes and CLEAR it of any downed trees and such.  But each time I go out and clear it, the mystery person un-does everything I did the previous day.  It's good to know I'm in the right, so even though I feel maybe a little bit sorry that they're losing their own private trail (that's not on their property), we are getting a great route to use for the upcoming event as well as in the future.

1st Annual Caribou Classic!

I've been working all summer helping a group of people to get this event a reality, and it's finally done!  All the permits have finally been received and it's going to become the biggest mountain bike event the riders of Boulder and Nederland have ever seen in this area.  It's the first year but it's goal is to become a "classic" with the start/finish and expo area at the historic Caribou Ranch just north of Nederland. The Guercio's wanted to create such an event - a 'Coors Classic' for mountain biking in Nederland!  This will likely be the only time the gates of Caribou Ranch are opened to the public all year and it's for a mountain bike festival!

This year, the event is run in conjunction with the BMA "Sufferfest." It's not a race, more similar to a "Dirt Gran Fondo."  There are two main rides you can choose from, plus shorter rides for kids that stay on the Ranch itself. The main expo area is on the Ranch and there's even camping available on site after you've ridden and partied with the rest of the riders and sponsors: Oskar Blues, Yeti, Honey Stinger, Acli-mate, Mountain Magazine, MSI, and Caribou Ranch.

The course starts with a 4 mile loop on Caribou Ranch and then heads south through Nederland, onto some sweet singletrack in the West Magnolia area, then west to the town of Eldora, and up to Caribou Flat.  Once at the top, you can either head back down to the Ranch for a 37 mile loop, or continue north to the Sourdough Trail and la loop on South St. Vrain/north Sourdough Trails and end your ride at Brainard Lake Road (50 mile ride) where there will be a shuttle back to the Ranch where there will be food and drinks waiting.

The event poster is above and here's the link to BMA's website where you need to register.

Afternoon Ride up high

A morning email had me riding with two guys I haven't ridden with before - Walt and Fred.  (Actually, Fred and I had done some trail work many moons ago and I had ridden with Walt back at one of the IGSSC's, probably over 10 years ago.) No nicknames for these guys yet...besides, their websites would give their identities away!

I was scrambling trying to get my new frame ready to ride but having started 2 hours before ride time...I realized too late that I had no fork that fit the frame...so I grabbed my singlespeed and rushed to meet these guys in Ned -- both of them on full-suspension Waltworks bikes.  Starting the ride at 4:30pm, I didn't think we'd go too big but we ended up doing a pretty large 3 hour loop. We rode a counter-clockwise loop up to the Flats from town, down Birthday Trail to Triple Secret (aka. FOUND) and then down RBV to Mud Lake finishing on the School singletrack.

On the way out of town to RBV, I literally had a close encounter with a Great-horned owl.  I was heading down into RBV on a side route when I almost ran into something crossing the trail.  I stopped, looked to my left, and saw the big yellow eyes of the owl less than two feet away from me standing on the side of the trail.  Walt rode up and as he approached the owl flew off down the trail corridor, looking no worse for the wear.  Thankfully.  It was a funny ride like that.  I almost took myself out several times trying to keep up with these guys on my rigid single.  I didn't get dropped...but I probably should have - for my sake. (I'm still tired and sore from that ride.)

Great to ride with some new peeps that I've known for awhile but just never ridden with for some reason!

The new Sugar Mag

Got out for a ride today with the Pilot up on the new Sugar Mag trail and beyond.  As the Pilot said (paraphrase), "Wow! This place is all growing up and stuff! You've got new sidewalks, trail signs...what's next?!" Pretty soon we'll have a fat tire fest or something!

Not Sugar Mag but RBV.

I'm pretty impressed at how "in" the new alignment of Sugar Mag already is after not that many work days. It's a bunch of new trail - almost 4 times the length of the old trail - and crosses the old trail a couple of times.  It was really difficult to tell where the old trail was.  WRV did an excellent job of trail obfuscation.  The new trail aligment is a good trail - lots of berms, rock jumps, bench cuts, and even some 'armoring' (think cobblestone road but less developed).  I like the way it's going to turn out once it settles in a bit. It's definitely a nice climbing trail, even on a singlespeed, and it's fun on the downhill whether you're a XC type of rider or more in to jumping around.  It's definitely NOT a downhiller's trail...which is good in my opinion.  It's a solid, sustainable trail, and will be there into eternity.  Even though many more freeride-minded riders will bitch than XC types, it's got a couple of alternate lines that allow some air and they go nicely into bermed turns.  There's only one really noticable turn that is bad - too sharp/bad flow - where you slow down considerably so you don't go off the trail.  The Pilot agreed, he'd have routed it differently at this spot.  But overall, i'd give it an A-/B+ so good work Scott from Contour Designs! As an aside, realize that what is on the ground is not one person's vision but a collaborate effort with the Forest Service (Recreation coordinator, and the Wildlife Biologist and Plant ecologist, etc.), and well as the initial alignment work from Contour Designs.

Spankin new sign in a pretty random location just outside Old Town. Basically, everything's close so you can't get lost...until you get on the trail.

One of the several big bermed turns on the new alignment.  Right in front of the Pilot is a big rock jump and you land into the bermed turn.

Rather large bench cut, but it's that way because of the 'alternate' line (read...kicker) off the right side of the trail when heading down.  It'll grow in nicely. 

Grade changes and bench cuts galore. It's not dialed in yet, but once it rains more and the trail over-winters (and gets ridden more) it'll be pretty sweet in my opinion.

One of the lower bermed turns. This one is pretty dialed and fun!

Go ride a bike

Snoopy goes big

Mrs. Meriwether's new ride!

The newest bike build, this one is for my girl. I pieced the parts together and built the frame and fork to her size. I like how it turned out! Rattlecan Banner Red!

That smile says it all!

And now for a random ranch shot...the mustangs grazing after a rainstorm, double rainbow fading.