schnauzers.ws

It was hot, even at 8:45 AM.

Lot’s of these guys around. Mountain Jay?

Hot and sweaty climb with switchback practices. Fast descents until about two miles from the bottom. The trail got really crowded.

No, I am not enamored by my truck. It’s the sky! Look at that sky! This is Colorado weather!

Yeah, so I arrived kind of early at the trailhead. Too me, it is like lining up at a new restaurant that just opened. I am excitable. My bike does that to me.

Mitchell (yeah, not me) arrived and we set sail.

West Mag trails roll for quite always. There’s not much in the way of elevation gain/loss until you "get on the bus". But, I digress. We’ll board the bus in a little while. Right now, it is about enjoying the ride and meeting lots of new people on the trail. Ok, and not to mention the views at 8300′.

It poured all night before the ride. Surprisingly, the trails were nice and tacky. Sure there were a few puddles, but for the most part it dried out nice.

West Magnolia serves up a mellow terrain. I wouldn’t say there was anything technical. Then again, I am pretty used to wet roots. There were plenty of sections that dealt that. Otherwise, it was smooth flowing.

Hey! What’s that cloud doing in my picture?

Perhaps the highlight of the day (other than patrolling) was the School Bus trail. Wow! Spectacular work on creating this, whether intentional or not. Perfect climbing grade and oh so fun on the downhill.

One of the most memorable parts of this patrol was the ability to be part of a Team Evergreen Saturday ride. Ok, I’ll admit that I did not know they would be there. But, we did get to ride with the group for quite a bit and I certainly enjoyed their company. Heck, they even gave me a chance to administer first aid. That’s a first in my seven years of mountain bike patrolling.

We continue up school bus and find it’s name sake (yes, the sky is there on purpose).

We then come across a very interesting obstacle. Apparently, crossing a mercury filled tailings pile. Tailings? Gold mines are one of my secret passions. Getting across this board was another. No, that’s not me but I did complete it on the third attempt. She did it on the first.

School bus rolls on and we take the road up (so we can get the full downhill experience), eventually stopping by the mean old fence before private property to fuel up.

You wont see much of the downhill back to the Hobbit, but here is a rare moment.

Mitchell was happy. Both of them.

We finished up with just Reboot on the Dot trails. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of those.

Twists and turns on a loamy base and trying to go fast enough to keep the bugs at bay

A moment of boundaries that could hurt.

Thank heavens for Lucky Charms Lepracans.

Small drainages that don’t dry up.

Who put the rock garden here?

Hmmm… Mountain biking or the balance beam?

Why we live in Colorado.

A bit more climbing.

Sweet apples! There is nothing like climbing for miles at a .5% grade. Flumes are cheating, but who’s watching?

But, sometimes old railroad grades can be painful.

Reaching the top and another ride half over.

This is one of those unique out and backs where the reverse direction looks and feels completely different. Especially going downhill.

You couldn’t ask for a nicer weekend. Beautiful weather, good times, playing in the sand, and a lot of feature rich trail was built. Here’s my recap.

We set up camp on Friday night. Just a few of us came out, but there was food, beer, and conversation to be had.

(continue reading…)

Saturday morning and Jason gives the prep talk. As eager volunteers look on.

We meet up at the trailer for some tool talk.

A little spousal abuse ensues.

No messing around as my crew goes right for the rocks.

Some beautiful trail gets cut,

And some well done fortification.

Some rest, lunch and views.

Then back to work.

Boys and their machismo.

One of our guests for Saturday night,

The beer starts to flow and our television is turned on.

Nick complains there’s not enough man ass and gets his groove on.

The result…

Ring of fire.

Jason demands a tribute to the King of Pop.

Jason obliges as the gloved one.

More trail building continued on Sunday, finishing up the previous days build.