schnauzers.ws

I think he was thinking it would all be DH from here. He was a trooper though. I tried to show him how to handle the tech
stuff, but he felt safer walking the stuff.

My goal was not to scare him away from this. I thought I picked an easy enough trail, but the beginning was a bit much and
it got more technical as we neared the top. It was rockier and a bit more washed out than it looks.

I try to explain that it’s all worth it when we see this. I believe it’s Mount of the Holy Cross.

I think he agrees and we continue on ahead to be greeted by this wonderful fun.

He attempts it, which I think is admirable and I congratulate him on at least attempting it. Finally, after much climbing
(we’re at 11,000+ feet now after starting at 8150) we get some beautiful, faint, yet smooth singletrack.

I love Aspen trees. We have Birch trees in NJ, but their not as nice.

We now reach the proverbial "fork in the road" at which point a decision has to be made on which way to head down. I had
already done the Son of Middle Creek down to Vail and it gets pretty narly near the end. The North trail is a "hiker" trail.
Although the hiker only sign is at the bottom and not at the top. It is also extremely smooth and shorter, which should be a
better confidence builder for my student. So, we head down NT.

A stop to look out at the ski area.

It’s then off the ST and back down the fire road. Looks like someone had a little target practice.

I don’t know if he’ll be back, but I think he had fun. In the end he experienced every joy of mountain biking; climbing,
downhill, endo, and even a bonk at the end.