Left Hand Canyon Ride

I was able to partake in this week's Tuesday night shop ride. This week the plan was to meet in Left Hand Canyon for some sick climbing and steep down hill descents. The ride did not disappoint on either aspect. Once again I was the only guy in the group with a hard tail bike and conventional v-brakes. Everyone else (8 other guys) had full suspension bikes with disc brakes. "Wow, you're going to LOVE the down hill..." All I could say was "What else am I going to ride, it's all I really know any way."

We started the climb out of the parking lot and went up, up and then more up. It was a heinous uphill super climb. I held my own but was consistently at the back of the pack. At some points I had to get off and push the Green Hornet up the hill. It didn't bother me; I was outside and away from work.

After about an hour of climbing, we finally reach top and had a great view of Boulder in the distance. I caught my breath as the others looked for potential single track lines that they hadn't seen before. No luck. Now for the fun part -- Down Hill. The rest of the gang took off like bullets down the jeep road riding over big rocks that the Green Hornet just couldn't take as easily. But no worries, I wasn't there to race.

I caught up a short distance later as Chris L hit a sink hole and ate it pretty good. Half of his face was covered in mud. Luckily he was not injured and could continue the ride. A single track veered off the jeep road and the REAL fun started for me. The single track started smooth but quickly got super steep with baby head sized boulders all over the place. It takes a lot of finesse to ride a hard tail through something like that! Just as I thought I had adapted to my new trail (the other riders no doubt at the bottom already), the trail turned into a seasonal creek. Perfect. Baby head boulders and now water too!! I felt like a turtle. Slowly but surely I'll make it down. And I did after a couple good wipe outs in the cold water.

When I got to the group again, I think a lot of them were surprised to see that I was still alive. I did get maximum props from a few guys and that helped me up the final hill of the ride. This hill ended up being more of a hike than a ride. But the single track down to the cars was well worth the hike. I'm definitely going to need new brake pads after this ride; I pretty sure I burned them right down to the metal.

At the parking lot Dave asked me if I'd ever go on a Left Hand ride again. I have to admit, it was one of the most difficult rides I'd ever been on but I answered "Without a doubt. I'm already looking forward to the next time." I think one of the most fun things about riding with this group of guys is the fact that I really have to push myself to keep up. It's really good motivation to keep riding and get better at it. Six of us met back in Lyons at Oscar Blue's for some beers and food. All in all, its a great midweek break.

Dbaser took some great pics of the ride on the redstone cyclery underground blog (I'm the hard tail guy).