This weekend marked a milestone. The maiden voyage of
my home-built truck shell. I packed it up and took off on Friday about noon. First stop: Buena Vista River Recreation area. They have a nice assortment of trails that combine single track and old railroad grades (turned into roads) just on the edge of town.
Parking was across the river. The bridge gave access to most (if not all?) of the trail system.
I found myself on a trail named South Bad Boyfriend. I was told it was technical. They did not exaggerate. I rode a lot of tough rock climbs but also hiked up and down a few that were just too exposed for me.
Changing back to street clothes was a snap in the back of the truck. My skin tone is not that red. A trick of the light, I guess.
For anyone that hasn't seen the truck shell I built, here it is along Cottonwood Pass on my way to Hartman Rocks by way of C.B.
Looking west from the summit of Cottonwood.
On a county road off the west side of the pass. Night one was cold and rainy. I was dry inside but don't have any heat yet. I stayed warm in a 0º down sleeping bag.
While I was getting rained on the summits were getting snow.
I visited my racing buddy and his family in C.B. in the morning. Then I was off to Hartman. I kept wanting to stop to take photos of the cottonwood trees but resisted. You can thank me later. There was a bit of traffic and I wasn't really in gaper mode yet.
I had arrived. These maps were priceless as the BLM.gov site was down and I couldn't do any research once I had decided when and where I was going.
My wee truck parked in a disbursed camping spot. Over the rocks just behind the truck were 150 - 200 foot cliffs down to the main entrance and day user parking area and a challenging trail.
The trail system is quite robust with a variety of trail types and levels. Motorcycles, bikes and hikers share the same trails. The conditions are remarkably
not at all chewed up like our moto trails. On a windy Saturday afternoon during a 3 hour ride, I saw two bikers, no motos, no hikers.
This is an example of the large rock formations the trails traversed. I surprised myself by descending this. There was no loose grit and the steps weren't huge but it was a long sustained drop. I have been trying to reduce risk so I rationalized how low the objective risks were. Right.
The rocky sections were connected by gritty sand that was very cohesive, not loose and deep but a firm, predictable tread. The rocky section I'm approaching would probably a combination of sand and small rocks interspersed with rock slabs. I had a lot more pedal strikes that usual as the pace of pedaling and the irregular spacing of rocks and obstacles was challenging.
Looking over to Gunnison.
There were brilliant cottonwoods scattered about the lower sections. The following day I rode through those trees.
My truck is a speck in the middle of the right third of this photo from the Rattlesnake trail.
Day is done.
A new day and new trails. The cottonwoods reminded me of roman candles.
Ring Dike finished out my day. It paralleled the string of rocks where I was camped, but on the opposite side. Another feat of ignored self-preservation and a fun successful drop. Mind these are rubber always on the ground. I don't take air. They are steep and loss of control through hitting unexpected loose grit, wheel stopping rocks and just plain loosing balance are not realistic options.
I had lunch and packed up. I drove out the Powerline road. It ended in a section marked '4x4'. They weren't kidding. No damage done, but it was a real test of my skills (
@nay is laughing) and my truck.
At the bottom of the 4x4 road was a touch of humor.
Seen on the way between Hartman and Gunnison.
I usually go to Cottonwood Pass by way of Jack's Cabin Road. This time I took the more direct route that turned off further south along the road to C.B. I was in full on gaper mode by now.
More roman candles.
This time there was snow on Cottonwood Pass.
Looking west from the pass, from whence I came.
Looking east towards B.V. from the pass.
And because Doug hadn't taken enough photos, this happened on the approach to Summit County on Hoosier Pass.
An HDR image generated by my phone. I think it looks painterly which is a nice effect.
The root image that made up the HDR version. It is truer to the light and colors.
Day 1 at Hartman Rocks.
Day 2
Thank you for your time and patience. I sometimes feel like I should keep it brief, but somehow it always turns into a photo essay.
I had few busy days at work, with stuff all over the day, so my cool bike with brand new frame, which I disassembled and assemble properly during last week, was just waiting in basement, so today I just took 1.5h off during work day turned phone off and went for short ride in woods behind our house. It was +8c only, which is way below my limit for going cycling, but it felt great. And after almost 4 months on that old hardtail it felt so damn good to finally be on proper bike again, so it wasn't cold or anything. Just awesome 25km of single trails behind our house... and as it felt so great I didn't want to spoil it with stopping 