September 5, 2009

  • Fall River Road and Moonlight

    So I ran into Steve Lacey of the famed 4:50 club and Darren over at Steve's as they were preparing their steeds for the Tour De Fat.  Steve had welded up this Ski Rack for his bike and it looked pretty sic.  Anyway, he mentioned that he wanted to do the Fall River Road ride on Saturday night.   Sounded good to me as I was up for a less competitive fun ride this weekend and this was just the ticket.

    Steve,  Gary, Darren, Tom and I hooked up for this one.  Steve picked up and drove Tom and I up and we met Gary and Darren at the Dam store.  From there  we headed up to Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National.  We lucked out as we didn't have to pay cause there weren't any rangers manning the booths! .   We drove to the usual spot and readied ourselves.  While we were there the ranger stopped by to talk to us and remind us that Fall River is one way, even at night!

    Soon enough we were off and running.  The moon was full and it was kinda chilly already.  It was about 9:30 before we were actually going, and I was a bit concerned about temperatures at altitude.  In any case all was good and we were looking forward to riding the dirt.

    Once we hit the dirt, Garry took to the front and was setting a pretty brisk tempo.  Tom and I were struggling to keep pace with  Gary, Steve and Darren, so we kinda dropped back slowly, setting a more reasonable tempo  About 10 minutes of this and I realized that I was over dressed and stopped to adjust clothing.   The rest of the pack kept moving...  

    Now I am going again and it's pretty dark.   I was saving my lights for the descent and the shadows can play tricks on one.  Not that I was  scared or anything, but this is  Colorado and I didn't want to be any part of any animals meal or worse yet, picked up by some stealthy UFO, Travis Walton style if you know what I mean.    I had no idea how far the guys were up the road since they didn't have their blinky lights on.    After a mile or so I finally caught them while they were soft pedaling.  Tom was grateful for the break in the pace so we didn't tell Gary and Steve that I was back on for a bit.

    Up Up Up we go and it's getting colder, but it's not too bad.  I am working as hard as I care too.  I don't want to push to hard as I can still feel my bruised rib or whatever from last weeks crash!   This of course kept me from keeping anyone's tempo but mine, and any time I attempted to do otherwise I was quickly reminded as to why I shouldn't.

    I had to stop a few more times to get out the camera or whatever, but this time Gary waited for me a few yards up the trail.  Surprisingly , or maybe not, this ride was a whole lot easier than doing it on  as Single Speed as I did last time!   Before long we we half way up.  The views of the moon and mountains was pretty cool.  Wish I had a better camera, or at least one that  wasn't all fogged up from sweating in my pockets. .

    By now Darren was beginning to suffer as he had some knee issues and had to drop off the Gary and Steve pace.  Yes they had back down a bit, but every time they went only Steve made any attempt to match the pace.  I was feeling pretty good cause I wasn't pushing hard.  This made for a pleasant trip where I could enjoy the ride instead of focusing on not getting dropped.

    Finally we can see the last switchbacks, much quicker than I had expected, or at least I was feeling much better than if I had been hammering.  Gary and Steve checked out at this point and the rest of us were content just to make it to the visitors center where we got some food and adjusted clothing.

    We still needed to climb to Rock Cut which was another 700 feet of vertical or so.  Steve and Gary checked out again and Tom Darren and I stuck together.   Clink, Cllick Clack and Darren  breaks a spoke on his rear wheel!   He wraps it around another one and we continue on.   This pavement climb is so long and it seems like forever until we get to the summit. 

    Finally we are all together and it's time for the descent.   My lights suck compared to everyone else's so I find it better to follow so as not to have myself shadowed by those HIDs.   Gary is really flying and Darren is taking it easy so as not to get too cold.  He was a bit under dressed and ended up borrowing a jacket from Tom.  Steve and I see that Darren is a bit too far back for safety so we wait up for him.   We find Tom and Gary waiting at Rainbow curve and we regroup there.

    Time to go again and we are flying as a group.  This is pretty cool.   It's much warmer than I figured and that's a good thing, otherwise I would have needed warmer gloves etc.    We are swapping the lead and having a good old time.  Wish I had better lights, but I don't do enough of this to justify dropping  the coins to get upgraded.  Anyway, we drop through many  colder and warmer layers which is interesting. 

    Near the bottom Darren takes the lead and is flying.  I suspect he just wants to get this over with.  Now everyone is "Weapons Free" and flying.  More lead swapping and pushing the corners.   Nothing to crazy, but with limited light it's challenging.

    Finally we make the left hander to get to the cars.  That last little descent is pretty sweet.   Wish I had better lights for the turns, but I could follow the others OK so it's all good.  Now we are back at the cars and a good time was had by all. Darren's Knee was screaming at him so I hope he's gonna be OK for 24 hours of Moab and the Stone Temple 8.

    The ride home was pretty interesting cause this big Elk was hanging out in the road and we had to swerve to miss it.  That followed by us getting pulled over for doing 48 in a 40 made the night extra special.  We got off with a warning though cause they were looking for Drunks.   Kinda funny the look on the Cops face when Steve told him what we were doing out here at this time ( 2 oclock something or other)