Riding Walker Ranch
April 11, 2006
A simple after-work bike ride wouldn't normally merit a full trip report like this, but this one was a heck of a ride!
Lately, Peter, Chris and I have been doing training runs on Tuesday and Thursday nights in preparation for the summer mountaineering season and, ultimately, the suffer-fest known as the Pikes Peak (Half) Marathon. This week, Peter's foot is injured, so he suggested a mountain bike ride instead. He further suggested heading to Walker Ranch. Walker is one of the hardest and most-highly-thought-of rides in the immediate Boulder area and has been a long-term goal of mine for a while. On the difficulty scale of 1-5, most of Walker rates a 4 to 4+. While I ride my bike every day, 95% of it is commuting to and from work on paved paths. I haven't ridden anything hard in a year and have never ridden anything all that hard. This would be... a significant challenge, especially for my season openner.
We rolled into the trailhead around 6:30 and met up with Chris's coworker Scott. As we were gearing up, a lone rider named Rich showed up and asked if he could tag along. Sure, why not? More people equates to less chance that I would be the one mauled by the mountain lions reportedly living in the area. The weather was brisk and the sun was making disconcertingly rapid progress toward the horizon as we set out.
Walker Ranch is a 7.5 mile loop which can be roughly divided into thirds in terms of access. We elected to go clockwise and get the technically hardest stuff over with first while it was still daylight and our legs were fresh. I quickly lagged behind trying to remember how my clipless pedals worked and handle all the technical rock gardens. Most of these I just walked. Peter was also struggling with his first significant ride on clipless pedals. We lagged far behind on the first 1.5 miles of steep, wooded switchbacks while the full-suspension boys waited for us. After this, things equalized a bit as we got a mile of steep, doubletrack on loose, sandy road down to South Boulder Creek. First third done.
At this point, Peter and I were both having serious doubts about finishing this thing. We could, in theory, bail at this point, slog back up the fire road, and continue on more of the same to the trailhead. But groups of men breed stupidity and we pressed on anyway.
From the bottom of the canyon, the trail gets rocky to the point it is unridable. Not just unridable by me; physically unridable. We shouldered our bikes and carried them over the large talus, then up the increasingly steep cliffside. It's a tough stretch on foot and having a 40 pound bike across your shoulders doesn't make it any easier. Pausing at the top, we realized we were now basically committed to finishing the loop. Retreat down the cliff wasn't an attractive option.
Fortunately, the second segment of the loop was a long, gradual climb up a ridge on relatively easy single-track. I ground along in my lowest gears, occasionally dismounting to get around some rock or other, sweating profusely. Peter was falling farther behind, hindered by his fear of not being able to unclip in time. Chris flew on ahead in his flourescent yellow spandex singlet left over from his racing days. Eventually, we arrived at Crescent Meadows, the end of the second segment and only about 2.5 miles from the car. On our regular runs, Peter is the one who makes it look easy while Chris and I labor to keep up. Now, Peter lay in the weeds, gasping for breath and bleeding profusely. I have never seen Chris so giddy!
Unfortunately, the sun had set long since and it was beginning to be seriously dark. The nearly-full moon was casting significant light, but the next mile was all downhill through some pretty dense trees. Being slow going downhill, I took off while the others waited for Rich to catch up. The trail was definitely dark and I felt my way along amongst half-seen rocks and roots, stopping at every switchback to peer at the next stretch. I'd aquired more confidence than in the first mile, but the visibility was awful. Somewhere in there, Chris came tearing past at insane speeds and, before finally reaching the bottom, I was in last place again. We reached the creek again and donned headlamps (those of us that had them) for the final 1.5 miles.
What followed was half a mile of gorgeous, easy trail along the creek followed by a mile of ascent back to the car through open terrain. My legs were pretty well shot on the final ascent, but I made it back just behind Chris as the other three labored up in the moonlight.
All in all, I'm quite pleased at my performance on this, my toughest ride to date. I walked a good number of times (it is Walker ranch after all), but never for very long and there was the mitigating factor of darkness. I look forward to doing the loop again, though hopefully in the daylight next time!
 The Wilderness Journal |  Neithernor |