the dope ass st

Wow. Tonights ride was a real adventure.


this shot is Miguel negotiating a tighty on his 29er Wiley rigid single.

Nothing around Lyons is dry yet and it was about 45 degrees at ride time. We figured our best bet was to head up to Lions Gulch. It's technically pretty gnarly dry, but we figured it'd be just right with nice packed down snow. Well, we dropped the little dh from the parking lot and slipped and slid down to the drainage. That's also where the packed path stopped and we were looking at about 8" of semi crusty powder. Nope. So we hustled back up the trail to the lot. After a quick pow wow, we decided to hit the infamous Slurry Bomber. It's a trail that draws reverence in all of the very few that know it enough to utter the name. Slurry Bomber defines steep. It's an ultra, ultra narrow, ultra steep 1000' climb up.

So top secret we had to wander around aimlessly for 10 minutes before we could even find it. It was easy to miss with the snow. We hiked/rode up the bottom sectoins, then were relegated to hiking the rest. I normally hike it when it's dry, too, so no big deal. The snow was deep enough that we were punching thru 10 inches in spots while we hiked up. Reminded me of the notorious snow shuttle ride from the 2002 Fest, except there was no Matty there using my name in vain. We were all having fun.

We got up to about 8600' elevation and decided to bag it. The snow was just getting way too deep. We turned around for the descent. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. It was like snowboarding on two wheels - just lean forward into a switchback, stuff it and brake slide around. There was a couple S turn chute style switchbacks that are tough enough in the summer. It think they were easier tonight - just point and chute!

I'm tired from lugging that bike around, though. Oh yeah, it was also the break in ride on the Flux. I loved it. Like a combination between the Tracer and the 5 Spot. mucho nice-o