A rare Saturday off from band practice is an opportunity to ride with
Team Evergreen. The rides are great, but you never know what you are
going to get when it comes to the other riders. I say this because
there are many "A" group hammerhead riders in that club. Most of the
time that is who will show up. Well, today was no exception. But, it
was a new trail to me so it's time to put up or shut up.
We make our way to the town of como and the Gold Dust trail. A high
altitude start to the top of Boreas Pass.
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This entire area is filled with hidden gems (one of which I rode last
summer). Though not as hidden as soon, it was still a very lightly
treaded start.
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The trail quickly starts out on the climb and I quietly fall behind the
rest of the pack
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However, Matt is not feeling well today and has slowed enough that I can
see him in the distance. Well, at least I won't be too bad off.
This trail has a little of everything as it climbs. The terrain varies
from tight twisty single track, roots, loose rocky above timberline
jaunts, and an incredibly fun rock garden.
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There are thee sections as it crosses a county road and then Boreas Pass
road. Each section is a world in it's own. AT some point in the first
section, Matt and I are screaming downhill as the others have hammered
on ahead. As I come to a fork that looks like it should go left, Matt
screams "go right". So, if he wasn't there I would have been lost.
Right we go as the trail-blazes point the way until we come to this
little obstacle.
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It seems like the water is running high and fast today. We start to
wonder about the other group. Did they go through it? We don't see
other bike tracks, but decide this is the trail and thats the story we
are sticking to. The water is ice cold as I'm barely able to stand up
while crossing it.
On the other side, it's time for section two and of course, more climbing.
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Then we come to what is affectionately called the flume. It's seems to
be an old aqua duct that miners must of used for water. As we started
riding in it, it seems flat thought it must be going uphill. We we came
back, I got the same feeling. It felt like it goes up in both
directions. Strange!
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Another raging creek, but at least the bridge was OK.
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Another road crossing and it's on to section three and the steepest
climb yet. The only word to describe it is relentless!
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It was pretty much stop and go for both of us at this point, but we were
determined to summit.
Just one snow bank to walk through.
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And out of the group of thirteen, with eleven hammerheads we are the
first to the summit!
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Ha! All that speed they had but I was with the guy who knew the trail.
We basked in the glory for 40 minutes and still no other riders. At
that point weather started rolling in, so we began the fast and fun
decent back down. one mile from the top we run into the others (What's
left of them as some had bailed after their four mile wrong turn).
At the cold river crossing before section one, Matt set off on the trail
while I boogied down the road back to the car. I didn't have it in me
to ride up the rock garden I had so much fun coming down. Plus, I
wanted to check out the tailings piles along the way.
Twenty miles, 2800' of climbing, and a 10% grade. Ouch!
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o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
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