A quick mountain bike trip in winter.

Here we are in in the new version of HAM (doesn't have a name yet). For simplicity I want to keep the name the same, KC wants it to have a new name. Oh what a great problem to have I guess. 

Either way it rocks and this post isn't even about that. Check it! This is home! 

Use the Fruita welcome center to ready your rig, fill up with H2O or just pee. This place is fee free and awesome! 

This is just some helpful-or-not information to get you off your ass and riding in the desert. 

Oh look nobody else around, they must be working or something?!

Two days is plenty of time. Here is what to do: 

get in your car, truck, camper or whatever and drive to Fruita or Grand junction, get a hotel in Fruita or Junction (off season should bring lower prices on rooms) negotiate with them because they are vacant and should be desperate. We know because last month we tried sneaking into the hot tubs at the motels or hotels and not a trace of humans anywhere.  Leave on Friday night or other night of your choice around 3 -5 pm, get to Fruita and have dinner at The Hot Tomato Cafe. Bring snacks if you can't wait that long. The Hot Tomato http://hottomatocafe.com is on 124 North Mulberry St., downtown Fruita. If you choose to stay in GJ there are lots of choices for food but you're on your own. 

Get up the next morning but not too early. It's winter and cold early morning and your ass will be sore if you ride too much anyway. Drive to Rabbit Valley and park on the north side at The Trail Through Time. If you camped you have camped on the south side of I-70 and there is a sign there to direct you where camping is allowed or just stealth camp and move in the morning when light is abundant. 

You will be riding the Zion Curtain but skip the first section because it seems to be missing as of 2/19/2015. We spent an hour looking for the trail but with the rain, moto heads riding cross country and cattle, it vanishes. Trust us. Go to the right on double track from where the trail head map is located just after you exit the wash and have passed under I-70. You will meet Zion Curtain on the left about a half mile after leaving the sign. Ride it all the way to the Kokopelli Trail. Wee! 

Expect this to take a tad bit longer than expected because the trail is techno in spots and radical in others. Over 32 miles you can breathe the winter from your soul while negotiating steep short climbs that total about 3,400 feet in ascent. Awesome fast winding and hair raising descents, walking a few crazy sections because it's not that fun to carry a bike 15 miles with a broken collar bone. Great single track called Parallel 2. This section follows along side Kokopelli for the remainder of the ride. Sweet rolly fun! Bring the newer version of the Fruita/Grand Junction Latitude 40 map for reference. 

You should finish in about 5-6 hours if you're not lolligagging. Back to camp or car to drive the 30 minutes back to The Hot Tomato for beer and a slice. Try not to over eat because it will kill your buzz and you don't want a fat belly poking out every where back at the hot tub. 

Riding 6.5 miles, roundtrip, to hike the Ruby Canyon overlook trail the first evening we arrived. Start before 4:30 otherwise it gets very dark and frigid. Bike from camp 3.25 miles, hike a lollipop of 5.5 miles, then back to camp. Bring the dog of course, yours may need to run beside you. Ours fits in a pack. Take note. 

Go to bed at a reasonable hour, 10:00PM, then repeat on day two only this time ride the Western Rim. This is a shorter ride of about two to three hours as your legs may take a little while longer to warm up. What you will be looking for is fantastic single track that weaves along a rim, maybe the western rim?!

A heck less climbing than the previous day, think recovery. Reverse the direction of yesterday's finish and ride out the same sweet single track but backwards! It is like you have never ridden it. See Lat 40 map for easy route finding. Finish by riding the Parallel 2 or stay on Kokopeli back to camp or car for something different. 

Hopefully you're back at I-70 at 11am to blast home and BOOM! Having dinner at home by early evening.

Kasey after passing under I-70.

These trails have rich and deep history going back long ago. Try and imagine having multiple wives and 15 children. A Zion Curtain is a curtain that gets servers of alcoholic beverages out of view of drinking customers at restaurants as to discourage them from drinking too much! Mmmmm! So smart! 

Winter Mountain Biking in Colorado...

We have been very fortunate this year to have had so many mountain bike-able days here in Colorado! Not only have we been able to ride from home, we've had 60 degree + sunny days in Pueblo and Fruita, CO.

Here's a recap of the best places to go mountain biking during the Colorado winter...Let us know if you have any favorites we can add to this list!

Fruita, Colorado:

We headed out to Fruita in January, for a sunny stretch of 3 days, following some heavy snow. We went straight out to 18 Road, and promptly accumulated enough mud to last me the season. We didn't even bother to get the bikes off the camper, since our shoes were so coated in thick, gooey mud that we could barely lift our feet.
Apparently, 18 Road is good only when it has been dry out for a LONG time...We will revisit in the late spring...

So, we went back into town and set up camp at the wonderful James M. Robb State Park campground, right off the interstate in downtown Fruita. You can drive, if you are sane, or ride, like us, from town to the Kokopelli Trailhead. It was about an extra 45 minutes of riding each way, but we didn't have to take the truck and camper apart. From the trailhead, you can hit a variety of awesome loops (called "Mary's Loops"), rated beginner to insanely unrideable. These trails were completely dry, much warmer, and tons of fun!

Kokopelli Trailhead

On Rustler's Loop (beginner loop, but fun for anyone!)

Of course, it's not all about the bike. What would true camping be without a little bit of R & R...?!

Getting his daily Vitamin D dose...

 Lake Pueblo State Park, Pueblo, CO:

Probably our newest and most exciting place to ride is down in Pueblo, at Lake Pueblo State Park. It seems that few people have caught on to the awesome riding down here, maybe because it's Pueblo, and maybe because it's the devil's furnace come summer...
No shade, completely exposed - totally perfect for winter riding!

We recommend camping at the state park, because then the trails start literally from your campsite!

Home sweet home...

There is something here for everyone, including crazy log drops, homemade scary bridges, flowing singletrack, you name it! Perfect place to work on skills and get in some hours.

Straight shot to Pikes Peak!

There's also a cool dam that we walked out to. Note, it took almost 2 hours to reach the dam from camp, definitely not what we were looking for in our "recovery walk"...

Needed to sit down after all that walking...



Wouldn't have believed us if we didn't have photographic proof! A bent piece of driftwood sitting in exactly this position below the dam!
 

And of course, we wouldn't be camping if Hal didn't do this...



 

Hi Delta!

That's our brief list. We are heading soon to Rabbit Valley, just west of Fruita, to ride the trails over there. The Western Rim Trail was great fun when we did it last year, hoping it's as awesome on the second go-around.

Thanks for reading and let us know if you have any hidden winter mountain biking gems that you want to share!