Yearly GetLost Ride

Once again we started early and saddled up for our annual GetLost Ride. Apparently we have issues getting back to the trail head on this ride. It seems to happen every year. This year I think we only logged a few extra miles (was it only a few... really?) and a lot of unnecessary grinding-uphill time... only to end up at a dead end. DOH!

(LATE EDIT: Ed posted pix here).


The Beginning -- heading out through the Enchanted Forest

Total, we ended up with 50 miles, about 6700' vert, and a solid 9.5 hours out in the wild-wild-west.

The day started at 43 degrees, with heavy promises of real wet weather. Always a daunting way to start the day ... in drizzle. It rained on and off throughout the day. It was sunny at random, well timed parts of the day, and it was spectacular all the way around.


Trails were in prime shape!

Today I had the distinct pleasure of riding with the following crew:
Steevie, Ed, Mateo, Jeff, Chad and Cal -- just after finding the RIGHT way to where we wanted to go. Sort of. (I know Ed will post pix, Steevie has posted pix, and I hope that Cal posts pix, too.)

Notice they're all on their trusty SingleSpeedSteeds? All I can say is thank goodness I had a full range of gears!! ;-)

I don't have much of a story for the full ride. It's just awesome. We get to some places that feel really remote, and I think aren't very populated. We didn't see any other riders, and only one other hiker while way out there. We saw a number of moto and 4x guys... and that was about it.

The boys kept me on my toes all day long. I didn't really have the will to pull out the camera too often ... for pix or for videos. So, for the full slide show, click here:


The "way home" of our GetLost ride includes these far-away dirt roads that are nothing but an endless set of steep down hills, followed immediately by steep-steep slap-in-the-face uphills. That these "steep rollers" happen at the END of the ride is somewhat disappointing, especially considering that even after we finish them, we still have a massive amount of single track climbing to get back up to the cars...like a solid 12 miles of it ;0)
The crew finding their way up one of the countless rollers.

Getting out never fails to include a bit of this:

Steevie, trying to figure out exactly where he led us all in a wrong turn.

And sometimes, the 'road' is easy to miss.
Personally, I can't stand it when there are more than 2 minds trying to figure the right way out. So usually I just go looking. Luckily for me, I have a good sense of direction. Ask Ed. He knows.

Luckily for me, I expected this to happen and was not disappointed when it did finally happen. I was prepared! And I just kept eating and eating and pedaling and pedaling....

I must admit tho... I started the day feeling wasted tired, and it never changed. I was hoping that somewhere along the trail the body would figure it out and just wake up and be energetic and strong... but that never happened.

Jeny taking a break after FINDING THE KEY HOLE to get outta that insane back-roads world ;-) Yes, I'm lying smack in the middle of an ancient 2x or singletrack.... See how invisible it is!

For Steevies Pix, go here.

I will also say this: I don't think I've ever completed such a big day feeling so rotten!
NOTE to self: Session Rides are NOT Rest Rides. Silly Jeny.

This helped:

A little humor.... Like I could actually carry that thing out of there...LOL! Ed and I are accumulating quite the collection of elk antler sheds! Yes, this one will be added to the collection.

One of my favorite of Ed's pix of the day:


But! We did find our way to the long single track that led back up to the cars. And, as usual, everyone in the group ends up at their own pace (now that everyone knows where the heck they're going), and we all get spread out a bit. The long climb home, (after all the long climbs getting out there and getting us back to the final single track) is always daunting in my mind. But, once on it, I always seem to find a relative pair of wings. I am going to call this my "I'm almost there" set of wings.


View from part of the final stretch home

I do think it was a wildly successful day. We got Chad out on his "hardest ride ever", and we got to ride with Jeff once again (it's been a couple of years, no?) We also were lucky to show Cal, Chad and Jeff a nice new set of trails!!! Not that I think they'd be willing to put themselves out there to try and find their way home again any time soon.

It was a fantastic day, with truly wonderful people. I'm lucky I got to tag along!

Our ponies at rest, absolutely nowhere near home:

Jj