Shakedown Trip - Day 4 - Painted Rock CG to Rockrimmon via Palmer lake

Start - Painted Rocks Campground off of Hwy 67 - Elev ~ ~ 7850'
End  - Home in Rockrimmon - Elev ~ ~ 6450'
High Point -  ~ 9350' on Rampart Range  Road.
Low point - Monument Creek @ New Santa Fer trail ~ 6200'
Elevation Gain - ~ 2000'
Mileage - 45 Miles




Today's ride followed the paved bike path from Painted Rocks to Woodland park, and then climbed to Rampart Range road. Glorius Colorado morning, with many great views of Pikes Peak 

Dan on bike path to Woodland Park 

Green pastoral scene from our wet spring along bike path

Rampart range road north was rollers with pretty good surface, better than I expected. this section was racing down the hills and hoping momentum will keep the hard peddling to a minimum up the next incline. I did get hit by a modest squall and had to layers up with the rain jacket, and hang a bit at Balanced Rock road,but it came off half hour later.

I lose a couple thousand feet descending from Rampart Range to Palmer Lake, but Balanced Rock road fooled me again, as it has before, as it has a number of up hill section, gravelly of course. Probably climbed 300' or 400' going down to Palmer Lake.But all and all, an enjoyable section.

View from pull off on Balanced Rock Road

While tempted to stop for a burger and beer at O Malleys in Palmer lake (as a reasonable proxy for my travel through small towns ;-), I opted instead to head directly to the New Santa Fe (rails to) Trail and head south toward home. Must of had a tail wind as I topped 20 mph heading to Monument. Fortunately, Don had informed me that the section through the Air Force Academy opened earlier in the week, and I could ride all of the way back home to close the loop. 
Alas, about 5 miles from home I got caught in one of the front ranges ferocious afternoon thunder storms. Monsoon season seems to have arrived early. Fortunately, I was only a 1/2 mile from Ice Lake and its shelter, which I holed up in for about 45 minutes while 4 extremely heavy waves of rain lashed the area. 
Eventually, it slowed down enough for me to ride home in the puddles and rain. On the plus side, i did get to test the BOB dry bag ( works great), Ortlieb handle bar bag and map case ( both work great), fenders (rear ones helped, but need adjustments, and need front fender) and day pack storage (soaked!). So even the rain storm was a shakedown success!

Shakedown trip - Day 3 - Mueller State Park to Painted Rocks Campground.

Start - Mueller State Park - Elev ~ ~ 9600'
End  - Painted Rocks Campground  ~ 7850'
High Point -  ~ Probably Mueller @ 9600'
Low point - End of Manchester creek ; Elevation ??
Elevation Gain - ~ 800' to 1000' guess
Mileage - ~ 23 miles
Riding Time - 2:18, elapsed time ~ 5 hours

Today's ride was through rolling hills, forests, and drainage's of the South Platte River north of Divide, Colorado. After our wet spring and early summer, all of the open park areas were green and flowering, with great views of Pike Peaks and the Tarryall mountains.
The route we took was not the intended route I had previously scouted, but Don convinced me of a more direct route, that avoided a 4-5 mile steep climb out of West Creek. After a couple of days lugging the trailer, that sounded fine by me! Also, I got to practice trailer touring on some more primitive forest service roads in this area.

Stopped at the super market in Divide to pick up an item or two, and we did get to meet a couple of colorful fellow citizens as the trailer beckoned some questions. One was the great grand daughter of Nikolaus August Otto, who invented a practical combustion engine. After mentioning that he was unjustly rewarded in his own time and by history, she did go on and on about needing to get the heck out of our country after having just escaped the Carolinas. The other fellow was a friendly older gentleman who asked me about my bike, why I bought  that particular one, if I was happy with it. It seemed the more I engaged, the twinkle in his eyes laughed more and more. I guess I'm not sure if he was genuinely interested in bikes or more with toying with me, in a friendly way. Perhaps a bit of both.
After a few miles of paved rollers on a ruler straight county road, it was off pavement and forest roads for us.

Great downhill for 4 or 5 miles down Manchester Creek drainage. However, biking karma never seems to sleep, and we did have to make up that descent with a push up FR 358. And I mean push, as it was too steep to ride for either Don or I. More "*good*" training experiences I suppose as there are number of places on the Great Divide Tour that will result in some pushing ith the BOB. Great riding on Rule Ridge road, and Don even pointed out an Indian tree to me. Apparently, the Native Americans used to mark trails by bending young trees over with a rock or log, and the young tree would adapt and keep growing for many decades. ( sorry no picture).

With the updated map that Don bought, we found a back way into the campground, which led us to an old kiln, at least that what we think it is.

The Kiln!

Shortly after the kiln we entered the Painted Rocks area

Dan with a shy "Abe Lincoln " rock

Dan and Don in the campground

Dan, with Glenda, our lovely shuttle driver!

Once again, the trailer with gear and refreshments was waiting for us!

Shakedown trip - Day 2 - Wye Campground to Mueller State Park

Day 2

Start - Wye Campground off of Gold Camp Road - Elev ~ ~ 9800'
End  - Mueller State Park - Elev ~ ~ 9600'
High Point -  ~ 10,000' on Gold Camp Road.
Low point - Dome Rock Wildlife area parking lot - Elev ~ ~8750'
Elevation Gain - ~ 1500'
Mileage - 34.2 Miles

















It was a bit of a slow morning in the Wye campground, as I needed to dry out much of my day gear and tent  after the rain of the previous evening. and had more thing to pack up, such as the tarp. It was a typical beautiful clear morning sky, and the air was crystal clean and fresh. My buddy Don showed up right on time, though I was running late. I'll need to work on my morning efficiency as it took about 3 hours to do breakfast, dry things, and break camp. We didn't get going until about 10:45 AM.



The ride it self was about 25+ miles of gravel county roads out of the 34 total, with a fair amount of easy cruising on the railroad grade. Closer to the tour distribution of pavement/gravel. Starting to get a feel for the fully loaded trailer at higher speeds on gravel. It tracks well, but you definitely know it is there, especially when the road gets bumpy. It is becoming clear that loose surfaces need your attention as front wheel is not as heavily weighted, relatively with a trailer. Good to get some practice in this regard. Again, some beautiful scenery along Gold Camp Rd, such as the shot from Cathedral Park below.

Cathedral Park on Gold Camp Road

A bit of historical map of the area

Corley Mountain Highway ( aka Gold Camp Road)  - Circa 1930

With the late-ish start however, the weather turned cloudy early on and was pretty cool to coldish during the day, though we dodged any serious sustained rains. The road was pleasantly lightly traveled mid week, and given the fact it was partially washed out at Clyde, so auto traffic was stopped part way through our day. We had a couple of short stretches on the paved CO Hwy 67, lots of traffic, and I'm glad for the flag on the BOB and bright cycling jerseys. 

We pulled off Hwy 67 and into Mueller for a steep 1.5 mile climb to visitor Center, and into the campsite about 5 PM.
A welcome site greeted us as we arrived as our camping trailer was already in place thanks to Glenda, with happy hour accouterments readily available after the quick setup. 

So about 6:15 hour day with mayhaps 4.5 hours of riding, average speed about 8 mph.

Round the Peak Shakedown trip - Day 1

Day 1

Start - Rockrimmon home - Elevation ~ 6450'
End ( and high point) - Wye Campground off of Gold Camp Road - Elev ~ ~ 9800'
Low point - Fountain Creek and 26th Street - Elev ~ ~6100'
Elevation Gain - ~ 4200'
Mileage - 29.80 Miles

Day started with a 500 foot climb over Orchard Valley Drive to exit my neighborhood, and then an easy 8 paved miles down to Fountain Creek, the beginning of the sustained 20 mile climb to the campground.
Gained Gold camp road after about a mile or so, including the dreaded switchback on 26th street. Pavement petered out right about  4.75 miles from Fountain creek, making the day half paved and half dirt. Gold Camp road is an old railroad grade used to haul ore down from the Cripple Creek mining district for processing at Gold Hill in Colorado Springs in the 19th century. It was later abandoned and turned in a tourist scenic drive for about 15 years early in teh 20th century before being turned over to the forest service. While a railroad, Teddy Roosevelt took a tour on it and was so amazed by the scenery he is said to have uttered that the "scenery bankrupts the English language". It has been a fair number of years since I had been back in this area. While not as pristine as it once was 100 years ago, indeed there are some wonderful mountains, outcropping, vales and vistas to be seen from Gold Camp Road.

A couple miles after losing the pavement, the old railroad grade is closed to automobiles, and as such is rarely maintained. Good by wash board, hello ruts, sand and gravel. All in all, a good training section for those 8.6 miles. In total I got to ride through 4 old railroad tunnels today, which is pretty cool. Had to cross over one closed caved in tunnel, was a bear with the loaded up BOB.

Here is the roaring stream that was my reward for navigating that tunnel.

I stopped a number of times to hydrate, eat, rest, absorb. I'm learning about how to park the loaded bike + BOB combo, as at 75 pounds, it needs effort to man handle it, much better coax it gently from the start. Getting started rolling again is another skill developing, haven't yet tipped over, but there have been a few close calls.

I arrived at the campground about 5 PM, about 7 hours after leaving with about 5 hours of that riding. A fine Colorado rain and hailstorm welcomed me for the next 1/2 hour.  Mother natures gift to the earth and I gave me a chance to used most of my gear that first night !

I averaged about 4.5 mph on the gravel portion of the road, all climbing. Not a bad proxy day, with greater than 4000 feet of climbing, and a reasonable distance, though will need to get to longer days on the tour.

Shakedown trip - It is prep time!

Well, I have been planning an early June shakedown trip of a few days to test my gear (and body) and to tune my systems. The shakedown trip will circumnavigate around Pikes Peak with a number of goals:

Off pavement riding - a lot of my training has been on pavement in town. I have been getting 30+ mile days in, with 1000 to 2000 feet of elevation gain. I need to do more riding off pavement, so the route is tailored to county and forest service roads, where I can. Key pieces of information is mph when riding off pavement and riding to non riding ratio. This will help me plan my tour days better.

Elevation - Average elevation gain on the divide tour will be around 3000 feet, so I need to get some some bigger days in, coupled with dirt roads.

Higher elevation - My training between 6000' and 7000'+ maps well to much of the divide route, however the Colorado portion will be more terrain above 9000'. This trip spends 3 of days riding at that general elevation.

Camping gear and systems - Use the gear (some of it new) in situ, prior to being solo and unable to flex. Actually going on a trip will help me understand time investments for various activities - cooking, setup, tear down, filtering water, hanging food, etc.

Electronics - I plan on using my cell phone for GPS, maps storage, music, podcasts. I have rechargable light, and emergency communicator. I have a usb power pack to recharge those units, and a solar cell to charge that. Learning how those systems work.

Food/Drink - Test energy and hydration needs on real riding days, and packing for a couple few days of camping.

The whole enchilada -  A real trip forces me to actually pack everything I **THINK** I need for a trip. Packing order, weight distribution, where to pack things I commonly need for the day, what goes in the handle bar bag, what goes in day pack, rest in giant yellow BOB dry bag. How does the bike/trailer combo behave off pavement.

Below is a shot from the trip showing me and the whole setup ( @ Painted Rock CG, near Woodland Park).


How  much does it weigh?
I've been training with the trailer, and 30+ lbs in the BOB trailer and gear in the Ortlieb handle bar bag. Not surprisingly, (in hindsight), the whole enchilada weight was quite a bit more; Here is the break down

BOB Ibex Trailer - 17 lbs.
Yellow dry Bag - 37 lbs
Camel backpack ( no water) - 10 lbs
Handle bar bag - 4.5 lbs
Water 5 x 24oz bottles - ~7.5 lbs.

Gads!! - 76 lbs!!!  for the shakedown trip.

Gulp, this is 15 to 20 lbs more than what I have been training with; the 1st day of trip is the killer climb to boot ;-o


The route

Day 1 - Ride from home in NW Colorado Springs up Gold Camp Road and camp at primitive Wye campground. Gold camp road is the old railroad grade form C/S to Cripple creek, appears to average 3% to 4% grade. Some is paved, most is gravel, with a substantial section closed and unmaintained. Good proxy for back country route.

Day 2 - Wye Campground to Mueller state park - Follow Gold Camp Road until reaching Cripple creek mining district, taking country roads north  CR 81 and then CR 61 to avoid busy Hwy 67.
Hop on hwy 67 for about 1.5 miles to Mueller entrance, then up, up, up to campsite.

Day 3 - Mueller State Park to Painted Rocks Campground. - Head north on Hwy 67 for  few miles, and then N and NW out of Divide, using county and forest service roads. There are several options here.

Day 4 - Painted Rocks Campground to Palmer Lake or Monument and then  back home to C/S via the (newly re-opened!!) Santa Fe regional trail.

My lovely bride will be meeting us at Mueller and Painted Rocks with our camping trailer, so I won't be exactly testing all of the gear and methods. My friend Don joined me on those two days as well, with his gear being transported with the trailer.


Day 1


Day 2


Day 3


Day 4

Humping my gear

When one is bike camping, you essentially need to pack like a backpacker, and then add other bike support elements. When travelling backcountry and roads, you cannot easily get to supplies as needed. When doing this solo, you can not share the load for tents, cook gear, water filters, spare parts, tools, etc. After some research, there seems to be 3 different ways to carry yer shhtuff.

First, Bike packing route for mountain bikes, which is getting popular and numerous products from multiple vendors are available. This dovetails with the ultralight backpacking advances coupled with a minimalist approach to gear. In essence, strap gear into your frame triangle, top bar, onto handle bars and large under seat bags. Even strapped to side of front forks. However,  2 things work against this for me; solo trip means I need to carry everything needed, and also I am short fellow with a small bike - not alot of extra room.

The second method is the more traditional panniers but with beefed up panniers. A bit more room, but still a challenge for the same reasons above. Also, I am not really a minimalist,  I like to be prepared for a variety of adverse situations. Also, it is not a race and would like to have some gear for non biking activities, like hiking and mayhaps fishing.

The 3rd method is a trailer, which is also recommended by the route sponsors. While there are 2 or 3 trailers brands out there, the one that seems universally used is B.O.B. trailers (Beast Of Burden) Yak and Ibex  (w/ shock) models. This can carry up to 70lbs!!! Though my target is about 30 lbs.

New Cook Kit

Preparing for a 2 month backcountry/backroads solo trip presents some new situations and challenges. Today's blog is about cook stoves. I have an msr white gas stove I have used for my weekend 14ner backpack trips. On an 8 week solo trip, how does one resupply gas? The common  size is one gallon containers, and generally in more specialized shops. How much to carry? The white gas backpacking bottle would cover perhaps 4 to 5 days with 2 boils of a liter each. I'd have  to score more fuel 10 to 12 times during the 2 months. I could replace with a multi fuel msr or equivalent, as gas stations a prevalent. So I am faced with carrying lots of gas, and probably not carrying a full gallon several times with chance of running out, or buying a new stove. On the new stove side,  there are also biomass stoves that burn twigs, kindling, pine cones, buffalo chips, etc. For those, you need not carry fuel. There are alcohol stoves that use isopropyl alcohol, everclear,or even Heet the gas additive. Some alcohol stoves work with biomass stoves. This is the route I chose, biomass with alcohol backup. I can carry a minimum amount of alcohol for backup. After research I chose the Solo Stove. I like the compact size (it fits in my cookkit)  and it is a 2 stage burner system with  gasifier design that increases efficiency and burns cleaner. The alcohol burner fits into the stove when packed up as well.

Test boil burning biomass, w/ new cook kit