My son Kyle and I are in final prep to bikepack the Colorado Trail next month, riding every day. Yesterday I convinced him to do the Picture Rock / Wild Turkey Loop in Lyons, CO, which is my favorite ride on the front range.
I’ve been jonesin to do this for weeks, but the trail has been closed because of wet sloppy conditions from all the spring snow and rain.
Kyle wasn’t as psyched as I was, as he had done this last year with his high school mountain bike team and struggled with the technicality of the trail – there is quite a bit of rock hopping. I said, “Dude, you’ve put on 6 inches and 30 lbs of muscle, you’ll do fine.” Sure enough, he was ahead of me the whole uphill. He’s still skittish about the downhill, but by the end of July after 500 miles of bikepacking and nearly 100,000 ft of descent, I suspect he’ll be in prime shape to return to his team practice in August.
One of the highlights of the trail is passing by an old homestead with a circa 1930s car aside the trail.
At the top of the loop you hit a rock outcropping with great views. As we approached we heard thunder, despite the forecast of no rain. We took a few photos and hightailed it down the hill, but still got caught in a rainstorm that soaked us to the bone.
I was out in front on the descent and after turning a corner nearly ran over this.
He’s lucky I was going slow because of the rain. Kyle and I have run over many snakes on our bikes, and I don’t think they do well afterwards.
I asked Kyle on the way back if the trail was easier, and he said, “Yeah, way easier.”