Newest MTB Trails In Boulder County

Distance (mi ) 17.32
Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:29:27 at 7:02 pace
Moving Speed (mph) 8.5 avg. with 25.1 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,160 / -1,481
Temperature (°F) 39.8°F avg. and 42.8°F high
Wind Speed ( mph) SSE 9.6 avg. and SSE 11.5 max
Link: Trail Information
Photos: Images of Trail
GPS Map: High Plains - Doudy Draw

This past weekend I felt as though I needed a ride. The temperature was kinda cold for my thin blood, but unfortunately my road bike is currently out of commission, which meant I wasn't able to ride my trainer. My mountain bike needs a lot of work and I've made a decision that before I ride that bike again I need to put some money and elbow grease into it. This meant my single speed would be my steed for the day.

Riding my single speed proved to be a good choice. A recent snow storm had left the Front Range trails covered with snow or mud, which were not ideal conditions for a bike with gears. However, a couple Boulder County trails recently opened to mountain biking stood the best chance of being clear. High Plains Trail and Doudy Draw Trail both cut through the meadows of the Boulder County land mote.

I started my ride on the High Plains Trail and headed west towards the Green Belt Plateau trail head. This single track is a joy to ride, complete with rolling meadow terrain. The only challenging part of the trail was convincing the occasional cow to move off the trail so I could keep riding.

Once I reached the next trail head I crossed Highway 93. This was a safe crossing since there is a light at the intersection. Once I crossed the road, I opened up a fence and a wide section of trail connected me to the Doudy Draw Trail.

At first I was a little disappointed with Doudy Draw Trail. It was a wide dirt road. Sure the views were nice, but I was curious why it had been closed to mountain bikers. I thought if it was only a dirt road then what damage could we cause?

Well, about a mile later I got to a fence and a small patch of trees. From this point on the Doudy Draw Trail turned into a single track descent. The descent was on a north face and packed with snow. As I got further down the hill the trail got muddier and muddier.

On a side note, I wouldn't want to ride this trail any time this week as the snow is melting and turns into mud. The trail isn't hard packed dirt and where it is muddy there is a good chance it is deep mud, which could do a bit of damage to the trail if not careful.

After the descent I reconnected with the Community Ditch Trail and rode that back to Highway 93, were I took my life in my own hands and crossed the road. That road scares the hell out of me! People drive so fast on it and I felt like Frogger as I leaped across the road, dodging speeding vehicles.

I safely made it across the road, continued on Community Ditch Trail to the connector trail, which connects Community Ditch and Green Belt Plateau. I connected with Green Belt Plateau Trail, and rode the dirt road back to High Plains Trail. I then rode the High Plains Trail back to my vehicle at the trail head.

All in all I got 17.32 miles of riding on two new Boulder County trails. Both trails were very enjoyable and I'm certain that both trails will be part of my regular training. Even when most of the other Front Range trails were covered in snow these two trails were relatively dry and ready to be ridden. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to ride the Doudy Draw trail in a counter-clockwise direction. Doing it in this direction would put a single track ascent into the ride, which is far more fun than the short descent it offers if ridden clockwise.

The Grinch

So I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of teenagers, many of whom can't drive yet. So the cool thing to do for these kids is to walk the neighborhood in the middle of the night. Often times that leads to kids becoming bored and what do kids do when they get bored? They break stuff, paint stuff, and have a general disregard for other people's personal property.

Earlier this year my back fence was painted with all types of foul language, which I spent the following day removing with a power washer. I've been lucky as others in my neighborhood have had their house broken into and far worse done.

The reason I bring this up is because a neighbor friend of mine recently decorated his house and his yard with Christmas decorations. Unfortunately the warmer November weather of this year is drastically different than the cold weather of last year. Without the snow and the cold, those same troublesome kids are out and about, and causing trouble.

I just heard through the grape vine that my friends house was recently vandalized in the middle of the night. In a very Grinch like act, several teens took a baseball bat to several of his lawn decorations and wire cutters were used to cut through several of the LED strings of lights. Roughly one hundred dollars worth of damage was done. Believe me it could have been a lot worse, but the act is no less than a stab in the back of the holiday spirit.

I have a yard display that spent a great deal of time with over the weekend and I know I would be very upset if a couple teens with no respect for personal property, or more importantly the holiday season, use my yard display to vent their frustrations with being bored.

However, I won't let the Grinch steal Christmas from me. In the back of my head I feel as though I will be posting about this subject again, only next time my yard will be the focus of the post. None the less, if the cords are snipped and the decorations beaten, they are after all only the peripheral of what this holiday season is about. I'll be pissed and I won't likely replace them, but like the Who's, I will still celebrate the season fully!!!

In the meantime, a baseball bat resides next to my door...

Is it a job or a hobby?

I ask that question because sometimes I forget. At times the fun and joy of TrailCentral becomes work. Recently I received an email that turned it into work. I received the email on Friday and I let it stew for a couple days before I responsed.

Let me summarize very quickly. Allegedly there are some false comments being made about a shop and it touched the nerve of a visitor to TrailCentral who wanted me to remove the comments.

Email From Visitor

(I've removed the shop name, name, and username so you could understand the email without knowing who it was from)

In the reviews, you should remove the two reviews about (name) who is referred to as the owner...there has never been a (name) that has been an owner...i believe these are malicious reviews attempting to bad mouth the shop...same with the comment from (username) ... (username) works at the shop down the street...there have been numerous attempts on various sites to leave negative feedback which was all traced back to the bicycle shop down the street and a terminated employee. Thanks for looking in to this. I think some sort of more secure sign on system/registration is needed to keep this from happening more. Malicious and made up review are very easy to spot.

My Response

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to send the updated address. This has been changed on TrailCentral.

I appreciate your feedback and I did look into the reviews you brought to my attention and I have some good and bad news.

The bad news is that I won't be removing the reviews. Unfortunately, there is no way I can validate that the comments you made are true anymore than I can validate the comments on the shop listing are false. (I did try to validate your comments by searching google and looking at the shop website. I came up empty handed) The shop listings are an open forum for comments and I can't get into the business of censoring peoples opinions based on the opinions of others. That being said, I do have some good news.

I would recommend several things.

#1 You have the ability to review the shop. In your review, I would point out your argument that a person named doesn't own or work at the shop, while adding good points as to why you rated it as you did.

#2 Tell valid customers of the shop about this rating tool. Maybe link to it from your website. Allow them to rate your service and get a very good idea of what the customers think of this store. Soon these "bogus" reviews, which seem to happen about once a year will quickly not matter.

#3 Your comments did bring up a good point and although I don't think that a registration system for reviews is the answer, as it will not make it any less likely for stuff like this to happen, I do now see a flaw in the system. Many other sites allow people to rate the reviews in terms of how helpful they are. Your comments have put that ball in motion and I will do the same. Obviously this will take some work on TrailCentral and I can't deliver an ETA on when that functionality will be added, but I will save this email and when it is complete I will notify you of the new functionality.

Finally, I ask that you have faith in those that visit TrailCentral.com. As you said, "Malicious and made up reviews are very easy to spot." I truly believe that visitors to TrailCentral have the ability to spot and weed out the bad reviews.

Thank you and I'll be in contact,

www.TrailCentral.com
Colorado's Online Mountain Bike Resource

Happy Thanksgiving

Those that read this blog know I have a weakness for food. Why else would I be racing clydesdale? Well, Thanksgiving is the mother of all holidays when it comes to consuming calories. This year was a record breaker!

The feast was terrific, but the climax of the evening was the annual "Man Pie" competition where each of the men in the family bake a pie, but not just any pie... These are pies that are engineered by the men to fully show the potential of an everyday pie. It was a stiff competition this year, but my brother won, hands down, with this behemoth apple pie!

Have you ever seen an 18 apple, apple pie?

Now you have!

The 2007 Champion!

Check out a couple other entries by visiting the below link:

http://www.trailcentral.com/community/viewthread.php?tid=1929

Light Reading From Here On...

Well, the Google Reader has gone under the knife. I trimmed off all the fat and I'm left with only the meat. Over a hundred MTB feeds were in my reader when I logged in this morning and when I was done, only 7 remain.

The MTB meat in my Google Reader:
Racing Green
Scott's Singletrack Mind
Singletrack's Mountain Bike Blog
Slip Angle
Google News about Mountain Biking


Grizzle that may get cut off, but may stay in the reader for a while longer:
Stories from the Front Range
The mountains call, and I must go.

Route 66

Cadillac Ranch
Amarillo, Texas

So, what did I do while I took a break? Part of it was on a road trip. This is Cadillac Ranch off of Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas. This is the kind of random stuff I love.

I spend my spare time and money creating a mountain biking website. This farmer spent his time and money burying 10 cadillacs nose down in his field. As they say, "Different strokes for different folks... "

This is part of what got me thinking I'd like to change gears a bit. I'd love to walk away from TrailCentral for a while and go burry 10 Cadillacs in the dirt. Of course I can't 'cause it has already been done, but you get my point. Sometimes it would be nice to try something completely random and different.

It Has Been A Long Time...

Well, if absence makes the heart grow fonder, anyone reading this blog should be loving me right now.

It's been a while since I've posted. It has been on purpose. I've taken a bit of a break from being so "connected" to the world.

For three weeks the home computer wasn't even turned on and emails went unanswered. I'm slowly finding myself wanting to reconnect, but I'll be going very slowly.

During my break I've come to several conclusions:

• I really enjoy reading other blogs, but my Google Reader is going under the knife tomorrow and I'll be weeding out a lot feeds.
• I really want to focus on my body and my bicycle next year. My main focus will be nutrition and training, which means I won't be racing Clydesdale's next year if I stick to my plan.
• TrailCentral is a hobby and it will be treated as such. I love it, but gone are the days of coding into the wee hours of the morning. OK. That will still happen from time to time, but like any hobby it is because I love to do it.
• My participation on multiple websites will be limited to a minimum.

In conclusion, my time on the computer will be much less than it has been in years past. I honestly think by being less "connected" I'll be more productive while being more connected with my own goals and pursuits.