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I found the best map online and had it shipped to me before the trip, you might want that!
If you are not planning on driving the route first and making drop spots with water and food and such, you better plan on carrying alot with you. I don’t remember any potable water along the way.
If there has been any recent rain or any chance of rain RESCHEDULE!! Some areas of the trail are impassable when wet…(the trail turned to clay with a light rain and clogged up my gears, snapping off my rear derailleur)
Plan out your camping spots well, you don’t want to be scrambling for shelter in the dark!Good luck!!
btw…the descent into Moab is still one of my favorite memories on a bike!!!
Ben
Let’s see…Clipped in, rolled two feet, fell right on my head in the parking lot.
Reset myself in the corner of a switchback to get some speed and climb over a rock garden and instead rolled backwards right off the trail and down the mountain.
Endo after endo after endo.
The one that hurt the worst was when I clipped out of my eggbeaters to take a breather and when I clipped in again the opposite pedal flipped around and caught me perfectly in the crook of my knee…that was almost two months ago…it still hurts and the bruise is just now going away…and yes, it looks exactly like I was beaten with an eggbeater.Ummm…HELL TO THE YEEEAAAAH BOY!
I’d rep the singletracks.com all over the place…provided that the jersey is club-cut and I can get my profile name on the front chest…BFD…Yes Please.In the report it says that the vote for the proposal was "eight to one" in favor and it "looks like it’s going to pass"…Ahem…There WAS no vote at the meeting. I went into the wrong business, you can get it 100% wrong, still get paid and people will still thank you for the fine job you did.
Nice that they got some interviews from both sides of the trail though.I ride with a pretty varied group on a weekly basis and almost half of the riders are single speed junkies. These are some of the most in-shape people i’ve met and they LOVE their SS bikes.
Keep in mind, I’m talking about riding the front range of the rocky mountains in Colorado! And these guys LEAVE ME IN THE DUST!
I’m def going to be looking to get my very own SS someday soon.UPDATE…
COMBA would like to express our thanks to the approximately 400 mountain bikers who attended last night’s meeting of the Jefferson County Open Space Advisory Commission regarding Apex Park. It was truly one of the finest hours for Front Range mountain bikers. You should all be tremendously proud.Everyone carried themselves with respect and class, sending a clear message to Jefferson County officials: Mountain bikers are an important constituency that cannot and should not be ignored. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Like many of you, COMBA board members are still scratching their heads at the outcome of the meeting, which went well past midnight. OSAC members did not formally vote on the proposed plan to restrict mountain bike travel on specific trails within Apex Park on an alternating-day schedule. However, Director Schell does not need the approval from OSAC to implement this plan.
It was clear, however, that a majority of members supported the proposed management plan in some form or another, but many of the members had different caveats for their support. Some said it was dependent upon building new trails first, some wanted "tweaks" to the plan, others would support it if it was a temporary solution and still others said their support was contingent upon making sure alternating days Apex did not conflict with alternating days for bicycles at Centennial Cone, another Jefferson County park.
Yes, it’s muddled. While that is not what we wanted in terms of an outcome, there were some very positive signs to come out of the meeting. First, several of the members expressed the desire for mountain bike-friendly changes in the Apex plan, including new trails and directional downhill on Enchanted Forest. Second, almost every OSAC member spoke in support of purpose-built bicycle trails! This is huge change. We’ve been asking for it for years, but we have seen any acknowledgment of the need until now. That’s major progress in the right direction.
COMBA will be reaching out to Jefferson County Open Space staff very quickly to get a sense of what happens next. We will report back to you as soon as we know more. The book clearly has not yet been written on the future of Apex Park, but the incredible display of unity and community on behalf of mountain bikers last night means that we will continue to have a say on how this thing turns out.
Obviously, our work as mountain bikers is not done. We hope you will continue to support COMBA as we push forward in our effort to build a strong mountain bike community that can effect change. You certainly proved last night that, working together, we can make a difference.
I’ll be coming straight from work, so I’ll have to drive in order to get to the meeting by 7. I wish I could do the ride though, solidarity is important.
Who is going tomorrow night? We need numbers people!
I’d like to have a strong showing of singletracks.com members at this meeting.
Line up, find a buddy, who’s coming with me?!Welcome to Singletracks!!
SADDLE UP PEOPLE!!!
***Apex Park Update***
GOLDEN, Colorado (September 28, 2009) – After meeting with Jefferson County Open Space leaders and other stakeholders, the Colorado Mountain Bike Association board of directors has decided to oppose the county’s current proposed plan for managing Apex Park.
COMBA is asking concerned trail users to meet at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, at the lower Apex Park parking lot to demonstrate their opposition to the plan. Bikers will then ride over to the Jefferson County Open Space Administrative Office, 700 Jefferson County Parkway, Suite 100, Golden, Colo., where the county’s Open Space Advisory Committee is scheduled to consider the Apex Park management plan at 7 p.m.
"We are encouraging folks to bring their bikes and ride to the OSAC meeting in solidarity to ask the members of OSAC to reject the current proposal," COMBA President Terry Breheny said. "Although this plan is touted a ‘compromise’ position for Jefferson County and is less restrictive than the county’s initial proposal, it remains inherently biased against a single user group, in this case mountain bikers.
"In addition to setting dangerous precedent for bike-exclusionary policy, this plan does not address the real issue – the need within JCOS for trails designed and managed for mountain bikers, which would, in fact, also help mitigate the ‘speed differential’ at crowded multi-use parks. COMBA believes the revised Apex management plan, in its current state, is akin to prescribing aspirin for someone with a broken leg."
The proposed plan limits the direction of travel for mountain bikers on popular trails within Apex Park-where cyclists comprise the majority usage-on an alternating-day schedule. The plan places no travel restrictions on other user groups.
"We are asking the mountain bike community to voice their dissent as soon as possible," Breheny said. "It’s crucial that OSAC members have a clear understanding of this plan and the broad opposition to it before making a decision. Again, this plan, which unfairly discriminates against the cycling community, will not solve the underlying problem."
COMBA came to this position following a meeting on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, between members of the COMBA board of directors, biker representatives from the Trails Use Task Force and Ralph Schell, director of Jefferson County Open Space. The purpose of the meeting, which also included other JCOS managers, was to discuss the county’s management proposal for Apex Park ("Revised – Compromised Actions – 9/21/09").
The 90-minute discussion was informative and included prepared comments from JCOS regarding Open Space values and perspectives. Dialogue covered the immediate matter of Apex and also included broader aspects of shared-use policy, user-group needs and other long-term issues. In addition, COMBA presented a counter proposal to Jefferson County that promoted targeted education and outreach – the most requested management tactic during the June public comment period.
"We are disappointed that our counter-proposal for Apex was rejected," COMBA Vice President Jason Bertolacci said. "The COMBA proposal was based on management strategies which have proven successful in parks across the country. The current proposed policy should not be evaluated as just ‘lines on a map’ by folks who may have never recreated at Apex Park. They need to understand the real world consequences and ramifications for cyclists should this plan get approved."
Breheny concluded, "Regardless of the outcome for Apex, we will move forward with proposals for bike-specific trails or parks with hopes of demonstrating to county officials the value this approach provides to the user-experience of all park users."
I’ll be in attendance on October 1st for the meeting…I encourage anybody within driving distance to attend as well…we need to show our support for our own community, nobody else is going to…that much is now perfectly obvious. We’re being pushed out. Do something about it Mountain Bikers!
bump
I think the break down of the riders times goes like this…
There are individual time trial days where you set your own time early in the race, and there are team time trial days where you work to bring your overall team time up.
As far as peleton race days, if everybody starts at 00,00 and there’s a break away of three riders that stays ahead of the pack for the entire race; the break away riders may finish at 30,00 and the peleton finish at 30,03… everyone in the break away will have finished 3 minutes ahead of the entire field and there time will reflect as much based upon what their individual time was at the start of the race.
However, if you stay with the pack you’re time doesn’t change in regard to the rest of the field, you just add time to your individual time and don’t make any time on the leaders of the race.All I know is that Lance is a god on two wheels.
I hope he crushes it this year and shuts up all the critics and naysayers.
Also, a win for Lance would be huge for cancer research, and we all need to support that!Getting out of the saddle on long/grinding climbs and picking better lines for faster descents.
Thanks for all the great info guys, the ride was amazing!
I will definitely plan on doing this ride again, although I might try it in late season instead of early. We got rained on/mudded out on the first day and I broke my derailleur hanger 13 miles into a 40 mile day…boo!
Because of the rainy/muddy conditions we also had our schedule pushed back a full day…so it ended up being a 4 day ride, not 3 as planned.
All in all it was a great trip with some of the most amazing scenery and badass trails in the midwest.I highly recommend this epic ride to anybody looking for more than just a few hours worth of riding local trails.
I took some pictures on the trail, check ’em out in my profile! Or go to http://www.flickr.com and look for "Kokopelli Trail ’09"
BFD
Thanks to all of you fine folks and your great suggestions for my afformentioned problem with "Too Much Spit".
I went for a ride at Apex Park/Trail this past sunday with a full belly of water/electrolytes/pottasium/claritin and a few puffs on my inhaler and I had an awesome ride with no problems with excess spit! No Sh*t!
Thanks again.
Next stop…Pine to Waterton Canyon!
Goo, I think you’re onto something…I had taken claritin in years past for SEVERE allergies, but I lived in California at the time.
I had thought that my allergies were so low-key since I moved to Colorado 4 years ago that it wasn’t affecting me in any real way…but now I’m thinking that I need to restart some sort of anti-allergy regimen again.Either way, I can say that I’m going to be upping my water intake, although I thought that I was doing enough already; it can only help to drink more. Right?
Mongoose, where do you ride? All I’ve seen lately are Clydsdales 😆
Thanks for all the input guys, with your advice in mind I’ll be hitting the trails with (hopefully) a more enjoyable experience!
BFDI can’t say if this has always gone on, but I know that as an adult it’s been happening for a few years…I also have crazy allergy like symptoms after a ride and am wondering if I should take an antihistamine before a ride? Wouldn’t this effect my performance? Could the two be related?
P.S. I do use an inhaler prior to every ride but I can’t imagine that this would be the cause?Man! This is some great info guys, thanks so much, keep it coming!
Thanks lostcause, that link is a great resource! I don’t know why I hadn’t found it yet. Thanks again! this is going to be an amazing ride!!!
