Government Trail

Again, not sure when Ill actually be able to post this, but it was Saturday’s ride. The ride basically runs between Snowmass Village and Aspen so we took the drive up along the Roaring Fork from Glenwood Springs towards Aspen, taking a right up to Snowmass about 10 miles before Aspen. We tried to follow the directions for parking but we figure a few new structures there at the ski resort had taken up the parking lot we were looking for so we found an alternate lot, a little outta the way but not bad. Unlike Park City, the climb was up a paved road through some VERY nice houses. A little over 2 miles and a shade over a thousand feet higher, we headed down a dirt road towards the ski slopes. A slight misinterpretation of the ride directions gained us about three quarters of a mile of bonus mileage and bit of extra climbing but no big deal. Back on the right track we found the trail head for Government Trail after about a mile more of dirt road. Initially it was a little steep and loose but even howie really didn’t have any issues riding it. Howie had a little equipment failure on the way up, the hose came outta the bottom fitting of his camelbak and spilled about a half liter of water so at the first stream crossing we filled his empty water bottle with filtered water just incase. The trail was really sweet after that, up and down a little bit never straying more than 100 feet from 9200. It really had it all, a few nice exposed benchcut views of the valley, swoopy trail through aspen groves, some nice pine forests, some wild flower meadows.

There was also one rather steep grunt of a climb as well as a few rock gardens that made you pay attention, nothing like Rothrock, but fun. We were hoping to find a trail that took us back up to near the top of the ridge for some bonus miles but we either missed the single track or it was really a jeep trail. So down we went across some of the Aspen ski trails and down switchbacks till the trail spit us out on the paved road. We took that down through a golf course back to Highway 82 then along a bike path to the cutback to Snowmass. I think this may have been the first time I’ve encountered switchbacks on a paved bike trail, and certainly this many. It may have been a good thing we didn’t make it back up to the ridge as there were some serious thunderstorm clouds building back up above Aspen as we headed the other way. There’s a bit of ridge between Aspen and Snowmass, a good 500 feet, not a bad climb, but when you are on a big low pressure tire mountain bike on pavement with a head wind, the inefficiencies just really mess with your mind. Im finally acclimated enough that my cardiovascular system is able to keep up with my leg muscles so now I can make my legs hurt before I completely hyperventilate (oh goody), again, not a good thing with an inefficient mountain bike on pavement climbs. Almost 10 miles later we were back in Snowmass with only a .3 mile steep climb back up to the truck. Total mileage was 20, guestimate on climbing of 2000 feet.

Howie’s main bike out here, brown stumpy, has been complaining for a while, something from the rear end, and he finally diagnosed it as a rear hub issue and now the front mavic hub is complaining as well, so we hung her up on the wall and fixed up the Spider with a new rear tire (david had poked a hole in the old one and had been using a tube in it, it had also seen better days, thus the lack of attempting to patch it) and the longer stem and set back seat post, the harp seal is much bigger than the pup. I also had put a new rear tire on my blur, the tread on the 2.2 mountain king was totally wore out after about 600 miles. Seems like they went over board as did Kenda with the nevegal UST, making a tire with a great side wall but with minimal tread. I had also noticed a number of small punctures that the stans had sealed, the sealed holes are still a little wet in the morning when the rest of the tire is total dry. The 2.4 version of the mountain king starts with more tread and seems to be working well on brown stumpy, well until she got hung up today anyways. I guess the search continues for the perfect tire that actually fits in the back of my blur.

btw we made it Jackson WY Sunday evening, im posting from there, woo hoo!! we actually have good internet right from the camper as well as water we can drink.