San Juan, Hooray

Pictures of San Juan ...

Switchbacks? It has tons of them ...



I'm starting to get used to exposure (or drop offs on the side of a trail) ...



More switchbacks ...



Starting this year I had three trails on my list of "must do" trails. San Juan, Joplin and West Horsethief. Those were the big three. I was feeling kind of tired Monday (January 1st), but since I had the day off I knew I should use the day to ride. I was going back and forth mentally between the full San Juan up and down trail (22.8 miles) and the "half" ride (12.7 miles). Based on how I was feeling I decided to do the "half". I had Tuesday off as well so I figured I needed to save something for the next day.

I ended up getting to the trail an hour late and found that all my friends had left already. I can't blame them though. I would have left too. I waited till the morning to make some bike repairs and they ended up taking a lot longer than I wanted them to. It was good in the long run though because they needed to be done.

Then I got lost trying to find the trail and the trailhead once I was on my bike.

The ride itself was pretty awesome though. I really enjoy riding solo because I can set my own pace and can really take in the scenery as I ride. It was fun exploring a new trail not knowing what was coming around each corner.

There were a ton of people on the trail though which made it a little sketchy at times. I was ringing my bell a lot to make sure people coming down knew I was coming up.

I ended up getting to Cocktail Rock in a little over an hour and a half. My pace was pretty slow compared to what I might normally do, but I didn't care. I wanted to take it easy and enjoy the ride and not push too hard.

I remember riding up the trail thinking that the downhill might be a bit tough in a few spots, but I was wrong. The downhill was just plain _fun_. There were a lot of sections that I really enjoyed and nothing was that scary at all. I still had to walk a few switchbacks that were a bit tricky, but it was not as scary as I thought it would be.

I practiced my switchback technique at the bottom and fell over when I unclipped my left foot on one switchback. I don't feel very comfortable getting my left foot out at all, so I need to work on that.

Overall a fun ride even if I did it alone.