Blackstar to Coal Canyon

Training for Counting Coup requires that I ride at least 30 miles every Saturday. This Saturday (2/3/07) the trail decided upon was Blackstar to Coal Canyon. I've been up Blackstar to Sierra Peak before, but nothing after that. I really had no idea where we were going except that we were going to end up at the 91 freeway at the Green River exit. Then of course we'd ride back the way we came.

The total mileage for the ride was 35.1 miles with 5,971 feet of elevation gain. Blackstar to the Motorway is 4,520 feet of elevation and Maple Springs to Four Corners is 2,698 feet. So if you were to ride Blackstar to Four Corners, you would have climbed 7,218 feet. The ride Saturday was 1,247 feet short of going to Four Corners. That's about the same as one lap around The Luge. The difference between the ride Saturday and going to Santiago Peak is 2,702, or roughly one ride on "Old Camp to the Luge".

So the million dollar question is ... after the ride Saturday, could you have done a lap on The Luge? If yes, then congrats! You can ride Blackstar to Four Corners. The next question ... could you go to Old Camp and then The Luge? If so, then congrats! You can do Counting Coup.

I'm pretty sure I had the energy for a Luge lap. Not so sure I would have done so well going to Old Camp and back. That would have really hurt.

Anyways on to the ride ...

I showed up on time and our scheduled group of four riders quickly exploded to six. One of the guys on GeoLadders (Phil Kramer) had invited two of his buddies. I should have known we were in for pain when I saw they were all riding single speeds. That means they all only have _one_ gear to ride in. Usually that gear is fairly tough as well.

We started off at a normal pace, but picked it up a little climbing to Beek's. I had resolved to drink 2-3 mouthfuls of water every 20 minutes, and to eat something every 40 minutes throughout the entire ride. I've been trying to work on my stamina and cramps and this was the best I could think of. Haha.

Anyways, we passed a few riders before reaching Beek's. I was the last in the group of six to get to the top, but I was able to tie my personal best gate-to-gate. I rode from the Blackstar gate to Beek's gate in 1:03. One of these days I'll break one hour.

At this point Phil gave me some energy pills or whatever to suck on for cramps. Nice guy. I ended up taking several of them over the course of the ride and I think they really helped.

We made great time from Beek's to Sierra and then down to the end of Coal Canyon. I never realized how many fire roads are back there in the canyons. It's really quite amazing. The scenery is also something special. You can see lots of acreage burned down by a fire and large rocks around etc.

One other note on the descent ... I finally got to see "Mini Moab". I've heard it mentioned by other riders and now I finally know where it is and what it looks like. Cool. Just another "in", making me more part of the socal riding community.

We didn't spend too much time hanging out before turning around to climb Coal Canyon. At first the climb was really easy for me and I was _very_ excited to feel fairly strong and aggressive. The grade was easy and I was riding fairly fast in a high gear.

Then it happened. I started to fall apart. The combination of the heat, cramps and a steeper grade pushed me into a bad place physically. I felt like my back tire was digging into the ground. It wasn't sandy on the trail, but it still felt like I was being sucked down.

I found out this morning actually that my rear suspension is jacked and that it won't lock out - meaning that the suspension is always on. It might have been that way Saturday, or maybe Saturday caused it.

Anyways the climb back to Mini-Moab sucked. I was the last guy in the group again, but not by that much. Phil was riding around my pace on his single speed 29er and he was hurting too.

We then rode back towards Sierra when I caught up with Andrew and Phil. Andrew broke his chain and it took us 20-30 minutes to fix. Poor Andrew keeps having trouble with his new bike.

It's safe now to skip towards the descent down Blackstar. Nothing noteworthy except the fact that I rode over a gopher snake at the end of the ride. The other three riders seemed kind of upset that I did it. It was an accident guys! Haha.

Overall a fast pace for me. I clocked in under 4 hours for a trail that has an average of about 4:40. My average speed was 8.8mph, which is good for me considering the distance of the trail.