The Horsethief Experience

I had three big trails on my list to conquer this year.

1. Joplin
2. San Juan
3. West Horsethief

Joplin and San Juan got dropped earlier this year already and so I figured it was about time for Horsethief to be dominated as well.

For those that don't know, West Horsethief is about a 1.5 mile steep climb up loose and rocky terrain. It's at the end of Vision Quest (endurance race) and most people end up hiking their bikes up the entire climb.

I had missed a trip out to do the trail earlier this year and from what I heard it was tough - but not impossible. Matt and Troy said they rode maybe half of it, so I had my hopes high to ride at least a third.


This last Saturday Matt, Andrew and I set out to do Horsethief twice (going down Holy Jim and Trabuco after each ascent), but after the first trip up we changed our mind. It was that tough.

I hiked almost the entire thing. I got a nickel sized blister on my right foot because even the hiking got tough at times. Hahaha.

There were several sections that _looked_ like you could ride, but when you tried it was like riding uphill in sand. Even in my lowest gear I was pushing really hard and couldn't sustain the forward motion.

When we got to the top we cut over to Blue Jay and then went down San Juan. After that we hopped a fence and rode through Casper's Wilderness Park and eventually came out near Coto de Caza where we took surface streets back to our cars.

Total time was about 7.5 hours, and the ride time was around 5:45 for me. Total distance was around 41 miles I think.

I'm happy to have experience Horsethief because I've always been curious. It's good to know what people have to put up with when they do Vision Quest. I would NOT want to have to hike that after almost 40 miles on the bike. That would be hell.

Other fun points from the ride:

- Three flats. One for Andrew, two for me. I found the second one at the very end of the ride. Flats on front and rear for me.

- Laughing like a maniac as I tried to hike faster than Andrew could ride on a steep singletrack. He never caught me thank God.

- Riding up a lot of technical double track and single track on Old San Juan trail. I love this section compared to the other way down from Blue Jay to Cocktail.

- Meeting a father who told his two sons how awesome we were for riding for so long and going so far. Hahaha. Andrew loved this especially.

- Matt having issues with his cranks every 20 minutes.

- Getting passed by two guys coming down from Cocktail only to see one of them flat, which let me cruise by.

- Watching Andrew chase down a roadie at the very end of the ride.

- Almost killing myself on the road back. My front tire washed out on the pavement back (duh, it was going flat even though I didn't know it) and I almost ate it in front of a truck that was behind me.

I need a new set of trails to try. I think Telonics and Los Pinos are on the list now. Well, maybe not Telonics. I hear it's illegal. We'll see ...