wide trail, pretty views, near Denver
I returned to my mountain biking roots yesterday and joined a group of 14 mountain bikers for a Sunday trail outing yesterday. As always, it was a lot of fun; getting out on the trail, any trail, always feels good. We rode the Waterton Canyon trail, southwest of Denver, Colorado. In addition to being a great bike trail in and of itself, Waterton Canyon trail also happens to be the first section of the 28-section Colorado Trail that runs 485 miles from Denver to Durango, Colorado.
That’s all well and good, but here’s the issue that arose while on the ride; only 1.75 miles of the ride was actually a “mountain bike ride.” The first six miles of the ride followed the South Platte River on a wide, fairly level biking and hiking trail. Upon completion of the bike ride, we were sitting around Rib City, eating various forms of barbecued food and putting back a beer or two. That was when I heard the comment that I’ve heard so many times before. “The mountain biking portion of the trail was great, but the rest of it was boring.”
Now I will admit, it was nice to be on a mountain bike trail again. It requires a lot of energy as well as quick-thinking and alertness. All
snow on single track trail
of those can be fun qualities in a bike ride. But I also felt the rest of the ride was far from boring. While riding on the wide, level trails, it is much more feasible to take in the scenery along the way and maybe even spend a few moments in conversation with fellow bike riders. Neither of these activities are good options while bouncing and bumping along on a technical mountain bike trail.
My guess is that I’m in the minority here, but I’d like to know what other bike riders think. Is it possible to have fun on a rail trail, canal trail or urban trail, or is bicycling fun limited to only hazardous biking such as mountain biking and road biking?
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It’s possible that they may have had preconceived expectations about the trail, and when the trail failed to meet those expectations, they were automatically disappointed. I am certainly guilty of this at times, but your attitude is the correct one – enjoy every aspect of the trail. Sounds like a fun ride to me!
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It was a great ride. I enjoyed the mix of riding terrains. Both the up and downhill portions of the mountain bike ride were a blast. But I’m not sure I could have done too much more of the strenuous stuff on my first big outing of the year. I look forward to future rides with this group. Mountain biking & barbecue make a great combination.
Kevin,I am with “greatplainstrail” on this 100%. I don’t feel, when one goes out on a ride,regardless of the terrain, that it has to be death-defying or wizz-bang. The important thing, at the end of the day, you have had a great ride.
Over the weekend, on one of my “no plan/getting lost” rides I came-across something incredible, that makes such an outing so great.I am presently composing a blog about the ride and hope to post it in the next day-or-two.
Barry.
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I’d love to read the blog post, Barry. Is there any chance you could post a link here or email me a link to the post?