2009 Memorial Trip – Denver CO
5/23/09 – Heil Ranch – We rode a 10 mile loop at Heil Ranch. This place has a great rocky technical start as you climb up the mountain. Then you get a chance to take a little break for a couple of miles in the loop. We rode it clockwise. Great place just north of boulder.
5/24/09 – Hall Ranch – Today we did a loop at Hall Ranch. They’ve done some work here since we were here in 2005. We did a big loop counterclockwise. They added a trail, the Picture Rock trail, that can connect this system to Heil Ranch if you want a epic ride. This place has a little bit of everything; rocks, mud, twisty, and scenic (look out for the black big eared squirrels).
5/25/09 – Bolder Boulder 10k (48,000+ runners) – Gina and I ran in the Bolder Boulder 10k. What a crazy environment. This race finishes in the Colorado University Stadium. You run a portion of the track and get to see yourself on the JumboTron. I hit this race pretty hard. I wanted to run it at a 7:00 minute pace and just missed it with a finish of 44:21. I blew a tire and had to tie my shoe at the 6 mile point.
5/26/09 – Chatauqua Park – We hiked the (the Flatirons). This park is just off of Baseline Road in Boulder. It was a nice hike and a break for our legs.
5/27/09 – We headed to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park today in search of a moose. We spent the day going from 5600ft to 13,200ft, from sun to snow, and 40 degrees to 80 degrees. We drove across Trail Ridge Road, hiked some of the Ute Trail and headed down into the west side of the park, for better moose viewing. The drive through Granby and Winter Park took forever but was scenic.
5/28/09 – Bobcat Ridge – We rode our bikes at Bobcat Ridge. This was a great loop. of about 12 miles. We hit a new trail on the way back down the mountain for a fast, rocky, technical in places descent.
5/29/09 – Walker Ranch – We rode our bikes here. This was just up the mountain from Boulder on Flagstaff Road. That has to be one of the steepest paved roads in the Boulder area. I want to attack that on a road bike sometime. Walker ranch ended up being a very scenic loop. We rode Clockwise. We ascended a short while and then were led into a multi-switchback sweet downhill. This took us down into the canyon and to the river. From here you take a bridge across the river and have to hike a bike up, what seemed like a thousand steps (not that bad but carrying a bike at 8000ft made for some tough work). From here you climb back up, hit another nice downhill, and end with a moderate climb back to the parking lot.
5/30/09 – Betasso Canyon – Today we did a great 5.5 mile trail run on the Betasso Canyon Connector and Loop Trail. We parked alongside 119 at the Betasson Connector Trail. This trail starts out as a very rocky and steep trail and then eases up a bit and starts to switch back toward the top. At the top you join up with the Loop Trail. We ran counter clockwise for the 3.5 mile loop. Quite a bit of rolling terrain, but the loop was runable.