Super Walker


Today I did a “Super Walker”, ride up Flagstaff from my house, ride Walker Ranch and ride back up Flagstaff a bit and down back home. I did this ride last Thursday minus a complete loop around Walker Ranch because I ran out of time in the late evening. I went to Chicago the next day and dreamt of Walker Ranch the whole time I was there. So when I got back the first thing I did was try it. I took off around noon on a pretty warm day, around 88 degrees. I worried about overheating a bi taking a single speed up Flagstaff. It’s not really that hard of a climb until the mile after Realization Point. I find that section really tough and always get pretty frazzled until I hit that last parking spot with the famous spot to look at over Boulder Canyon. I usually have to stop there but I managed my effort better today despite the heat and was able to ride all the way to the top. I charged down to Walker Ranch eager to ride, but quickly found I was pretty frazzled from the climb so had to stop and eat a gel.

I rode the loop clock-wise and I quickly found that there are some big rocks on the climbs on that loop, a few well over my head on a single speed. So I walked them and then rode the loose fairly technical descent down to the creek. Some of the sections pushed my beginner skills a bit and I still felt a bit frazzled but was able to to roll over most everything by simply letting off the front brake whenever anything got too hairy. The road has some loose fun descents as well and soon as I was the creek. I was worried about being really short on water and it was really warm so I took a risk and drank out of South Boulder Creek. I have never had a problem before but I will let you all know how this goes, probably a bit stupid, but it was really hot. I carried my bike up the stairs out of the creek and then headed up for the sustained climb for the next few miles. This was more climbing on a hot day than I had expected and when it was all done I had climbed over 5500 feet. Next time I might ride it counter clockwise, it seems like more fun smooth downhill. Soon I was back to a final descent which I did well on and then the final mile climb to complete the loop. Last Thursday I was able to ride this really well but today I was so tired and beat I had to walk for a good few minutes in the middle to regain the energy to finish the climb.

Then I rode back up Flagstaff, hoping that I wouldn’t keel over with heat stroke ha, and then flew down Flagstaff to Whole Foods where I bought some lemonade. Btw, 29inch wheels make you feel really stable on fast road descents, they are really fun. Walker Ranch is a gnarly loop, in both senses of the word. I CAN wait a bit to try it again however, ha.