Silver City!

For about 5 years now we’ve been making the trip to Silver City to ride the trails around Signal Peak.  One year we got freakin’ raped by Locust bushes on Tadpole Ridge.  After that year I was fearful that we’d be riding the same trails over and over every time we went up there.  Turns out that there are quite a bit of lengthy trails worth the effort of an epic.  I’ve ridden almost all of the Divide singletrack from the Signal Peak area to the outskirts of Silver City.  It’s difficult singletrack, but nothing more difficult that what’s  found on the Colorado Trail.  Why more people don’t ride in the area beats me.  Their signage isn’t great, but if you get the USFS map, download a sweet basemap for your gps, or steal some gps tracks off of garminconnect, you’re guaranteed a great ride with lots of climbing, techy singletrack, and great views.

Last year’s trip consisted of one great ride on Tadpole Ridge then north to the Sheep Corrals.  I ripped it quick with my buddies Mark and Beto from Sierra Vista.  It was my only trail ride of the weekend as I was experiencing some serious burnout and a mean muscle spasm/pinched nerve in my upper back/shoulder which ended up lasting most of the summer.  That was a great ride because I jumped a big black bear drinking out of Tadpole Lake.  He jumped in the water and swam across to safety.  Pretty cool especially since he didn’t come running my direction.

This year’s kick ass ride consisted of Tadpole Ridge but then heading south on Sycamore Creek.  It was a kick ass loop with lots of really tough singletrack.  Mark went with me as Beto has been nursing a sore wrist.  Kind of wish I had taken a camera on this ride as the terrain was pretty epic with a couple sweet slickrock sections, subway like creek beds, and a big Bull Snake.

We pushed at a solid pace, not killing ourselves, but making sure we were making it worth the effort.  It took us around 5 hours.  An impatient rider who doesn’t like frequent dismounts, hike-a-bike (mostly in the down direction), and loose trail might not enjoy this ride.  I could see an average mountain biker taking 7 hours or more to do this ride.

Here’s the digibeta on this ride.  The ride starts at a great camping spot.