Tour of the Lakes!

This is why I love Colorado and riding mountain bikes. Today we rode a route we call Tour of the Lakes. It starts at the Rampart reservoir trial-head and follows the reservoir trail towards the dam. After that, you have to be with someone in "the know" to find the rest of the route. Today is October 18 and we rode at 9000' feet in shorts! In a week, that could all change but why not live for the moment?
There is a certain part of the ride called "The Rock". It is a huge granite slab in the middle of the forest. It is quite intimidating the first time you ride down it (much like slickrock). We used to do it with cantilever brakes which was really scary. Now the modern disc brakes make things a bit less stressful.

Here is Matt leading the unsuspecting followers down to the steep section.

 Scott and Don are blindly following.

  Scott on the steeper part.

Don had to think about it for a second.

Success!

As we continued  on the ride, we ended up on the Stanley Canyon trail. The hikers always look surprised to see bikes on this trail!

Here we are discussing important issues like global warming, etc..

This is truly a classic loop especially in the fall!