Mountain Biking In The Bear Mountains

Yesterday was another overly ambitious day. A week previous, we had driven out to the base of Hells Mesa and climbed up. We had originally overshot the turn off, and when we turned around the road had become quite interesting with lots of colourful rock outcroppings on both sides alongside the twisty and hilly roads. It seemed like a nice place to ride. So yesterday, we went back out to ride. We parked quite a ways from the interesting spot, so we had a lot of riding to get there. On the way we diverted down a couple of side roads, one to the end of the road, and the other to a rattlesnake.

We also stopped once to hammock in a smalls stand of piñon. Around the time we arrived at the interesting part, Brad's front tired suddenly lost pressure. We turned around and headed back. His tire was low, but seemed to be holding out well. He made it most of the way back before it suddenly flatted out completely. He pushed for a while, then abandoned it and started walking. I tooled along beside him alternating between walking and riding. Eventually he hitched a ride to his truck and I continued on. He picked me up at 50.3 km into my ride that day, just as I had stopped to photograph a transmission someone had thrown into a ditch.

In the long run, it's fortuitous that we turned around when we did. Both of us were wiped out from the ride. I suspect that it was once again the noontime sun that really did us in. It was hot out there.

I have a tracklog and pictures that I'll get to at some point.