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Bruce
& Betsy Blais |
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Mountain Biking - Special Trails - NORTH TABLE MT., GOLDEN, CO In January of 2014, Bruce was doing some work for a company in Golden, Colorado. About a block from the office was the trailhead for the North Table Mt. trail system. The first ride Bruce took was from the office for lunch on March 21st. He and another engineer rode up to the vista on the top of the canyon near the middle of the mountain. More information on all the trails here can be found at the IMBA Mountain Bike Project page for North Table Mountain. A map with the ride profile and statistics is provided below. Right-click on the image below and use the "Save Target As " option to down-load a 500 kB 11x17" PDF version of the map. You can also click on the image and zoom up to 200% for a detailed view in a separate window. Right click here to down load the GPX file. The file will want to save as an XML file, so change the file extension to gpx before you save it. The file is a high-resolution track created on the Delorme PN-60W GPS.
The distance ridden this day was 5.5 miles. The ride time was about 45 min. up and down. Climbing was 1,056 feet and occurred in about 1.5 miles of the trail. Bruce rode this trail once or twice a week after work on Mondays and Friday's. A friend from Dallas, Bobby Duncan was out that way and stopped by for a Friday afternoon ride prior to a skiing on Saturday and Sunday. Across from the trail head is the Golden Bike Park. This is skills and pump-track area.
The skills area is on top of a hill, and the pump track is down near the entrance to the park.
Below is a photo of Bobby at the skills area during his visit in April of 2014.
After checking out the skills park, Bobby and Bruce headed up Table Mountain. Below is Bobby about half way up. The trails are not too technical, but the climbs and switchback are brutal.
Once rounding the south face, they could see the Coors Brewery and the town of Golden.
Further up the trail, they came to the split between the North Table Mt. loop and the Cottonwood trail. The North Table Mt. loop goes on around the mountain and the Cottonwood trail goes up to the top.
The photo below shows Bobby coming up the Cottonwood Trail.
After climbing further, and negotiating several more switch-backs and a set of steps, they made it to the top. Below is Bruce on the overlook with the outskirts of Golden in the distance.
Bobby also had his photo made from this vantage point.
Beyond the overlook, they rode up on top of the mountain or mesa. Up there they saw a heard of Mule Deer.
After taking in the view, they enjoyed a descent of over 1,100 feet.
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Version 0.1, April 14, 2014 |
