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Bruce
& Betsy Blais |
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Mountain Biking - Special Trails - RAMPART RESERVOIR, COLORADO On September13th, 2014, Bruce rode the Rampart Reservoir Trail near Woodlands, Colorado, just west of Colorado Springs with the Not-Over-The-Hill-Yet mountain biking group of Denver. This was a beautiful trail and a joy to ride. Since it circumnavigates the reservoir, the elevation changes are minimal. However, the trail is at 9,000' above sea level, so since the trail doesn't give you much of a work-out, the altitude does. Below is a map showing the track, profile and statistics for the Rampart Reservoir Trail ride. This track and profile is for the clockwise direction. Reverse it for a counter-clockwise ride. You can right-click on the image below and use the "Save Target As" option to down-load a 1MB 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 for this ride. The file may want to save as an XML file, so if it does, change the extension to gpx before you save it. The file is a high-resolution track created on the Delorme PN-60W GPS.
The distance ridden was 14.2 miles. Climbing was 2,462 feet and was spread out across the entire ride. The average grade was 6% and the maximum elevation was 9,278' AMSL. This is the kind of trail on which you will use most of your gears, and spend a lot of time in the middle ring. The grades are not impossibly steep, and don't go on for any real distances. The photo below is the obligatory group photo at the trail head with Wayne, Sarah and Nan.
The next photo is one of Sarah negotiating an under-water section of the trail. Nan rode it and Bruce followed her through. It was 6-10" deep in spots with exposed and submerged logs laying across it.
From the photo below, you can see how the trail follows the bank of the reservoir for the most part. Many sections are gravel, and a few sections of gravel are pretty deep.
Sarah and Nan coming up the trail. You have to look carefully to see them between the trees.
. . . and Wayne said: "I am going to ride the rock". Judging from the trail to the base, this appears to be a common practice.
. . . and ride it he did!
Below is a group photo at one of the fingers with Nan, Wayne, Sarah and Bruce. At this point Wayne's friend (also named Wayne) caught up and made the photo.
Same group but with the other Wayne in the photo. Bruce is behind the camera.
Wayne (#1) and Sarah walking a rocky switch-back descent.
A rare "trock gate" on the trail. This is an inside poke at my DORBA friends in Dallas that seem to have problems with tree gates and comment about my narrow bars.
Below is Nan at one of the technical areas. There were a few sections we had to dismount.
Lunch at the dam with Pike's Peak as the backdrop.
Nan came across what was left of an Elk along the trail.
Rampart was a very enjoyable ride. The weather was perfect although a bit cool as you can see from the long-sleeved jerseys.
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Version 0.1, September 14, 2014 |
