I’ve been dying to ride this trail for years.
The only problem was that there is a lot of sand. That sand is surrounded by lava rock and sandstone creating a highly contrasted backdrop for what would be an awesome trail, if it didn’t have all that sand.
KB and I have hiked Yellow Knolls multiple times. It’s a great area that we take the dogs to and enjoy a short little stroll. Every time we do so, I wonder what it would be like to ride. There are sections that wouldn’t be bad on a mountain bike, but then, there are long sections that run through the wash and are nothing but sand.
I got home and KB was not there. Poor Chaco was waiting inside because apparently he’s a nuisance. Seeing that I had nothing pending and no idea when KB would be home, I loaded up the dogs and the fat bike and headed to the Knolls.
It was everything that I had hoped for and more.
The first section of the trail is hard pack and drops down into the wash. It was fast and I had a shit-eating grin on my face all the way down chasing the dogs as they tried to best one another refusing to let the other have the trail. Once down, the trail goes over and through the lava field. I had to push a bit here, but it quickly led me into the sandy wash that is bordered by sandstone.
From there the trail winds it way between the sand and sandstone and climbs back up out of the wash toward the next ridge which happens to be the one just below where Broken Mesa tops out. Once the trail hit the dirt road that is High Point, I turned around and did the whole thing in reverse.
And that was that. I was finally able to ride a trail that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years. I’m not gonna tell you that everyone should own a fat bike, but in the last week I’ve ridden three different trails that I never had before. A bike that opens up new possibilities, is a bike I want to have…
On a completely related note, in that it has to do with bicycles, I was perusing through my favorite humor website, Bike Rumor and happened upon two interesting articles.
The first article reported that Shimano had released their new 105 group that incorporates their 11 speed technology down to the working man’s group. More importantly, if you read down a ways, is the fact that they also released another road hydraulic brake and shifter. This time around you don’t have to pay for Di2 to get hydraulic road brakes, you can do so on your totally mechanical group. This is good news for all of you just dying to ride cross bikes that have hydros.
The second article was how ScRAM has dropped the Avid brand from their next set of brakes and has apparently solved all their braking woes. If you ask me, this looks a lot like an old Code. And that isn’t the worst news, as those brakes tended to work most of the time.
The reason I bring this up is the juxtaposition of these two tidbits of news. On the one hand, you have a company releasing their second generation of a product that was introduced the year prior and has had zero problems. The other is finally claiming to have fixed the braking issues that have plagued riders for the past five years whilst still having nothing to offer in way of a hydraulic road brake. I’m not sure about other shops, but we still haven’t seen any replacement hydros for customers affected by the recall. Luckily, we only sold two bikes. I can’t imagine having sold or ordered a bunch of those…
And that’s the news, at least what’s worthy to print.
P. L. and R.
