FULL MOON RIDE 3: 8.18.16 Rollins Pass
Two road rides at night complete. I decided to mix things up and do a mountain bike ride. I wanted something that wasn’t a trail through the woods, but more an open road as the obstacles would be challenging enough under moonlight. Enter Rollins Pass. My good buddy, Andy Stockman introduced me to this road. It’s a rough 4wd mountain pass road that goes from Rollinsville to Winter Park. The backside to Winter Park actually has old train trestles, but since it was a weekday and judging our lights, we just decided to summit the pass.
Photo: @bmutari
The weather wasn’t favorable leading up to the day of the ride. And naturally, it was something like a 90% chance of rain from 5pm to 11pm. Ugh. Yes. I brought a jacket. My Burton ski jacket actually. And when we arrived at the Moffat Tunnel lot it was raining.
Photo: @bmutari
Needless to say it’s challenging to attract others to join these rides, but thankfully, Jeff Stroot, Rich Rodgers, and Brandon Mutari all were back for more. This ride was around 13 miles to the top and while the elevation gain wasn’t too extreme, this weather blew. No moonlight. Muddy roads and it was cold. To make things even better, my charged commuter light died half a mile into the ride. I like to have one light for the ride up to make sure I can back up my main light on the descent.
Photo: @bmutari
I decided to ride in the middle using the other lights and preserve mine until the way down. It was going to be a rocky ride up of trusting the wheel in front of me. And just like Mount Evans, near three miles into the ride, the rain stopped and the moon was starting to show. Our goal before was to make it as far as we could or until we were drenched to the bone. Now we had confidence and the moon could light the way.
The road is pretty flat with mostly around a 3% grade, but it’s rocky as hell and requires you to carefully pick your line. My Firefly mountain is a 27.5+ with 3.0 tires which allowed me to run them around 11psi. Mom, that means “cool” in bike lingo. Those tires ate up most of the rocks and made for a super smooth ride up.
Nearing tree line the moon was out in full force. Even with the terrible forecast, the night couldn't have been more perfect to let the moon light the path for us. We turned our lights off for the last five miles or so.
Photo: @bmutari
Photo: @bmutari
Photo: @bmutari
Photo: @bmutari
The route ends with a closed train tunnel. It’s fenced off, but you can hike above it. At the top there’s a series of wind shelters built from the chunks of rocks. The perfect place to wrap up the ride before the descent.
Photo: @bmutari
This descent is not. smooth. at. all. And requires you to pedal for half of it. Rocks. Puddles. Dips and distracting views make for the sorest forearms and wrists I’ve had in a long time. But that Montucky Cold Snack was a delicious beverage to cheers with friends to close out this summer’s #FULLMOONRID3S.
I must admit I can’t wait to ride under moonlight again. It’s peaceful. It’s challenging. It’s scary. It’s not a race. It’s quiet. And yes, mom, it’s safe(ish). Just remember I lived to tell you about it.
Love, your son,
Gordy
PS - Huge thanks to the fine folks at Firefly in Boston for the support and bikes that don’t have mechanicals when you can’t afford to have one. To Rich for making all three rides. To Jeff, Mike, Stephen for also joining. And def to Brandon (for lugging his camera on his back up Evans and Rollins) and Sam for running S.A.G. on Evans and for producing some surreal images.
