Sunday, November 08, 2009

Get it while you can


From Heil Valley Ranch Ride



Last week's 18" snow piles are an easy reminder to those of us in the Rockies that mother nature can be fickle. So as to not squander the opportunity of dry trails and 70 degree temps, The Punisher and I set out to get in a dirt ride despite what we knew would be huge crowds at the open space parks.

After some discussions on our way, we settled at the newly rerouted Heil Valley Ranch. Heil is a ride I've done many times in the past, but never really loved it as the trail was a loose, rocky double track for a large percentage of the way. Boulder County has done a lot of work to the trail though, and I had heard it was much better so we decided to check out Heil version 2.0.


From Heil Valley Ranch Ride



When we hit the trail head is was just as we expected, packed. No matter, we unloaded and sauntered our way up the trail at a leisurely pace. The Punisher knows everyone, so about once a mile we found someone he knew and stopped to talk. The trail itself was remarkably improved, gone were the loose rocks on doubletrack and in its place was a nice singletrack trail with lots of chunky rock.

We did a pretty standard loop, up Wapitit to Wild Turkey and back around. I always forget how good the Wild Turkey trail is, really should ride that one more often. The "new" Heil itself feels like a different trail entirely. Still not in the same league as Hall by any stretch, but definitely improved enough to get more rides there in the rotation given its ease and proximity.


From Heil Valley Ranch Ride

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