Bean FeSSt VI

This weekend was the annual Bean FeSSt in BC. Two days of riding with a mexican food potluck on sunday after the ride. What wasn't expected was the carry over shittieness (snow) from last week's storm.

Woke early on saturday to drive up to BC, set up camp and be pedaling by 10:30. The plan was to ride to Lenny's Rest, possibly Indian Creek and meet up with John and Doug who were riding in from Colorado Springs. The idea was to meet up and then pedal in together to BC.

As soon as I got on trail I ran into snow. Completely rideable, just very moist. The further I went the more snow I encountered. The only snow free areas were the south facing sides through the Buffalo burn. After dropping down to the South Platte is where is the trails conditions got shittie!

Once the climbing began, the snow gradually got deeper. What started as a killer day, deteriorated very fast. I ended up pushing up to the highest point where I decided I was NOT going to make it to Lenny's Rest. I was hoping the other guys had chosen an alternate route.

So I started descending back to the river. A lot of the descent was unrideable as well, stupid snow. Had to stop half way down and ring out my soaking wet socks, eat some snacks and warm up. Once I got to the switchbacks the snow had melted and created a small river down the midle of the trail. This created a sloppy mess. 2 miles of this and then the real climb began.

90% of the snow had melted on the climb and thus very moist. Once I finally got to the trailhead/camp site, 5 1/2 hours later, Doug and John rolled in right behind me. They had run into significant snow and sketchiness and thus bailed on their original plan. What should have been a 65 mile ride turned into a 95 mile ride with the last 15 miles into a 20 mph headwind. In their words, "it was one of those rides where you didn't want to talk to anyone or look at anything, just put your head down and get it finished!"

The after party turned out to be super fun. Eight of us built a big fire, ate some grub and everyone else hit the bottle. Just kicked it for the night and enjoyed the tomfoolery.

Woke up to the sound of frozen rain drops on the tarp, which turned into snow pretty quickly. It snowed all day and the temperature was dropping steadily. The low for the day was supposed to be 30 degrees. It didn't get close to that.

We built a fire and the procrastination began. 4 of those who camped bailed on the ride, and all of those who camped bailed on the longer ride. 13 started the ride and at the first intersection 7 of us opted for the shorter route and 2 picked the shortest route possible. The trail was fairly wet with snow covering the wooded sections and just wet in the burn. It was one of those rides that you did just because you were already there and you may as well ride.

Threw down for a sweet session of eating and burnt the rest of the wood. Just kicked it 'til the fire was out and headed back to town. Another beautiful day in CO! It's still snowing, no work tomorrow due to snow, so may head to Loveland for a day on the slopes.

more pics. here