Nice long ride today- Cody

Today I was able to go on a nice long ride in Sycamore Canyon area and it was one my favorite rides in a while. The day before yesterday I flipped my stem over to get me over my front tire more on the climbs. I had been feeling like my front tire was lifting and wandering all over the trail when going up hill. Well the flip worked. I felt like I could climb as well as my hard-tail Cannondale.

Back to the ride. I started on Central street and began the 2 mile climb up the hill. It's not super steep the whole way but there are definitely some steep sections. I came to a new trail that I hadn't seen before and rode up it. (As you can see to the left.) It was a really tight singletrack that ended at a park. After snapping these two photos I turned around and headed back down.

My ride continued as normal, just rolling up and down. At about 5 miles I decided to head in a different direction to a really fun downhill I had been on. I knew that once at the bottom it was just a long ride back up to the top, but I was feeling pretty good at this point. As I started towards the downhill I saw a group of 5 or 6 riders dropping down an area I hadn't been. I knew I could hook back into that section on my long ride back up.

The downhill was great and the ride back up was nice. (The picture to the left is the start of my ascent. I have to make it all the way to the highest point you can see). I could see several hawks (red-tail I think) in the canyon. I didn't see the coyote I've see so many times however. Once at the top I hooked in with the singletrack trail I'd seen the other riders on. What a great trail. Somewhat technical but fast. That's two new sections in my last two rides. It pointed me right back in the direction I needed to go, back towards my car. I was already at 8 or 9 miles here with probably 1500 to 2000 ft in ascent.

On the way back I was able to hook into the steep, technical stuff I found on my last ride. With my stem flipped over I flew down into the ravine and climbed right out without much difficulty, except for my legs were starting to feel like jelly; I was at 11 miles or so at this point with a lot of ascent.

After the technical section it was all downhill on the fast singletrack heading back toward Central. What a great ride. My bike is really impressing me and I'm feeling more and more comfortable on it each ride. My front tire (Panaracer Fire XC Pro) has increased my confidence a lot. I'll probably buy another and run them front and back.

Stats-
Distance: 11.6 miles
Average speed: 7.5 mph
Max speed: 37 mph (I know... it was fun...)
Trip time: 1:30