Inner Limits!

Played hooky from work for an early March trip to Pee-ebluh. Oh my goodness, it was nice. I sweated! And, there was new singletrack!



I had heard inklings of this new trail, Inner Limits, but I had the distinct pleasure yesterday of finding it and riding it for the first time. There was another new section of trail I do no remember having ridden before called Driftwood. Driftwood to Inner Limits to Outer limits was I think a little more than an hour's worth of sweet Lake Pueblo singletrack. Driftwood/Inner Limits replaced about 10 minutes worth of Pedro's Point Trail, which is doubletrack.

The good folks over there in Colorado's Steel Town, Colorado's first City; they made a new strategic section of trail that I think makes the Lake Pueblo Trails remarkably better. It's maybe 3 miles? Maybe 4? But the significant point is that it replaces a length of boring doubletrack that got you to half an hour's worth of sweeping turns and dips, cliff edges and inlets. Now, you get to get to that half an hour's worth of excellent trail with about 45 minutes worth of maybe even better trail. More sweeping turns, dips, cliff edges, inlets...


Outer Limits

I was stoked! I rode South Shore to Driftwood to Inner Limits, and by the time I got to Pedro's Point I had been riding for almost an hour. The weather was perfect. It was a Friday, so I had the whole place to myself. I was living the late winter, riding-in-Pueblo dream.

"OK", I said to myself, "I'm going to hammer Outer Limits, get out onto the Voodoo Loop and hammer that, and if all goes well I'll have time to do Outer Limits and Inner Limits again on the way back. Sweet!"

So that was my plan. I hammered my way through Outer Limits, got out onto the Voodoo Peninsula, glancing at my watch as I started the loop. (Clockwise, the way any good American would do it.) I didn't put a foot down, except to take this picture:

Voodoo Trail

I got back up by Colorado Highway 96, after having heroically hammered out an epic lap of Voodoo. I looked at my watch; yes, I had time to ride Outer Limits to Inner Limits to Driftwood to South Shore and back to my car.

What I didn't have is enough energy. Fitness. Power. Motivation. I was about 85% shelled. Not bonking, just tired. I had eaten food. I had kept up with hydration. I just hadn't done a ride with this much effort in months. I was not fit enough to turn this 3.5 hour ride into a 4.5 hour ride.

I just rode Antelope back to South Shore and got my beaten behind back to the car the easiest way I knew how.

But I was happy.

Voodoo Detour

That's good though isn't it? I threw myself at Pueblo State Park's fabulous trail system and I left it all out there. It would be nice if I was as fit as I was a couple years ago, but what can I do? I'm just not. As I am right now I've got about 3 hours worth of good hard riding in me. Then I need a chair and a meal and a bed.

Good day.

Here's a thought, for those of you who know the Lake Pueblo Trails: Why would you ever not use the "detour" route to Voodoo from the intersection of Antelope/Outer Limits? I've ridden the primary route. It has one very mildly technical drop and then some not very interesting singletrack along the lake shore. The "detour" has turns and jumps, it's fun.

But that's just my opinion. Go see and decide for yourself.