Stretches of warm, dry weather in winter are not all that unusual along Colorado's Front Range, but the winter of 2008-2009 was especially warm and dry in the foothills and plains, so much so that instead of going up to the mountains for winter type activities like snowshoeing and cross country skiing (or doing them closer to home as is possible in colder winter weather), my friend Kelly and I decided to do a couple mountain biking "Kellythons" around Fort Collins and Boulder.

The first of our two such outings was near Fort Collins . I drove to Kelly’s house in town and we then went out past Horsetooth Reservoir to the Devil’s Backbone Open Space west of Loveland. Like many scenic areas along the Front Range, this county parkland is located around and west of the first small ridge in the foothills. The landscape, though, is relatively open and dry with grassland and brush and great trails for hiking and mountain biking. We went quite a long way, but luckily for me the ascents and descents weren’t too great. That doesn’t mean it was an easy day, though. For someone who’s mostly used his mountain bike on paved surfaces and graded dirt roads, the rough surface and frequent short steep rises as well as bumpy surface of true trails is very challenging.

The weather stayed warm and sunny for weeks to the extent that there was almost no snow in sight from along the Front Range except on the highest peaks. I had been doing much of the traveling, so this time Kelly and I decided to meet on more neutral ground halfway between us. Back in the early 1990s in my graduate school years in Boulder I did a loop hike into the mountains to a place called Gold Hill. I recall it being an especially grueling hike because the vertical ascent from Boulder must be at least 3,000 feet, but I was feeling relatively fir and thin after all my recent outings that I was ready to tackle it again. Kelly was naturally eager to try it too.

We met at what had been Crossroads Mall when I lived in Boulder, one of those 1960s style covered malls that has been demolished in recent years to create the kind of retail village more in vogue nowadays . We followed the Boulder Creek Trail through town and up into Boulder Canyon, a ride that brought back memories since I had ridden it many dozens of times in the early 1990s when I lived in Boulder. The road and trail through Boulder Canyon rise gradually enough, but it’s when you branch off on the road to the small burg named Salina and through the side-canyons of the foothills above Boulder that things get really steep, gruelingly so. Oh, this is painful! Am I going to make it?

Beyond Salina were branched off onto part of the Switzerland Trail, an unpaved 4WD road that follows the route of tracks of an on mining railroad. It rises more gradually in switchbacks up the side of the canyons to the ridgeline than the current paved road. Finally I was there! Kelly seems fairly tolerant of my chubby less-fit self being so slow on these outdoor adventures of ours. We followed Boulder County Road 52 east and down somewhat into Gold Hill, an old mining town that’s now a quite remote and somewhat countercultural village despite being only about 15 miles from Boulder.

Then the real fun begins. You have to climb a ways out of Gold Hill to a crest on what’s known as the Sunshine Canyon Road. The views of the Front Range Peaks to the northwest toward Long’s Peak area absolutely spectacular, as it the almost airplane like views eastward towards Boulder and the other towns on the plains about 3,000 feet below. The long descent into Boulder can be almost scarily fast in spots. I’m just not that much of a daredevil to go that fast, but at least on the downhills I’m not that far behind Kelly. It was a great day’s ride and much longer than I expected from memory. Amazingly for March we didn’t see as much as a patch of snow anywhere along the route, even in very shady spots. That shows how warm and dry its’ been this winter.