Final Milagrosa Run

Jay and I burned our legs and lungs on Milagrosa last night.

It was a glorious ride. Beautiful evening light, warm temps, cool twilight descending. Challenging trail, both technically and aerobically. I haven’t gasped for air like that in sometime.

99% of the trail is climbable, but no human being in existence could string it all together. Even muscling through a 50 foot section sends your heart rate through the roof and leaves you in serious oxygen debt for the next section. It hurts, but the hurt is good.

Jay started us off by flashing through a lower move that neither of us have ever cleaned. He scraped all the skin off his shin the last time he made a strong effort at it. But this time it rolled out smoothly.

That momentum carried us up the next moves, as we settled into our climbing groove. I had several moments of “I can’t believe I’m still riding”, cleaning sections I’ve only ridden once or twice before. Then I’d collapse over my handlebars, trying to regain myself.

A great revelation was received by Jay. A new line on a section I’ve made many failed attempts at. The only way I could get up the initial drop was to pick up speed and carry my back wheel up it. But the upper rocks are so steep that you (well, I) need granny to muscle through them, so it never worked out.

But Jay found a way to ramp up. His first try was among the best, and better than my next six. But it felt like it could roll out. On try number 14 my tires led me to the correct line and we had cracked a move that previously we had thought unrideable.

Yep, it was a good night.

We kept climbing up the trail, giving the second switchback below the “guantlet” another twenty or so attempts before calling it good and heading up the hill. We pushed our daylight too far, as expected, since the upper part of the trail is so fun to ride.

What followed was some fast and furious descending, attempting to maximize the available light. Riding by ‘the force’ is always exciting, especially on Milagrosa. I turned on my headlamp for the lower steep sections, but used the darkness as an excuse to not ride the ‘double trouble’ drops at the very bottom. Wimp = me.

At least 8 sections of trail remain uncleaned, but there’s always next year.