4 Lakes & 4 Climbs 30 Mile Road Ride
When: 9:00 AM, Saturday May 13th, 2023
Where: Monument Park-n-Ride, NE corner of I-25 and and highway 105 off Woodmoor Drive. We’ll meet at the north end of the parking lot.
How: A no-drop ride, with opportunities for efforts on the climbs (hill repeats for the ambitious?), and regrouping at the top of climbs (details below). Also opportunities to customize your effort (details below).
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42866310, 30 miles, with 2,300+ ft of climbing
Details: We’ll take advantage of some of the newer Monument and Forest Lakes roads, and ride some of my favorite climbs west of I-25 in the Monument area, while seeing several lakes and other smaller bodies of water along the way. This ride features the following:
- 3 mile out-and-back Hay Creek climb, and the views from the top.
- Gorgeous views and less traffic of the Forest Lakes area.
- Mt Herman Road & Forest View climb, with the short but steep grades of the Red Stone Ridge climb added as an extra out-and-back kicker at the end, along with the great views from the top.
- A short but nice loop NE of our start/finish location to bag one more climb, and one more lake.
Road Conditions to Note:
- There is a 0.4 mile section of packed dirt/gravel at mile 12.3 to bridge us from the Forest Lakes area to the Monument area.
- There is road work on the descent around mile 18.9 where for a few hundred feet the right most 3/4ths of our lane is gravel.
- Route uses Highway 105 for about 1 mile (mostly descending, so time on 105 is not long)
Regroup: We will regroup at the following locations (top of the 4 climbs):
- Mile 6.6: Top of Hay Creek
- Mile 12.3: Top of Forest Lakes at the turn onto the dirt road
- Mile 18.1: Top of Red Stone Ridge
- Mile 26.5: Just a bit past top of 4th climb, after turning off of Furrow onto Furrow Way
Customize your effort: There are options for shortening the ride, or decreasing the climbing, including doing a partial climb of Hay Creek, skipping the Red Stone Ridge climb, and skipping the final loop NE of the start/finish location.
Leader Contact: John Beckman, members can find my cell # in the Members section of the club’s Wild Apricot App, or in the MembersSection/Directory page of the club’s website.
This ride is open to SOCO Velo members. SOCO Velo has a 30-day trial membership if you would like to check out our club and ride with us.
Safe Group Riding: Our group practices safe riding by communicating with each other along the ride, and following the rules of the road.