CANCELLED 4 Lakes & 4.5 Climbs 31 Mile Road Ride

CANCELLED  4 Lakes & 4.5 Climbs 31 Mile Road Ride

When: 9:00 AM, Saturday June 24th, 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/43203198, 31 miles, 2,500+ ft of climbing

Details: I had a request to repost the 4 Lakes & 4 Climbs ride since some missed it due to the weather last time, and I had a request to include a newly discovered road with a 20% grade on a SoCoVelo ride. So here’s the ride to grant both requests. 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 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. 
• 1 mile out-and-back Range View climb with a short section of around 20% to test your legs on. Those who would rather not can wait at the top of the wall, and cheer on those who try to ride up.
• 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, but I would still suggest a road bike for this ride. 
• 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).

1. Mile 6.6:  Top of Hay Creek
2. Mile 12.3: Top of Forest Lakes at the turn onto the dirt road
3. Mile 18.1: Top of Red Stone Ridge
4. Mile 20.0: Top of Range View climb
5. Mile 27.6: Just a bit past the top of the climb, after turning off of Furrow onto Furrow Way
6. We will regroup elsewhere along the way as needed if the group splits up too much 

Note on any possible ride updates or cancellation: Given we are in fire season, I’ll be watching the Air Quality Index as well as the weather. If the AQI reaches 151 or above (“Unhealthy”), I’ll cancel the ride. 

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.