The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) crosses the Silver City area and while we rode one section the other day, there are more sections to explore. Derek found us another loop to ride that included the section of CDT from Arrastra Site up to Black Peak and then down Little Cherry Creek. Our ride was 19.8 miles with 2924′ of climbing. It felt harder than this!
This ride started by climbing immediately. We’re not talking about a gentle climb on nice buff singletrack. The trail was loose, rocky and steep for quite a ways. It would level off and then pitch up again. Honestly, in some places there isn’t any dirt, the trail is entirely loose chunks of volcanic rock everywhere which make it impossible to ride. We hiked off and on but at least we had nice quiet forest to admire. Eventually it mellows out a bit as we rode through an old burn and then began the ascent to Black Peak.
The 2 or so mile section of the CDT trail from the intersection with Little Cherry Creek up to Black Peak was awesome. This seemed odd because it’s way out in the middle of nowhere but was the best maintained. It’s a steep narrow singletrack climb but completely enjoyable. Gaining the 2000′ over two miles meant for a really fun downhill on our way back to Cherry Creek. So after topping out at 8880′ we turned back and bombed down.
Cherry Creek was a delight. We descended rocky technical singletrack down along Cherry Creek which was mostly dry this time of year. It’s beautiful forest back here and I loved the scenery. At the bottom we continued down Bear Creek Road which was a shock.
Bear Creek Road is gravel and rock and bursts downhill into an interesting area of giant boulder rock walls, towering trees, and vines. It was very jungle like and really different than the rest of our ride. At the bottom we hung a left and pedaled the road back to our start. For being out almost 4 hours, we saw one lady off doing yoga on the side of Bear Creek Road. That’s it.
At the advice of a friend, I’m reading the book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara about the Golden State Killer. This is the one published nearly two years after McNamara’s death and two months before an arrest was made in the case. It’s completely creepy.
Leave a Reply