Who's World? Phil's World!

What goes around, comes around, and sometimes it comes around pretty quick! I gave a tour of PMP earlier in the year to GilaMonster and his pal from Cortez, JJB. "If you're ever in Cortez, I'll show you around!" Little did I know but a few months later we'd  be up in Cortez! JJB made his day available and not only showed us around Phil's World in proper order, but offered a second trip for the day to the Canyon of the Ancients which we jumped on. We were planning another early Durango local ride, but a guided tour through old ruins that aren't ridden that often? Yes, please! To start, we headed to Phil's World which was built by this guy named Jake....no, really, it was Phil, and it is all mountain bike specific trail, one way flow and lots of natural banks, turns and jumps. They had some tussles early on with the shooting range next door, but it seems that they came to an agreement and everyone shoots and rides to their pleasure, without danger of being perforated by lead....Hello? Table Mesa?....

Heading out of Durango, we caught the Durango-Silverton train on it's way out of town. I rode it about 24 years ago, and as I remember, it was pretty cool.

Not the Tetas of San Carlos, but rather the Twin Buttes of Durango. There's also some good riding there we heard, but opted to save it for the next trip and add in the Canyon of the Ancients.

A tourist trap if I've ever seen one. How did the natives every lose with arrows that big? Those are almost WMDs!

Phil's World is only about 45 minutes from Durango, so we were there in no time.

It's a pretty robust system, with about 30 miles of singletrack if you get everything. I doubt you would though as you would probably spend ample time doing repeats on Ribcage. That piece is worth a revisit!

JJB the tour guide! Showing us up on his SS. He's also the water bottle master. Getting weight off the back is always key.

The trail out there is packed and fast.

The mesa has some cool rocks formations on it, and it lent itself to rocky trail as we went out on the Ledges Loop.

Bike on crack!

A few drops here and there to keep it fun.  Photo by Schillingsworth.

A small set of stair steps over near Elbow/Ledges somewhere. Look at that weather moving in!  Photo by Schillingsworth..

Coming up from the far end of the Ledges, we were treated to a little burn area. The wind had been howling since we started, with probably 35mpg gusts and it looked like a big system was moving in to drench us. We continued forth.

We made our way off of the Ledges to make sure we could get the good stuff before the skies opened up on us.

But the skies never did open up on us! Some drizzle then all of a sudden bluebird skies! Here, John rides with the Sleeping Ute in the background.

Here I'm meandering along Stinky Spring Loop. Photo by Schillingsworth.

The system missed us. The weather Gods are still giving blessings this weekend.

JJB leading the way. Great guide the whole day, putting up with our picture stops and generally chill pace. There's just so much to see!

We eventually made our way back to Ribcage, the star trail of the system, and I can see why. It was pavement packed, and fast as it rolled up and down small drainages that came off the mesa. Many chances of air time, of which I probably took my largest jump ever (which isn't that big at all, really). I sure felt like I was flying!

Lots of fast undulating trail.

Ready for lift-off! I got some major air off of this one. Major for me, anyway.  Photo by Schillingsworth.

JJB was a little more conservative.

John was employing those BMX track skills again.

After hitting Ribcage twice, we headed back to the parking lot to get some lunch and head over to ride #2, Canyon of the Ancients. You can do a Ribcage loop in about 20 minutes as well. I would have been happy doing it a third time!

Our Phil's World Journey. We parked at the south end, near 160 which travels east/west across the bottom of the map. The Ledges Loop is the far loop to the north, and the Stinky Spring loop is the little one on the east side sticking out.

There's not too much elevation to be had out there, but it makes up for it in flow. Right out of the parking lot is was a flowing hoot. The Lemon Head Loop in the southwest of the system was fun too.

Lots of ups and downs but over 21 miles we only climbed about 1,500 ft. Fine with me. I was a little pooped from the 9k we did the two days earlier, and was also happy to take it easy on my knee, even though it was behaving very well.

Phil's World is fast, flowy and grin inspiring. Well worth the stop on your way to Durango. If you just blast through it you could be done with it all in less than three hours. Be sure to add in a few Ribcage loops though. It is pretty damn fun. Lots of trail names out there too, but sure don't remember many of them. A successful stop #1 for Sunday.

Colorado Trail Time

The one thing we wanted to ride for sure while in Durango was some of the Colorado Trail. While the whole of it travels roughly 500 miles from Denver to Durango, we'd be happy with a few miles to start. Unfortunately, there was still snow up high, which is where we really would have liked to go since I've never been above about 9,200 ft (which is about where the AZT goes around Humphreys) and breaking 10k ft sounded like a great idea! But alas, we were a little early in the season for above treeline stuff, so we'd have to make do, which wasn't hard to do at all.

Our big goal for the day was to see snow, which was at about 11k, which we wouldn't get to until about mile 18 if we took the CT straight out from Durango. Hmphf....we'll see, I guess. I did double the amount of red blood cells surging through my body since the day before to accommodate the high elevation, but the unknown was quite unknown. I did in fact know what I didn't know, which was that what lie ahead couldn't be known until we got there, and knew it ourselves. So we were off! Parked at Junction creek and proceeded to the switchbacks, which again, were quite pleasant. Switchbacks known!

Bike leaning on signs. Again. I think it has an affliction. Some OCD thing.

Colorado Trail! How do they get it so buff? No loose, scraggly rock? No jagged edges? Roll on!

Gudy's Rest is a good place to take in some snacks after the climb up. Durango lies straight ahead. I was rollin' with the seatpack as well, just to get stuff off of my back. I had the room, but much prefer the weight on the bike. I had some food in there with a light and layers, plus a rain coat and some Gatorade. Saved at least 5 pounds from my pack.

There's the CT following Junction Creek below. You get elevation fast in CO!

Hoffheins was the first junction we'd come to. We'd also take advantage of this junction later in the day.

The climbing was again moderate, but there was a lot of it. Some rocks showed up too.

The forest was inviting.

I could roll that dirt all day! Luckily, I had all day and that was the plan. With all the greenery, I felt like I was on an island at times, especially since it was still a bit toasty in the sun. It's hardly an island, but compared to rock and dirt and blaring sun it has the same appeal! Photo by Schillingsworth.

A little down before a little more up.

The second trail junction on the CT, to Dry Fork. This connects with the Hoffheins connector we passed earlier.

We we're getting closer to the "High Point", which would be our turnaround point for the day. I chatted with some boy scouts that had hiked down from Champion Ventures and said that there was lots of deadfall on the next climb to the snow. Knowing that, we turned at High Point, which is only at 9,500ft, but is a bit of a saddle before dropping down for about five  miles before climbing up to Champion Ventures, making the drop to the other side a rather serious commitment. We were a good ten miles in, so why not hit the Hoffheins/Dry Fork loop to square out the day? Perfect.

A few flowers were fighting for the sun.

Making the push to the top. Pretty close Photo by Schillingsworth.

High Point break. Cheers mate!

Lunch was of course a mega burrito from breakfast. It was good. I need the real food!

Had to turn the steed around and it's time to head down! I took us about 3 hours to come up this far, and we happened to catch a local that rode up with his water bottle - "Yeah, it took me about and hour and ten minutes." I'm sure we could cut some time off, but that is still pretty damn quick!

Above treeline! What a monstrous piece of rock made of pieces molded inside of long dead stars. Old as dirt too.

Tunnel vision of green. I'm smiling looking at it now. So sweet.

I stopped for a spell while John fixed a tire, and lo and behold! I see CO is wasting no time with their marijuana legalization. It's growing wild.

It was a head scratcher until he decided, "More bacon!"

One doesn't often consider the intellectual needs of bikes, but they appreciate it.

We had come down Hoffheins and now we needed to re-ascend to the CT, since Hoff was some sweet downhill bliss.

At an intersection, check the map a second.... Photo by Schillingsworth.

And I hardly remember this cool trail junction. Too busy with my face in some paper! I'm glad John got this pic. Photo by Schillingsworth.

Again, the climbing up Dry Fork was splendidly splendid. I did think of a future granny gear on a few parts.

Lupines!

It's like riding in a fantasy land.

The trail just hangs on in a few sections. It's real fun hitting this at speed.

We eventually found the CT again and made our way down the switchbacks to Junction Creek. And look at that switchback. Can it be any smoother?

This last switchback did have some teeth though, and while I fell into the maw of rocks, I did not get bit. Lucky me. Photo by Schillingsworth.

We started down in the lower right and made our way up to the switchbacks, then all the way up to High Point in the background. We hit the loop on the way back down, clockwise - down Hoffheins first, then up Dry Fork. The best part was we got to do that section of the CT twice, and it rolls pretty nice.

Switchback time! The climbing was good as the day before, but with a little more extra weight, my knee was sore early on. I could feel the extra wear and tear. While it didn't slow me down or make me cringe, again I felt the need for a granny gear. I guess Colorado can do that to you! Rolling the 1x9 Me-maw gear of 32x36 was fairly low, I wanted lower. I know of a 22t I can get my hands on actually.....

It was a good 30 mile day with about 4,800ft of climbing. We were out for about eight hours, but a bit of that was lounging, taking pics etc. I'm there to smell the flowers.

A successful day on the CT, if you ask me. Great climbing, some screaming downhills and blessings from the bike and weather Gods. My beer even still had a chill in it at the top.