The Squaw

Squaw Peak is a special road. For local high school students, it's where they go to make out before there 10 o'clock curfews. For road cyclists, especially Dan, Christian and I, it is the hillclimb. For me, it's the only place I've ever been able to beat Dan on a bike. My 23:20 ascent of two summers ago still stands as the record, but will likely fall this summer. It is a wonderful road to watch Christian rail corners like a madman, my seemingly blazing time of 6:45 (that's an average of 37mph) is peanut butter slow compared to his mad skills. Squaw Peak Road also leads to some of the best downhill mountain biking in the valley.

Which is why I decided to ride my 35 lb. dually up Squaw Peak Road today. With fat tires, full suspension, a short seatpost, and a single 36t chainring, it is definitely not built for going up. However, I've been all antsy pantsy about getting out on this bike. I converted it to a single ring and put SRAM stuff on it this winter and hadn't been off road on it since. Usually we shuttle to ride down, but the road is closed still from the winter. So I set out early this morning for a long uphill.

Cold Cold Cold
Yesterday was very warm. I assumed it would be warm this morning. It's almost May after all. 43 is the warmest it got during the ride. My toes were very cold the entire ride. 3 miles up the road, my head was so sweaty that I took my helmet off. When I put it back on to go down, it was like putting an ice box on my head.

2 Miles up, 2 to go

I had to take a break about every mile. I took some phone pics halfway up.
This is the view of the valley halfway up the road.

This is the switchback that means you're halfway up.


Suspension issues
One of the pivot bolts on the swingarm came undone on the climb up. It was only on by about one thread when I caught it. Luckily, I caught it on the way up, The bolt on the other side would probably have sheared and ruined the frame. Phew!

Finally to the top
The last hundred yards of the road go straight up. Literally. The road turns completely vertical. When I ride this on the roady, I practically crawl my bike up this part. You can't set a record time on this part, but you can definitely lose it on this part. So I walked my bike up this part. I made it to the top and started suiting up for the downhill. I only got one knee pad on...

Back Spasm
As I was pulling my second pad up, something went snap in my back. My back locked up and I couldn't bend over, it hurt to move it in any direction. So I laid on the road and hoped the pain would subside. The only position that didn't hurt my back was on my hands and knees. Finally it got good enough that I could kind of sit on my bike, although I couldn't stand straight. So I decided to ride down the trail since it would land me closer to home. As soon as I started riding the pain seemed to leave...

Finally...The Descent!
I cruised down, and for the first time ever never stopped on the way down. The trail seemed a lot more flowy this way. I hit some nice jumps - even a double - and just cruised down. I was worried about my back so I didn't ride to aggresively. Just cruised down. My legs were really tired from the climb. But I really like going downhill. Can't wait for the road to open so I can shuttle it. Then I'll be fresh for the descent.

Synopsis:
The humorous part of the ride was me laying on the road in pain. It hurt so bad but I couldn't stop laughing because of the situation. All alone on the top of the closed road. Hilarious. The climb was really fun, but really long. 50 minutes is more than twice as long as I'm used to. However, I couldn't stop smiling. Maybe it's just cause I knew the descent was coming. The descent was awesome. Much better than I remember from last year. I think I'm a much smoother rider than last year, probably because of cyclocross. All in all, I can't wait to do more. To shuttle squaw, for the resorts to open, to just ride! But I'll save the hills for a different bike.