Bootleg Canyon

[nelsonccc]

Yesterday we went out to Bootleg Canyon. It was our first trip out there. We had a fun time even though that place is rocky as hell. No true casualties, though I did find myself going over the bars (in true endo style) while going down GirlScout.

We got out there at about 11ish to a nice, overcast, breezy day. Temps were at about 65 with a wind chill of probably another 5 degrees. We rode Caldera first. Lots of fun, a few spots where I was like " there is no f..ing way I'm riding down that". I was surprised at how challenging some of that stuff is. I felt like a total noob until I saw others walking their bikes up the hard stuff. We found out at the end that we had ridden Caldera backwards, so much for the help off of MTBR! But by riding it backwards we ended up having to go up some super steep stuff, alot of which we had to walk up.

When we got back to the truck a couple of older ladies pulled up in an oldsmobile and started chatting us up. After a few minutes I realized that these ladies where looking for some young beefcake. Now I'm not totally sure, but....I'm pretty sure we could have climbed into the back of that olds and had some crazy mtn bike trail sexo. What can I say, I'm like a venus fly trap for the ladies!

Then we rode down Girlscout. A total blast. Rolling hills with some nice challenging stuff. I did eat it once. I was going slow and the front tire hit a rock and stopped, which promptly threw me over the bars and into the rocks. Now there is a scratch on my new bike. Mother effer.

When we got down to the restrooms we decided to come back up Boyscout. BAD DECISION. Lots of steep, rocky hills, what can I say we're total noobs. Ended up doing this new thing I like to call Mtn Hike instead of mtn bike.

We had a lot of fun. We definately were in over our heads at one point but hey we're new and we were out!

Some stats for those of you who care...

Total mileage=7.5 miles
Max Speed=17.8 (balls out brah!)
Moving time=1 hour and 45 minutes
Moving average=4.3 mph
Total Ascent=1052 ft
Max Elev=3210

[blueeyes]

Nice report!

Do you ever ride with the Las Vegas mtn bike group? Ron Rudy is one of the organizers.

[accadacca]

Nice report n00b. Hey man you guys will have to meet us in STG soon. Hey yeah, another thread.

You guys know how to get the ladeez...

[greyhair biker]

I really enjoyed riding Bootleg last year at Interbike...except for the heat but this time of year would be perfect!

[jinx]

I must be mistaken or mis-informed, I thought that Bootleg Canyon was a big downhill-specific "point of interest". Wade, is/was it shuttle serviced in recent years? I have heard before that riding Bootleg without protection is cruising for a bruising.

[nelsonccc]

It's certainly more downhill oriented. However there are several trails that I would consider XC. There is a shuttle at the bottom that will haul bikers up to the top, which is what most people were doing, but there were probably just as many going up Girl scout and around caldera and back down West leg. I wouldn't consider myslef a big downhill guy and we had a blast. There's only 150 feet of elevation gain/loss between the saddle where we parked and down to the bottom of girlscout. The blue and green trails are more of a XC orientation, IMO. The blacks are definately straight down!



this google earth image shows the caldera loop as well as the girl scout and west leg routes. They are really nice with rolling hills and washes, a few steep sections, but mostly what I always thought was Xc. But I'm new so what the hell do I know. Maybe I'm just HARDCORE!

[greyhair biker]

I must be mistaken or mis-informed, I thought that Bootleg Canyon was a big downhill-specific "point of interest". Wade, is/was it shuttle serviced in recent years? I have heard before that riding Bootleg without protection is cruising for a bruising.

Yeop - lots o downhill, lots o room to bomb and get beat up but I was having so much fun testing bikes I didnt look at the names of the trails I came off some stuff that I shoulda had body armor on but I didnt bite it anywhere so I guess it's all good!

[nelsonccc]

Yeop - lots o downhill, lots o room to bomb and get beat up but I was having so much fun testing bikes I didnt look at the names of the trails I came off some stuff that I shoulda had body armor on but I didnt bite it anywhere so I guess it's all good!

We went back out to bootleg last night. Left work around 4, shot over to the trailhead and went up girl scout then back down then we went back up girl scout about halfway till it got too dark. We had lots of fun.

We're trying to get as much uphill pedaling in as we can before the end of april. We're doing the Whiskey 25 in prescott, az. Need to train hard! 4000 ft of elevation gain. Warrior time.