The craziest trail I've ever ridden

Sometimes when you push your limits, it’s like going up a single stair on a staircase. You’ve reached a new level, but you know there are higher points you want to get to. Other times, you push your limits and think “Okay, I’m good. This is far enough.” Today was the latter.

I rode a trail called Highline today. I've talked a bit about trail ratings, but as a quick refresher, they go from green circle to blue square to black diamond, in increasing difficulty. This trail was a double black diamond, and it very much earns that rating. It’s the craziest trail I’ve ever ridden.

I’m sure if I did it again and again, and did other ‘expert only’ trails, it would get easier and I could then push my limits further. But I don’t think I will. I’m comfortable where I am. I’ll maybe do a trail like it again, and get better at it, and maybe in the future bike technology will evolve to where that kind of trail isn’t extreme, but right now, I have no desire to push it further. I’m good here.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved it. It was beautiful and exhilarating at the same time. It’s a unique experience to climb up to a mesa, ride around a ledge high up from the desert floor, and then down some big drops. My heart was pounding, in a good way. But I think to go further than this is to tempt fate. Perhaps I’m just getting old.

As mentioned, the trail climbs up and then winds around a narrow ledge high up on a mesa. In most places along that section, it is maybe a couple of feet wide, sometimes less. It's a singletrack in the truest sense, there was absolutely no room for more than on person at a time, widthwise. There are scrub trees and cacti on the edges, and while the drop off isn’t exactly vertical, it’s close enough to not make much of a difference. Do not fall.

With the mountain bike festival going on here, there were a lot of riders out. I timed it such that Arthur and I weren’t in the middle of a big group. He was unperturbed by the height or the narrowness of the trail. He’s pretty confident in his four paws. We met several groups of both hikers and bikers on Highline and on the trails heading back. He was popular with everyone.

He likely won’t be so popular with the forest service rangers if they see me out on the trails with a dog that is unleashed, but they have to catch me first. And I don’t think we run on the same trails.

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