Winter Riding Area - Pueblo South Shore

Joe hitting the crux slot on Hooters

Here is the official map, also go to the Southern Colorado Trail Builders website http://sctb02.org/Trailmap.html for further details. I want to put out a hardy thanks to them for some great trails, and all the hard work they have performed to get this great resource for us to all use. And please buy a Park Pass or pay the daily fee. Not only does it go for a good cause (our Park system), but there has been a rash of break ins at the free parking area.



Here is a cool 3D image from TopoFusion, some excellent software that I am trying out.




When the trails around Colorado Springs get snowed in, I start to spend my mountain bike riding time down at the Pueblo South Shore trail system located within the Lake Pueblo State Park. The trails consist of mostly mellow, and fun singletrack on the upper and lower sections. Those sections are interconnected in places by technical gullies, which vary in difficulty from a intermediate level to double black diamond, meaning wicked and scary.

The trails are composed of dirt, loose shale rock, and in the gullies, it's ledges, drops, rock slab, and a lot strategically placed rocks so that the technical moves can be completed.

My favorite way to ride the trails is to do laps up and down the gullies, going up the more moderate gullies, and going down the more difficult ones. There are some very long singletrack trails that allow you to really get some mileage in, but I always go for the technical stuff. It's like running wind sprints for a couple of hours, so it can be very tiring on the anaerobic system. Plus the technical stuff can put a good beating on the body, it takes a lot of work to maneuver the bike around doing all the moves and absorbing the jack hammering terrain.

My favorite trails are Lower Dog, Skull Canyon, Hooters Canyon, Rattlesnake, Keyhole Canyon and Bones.

I am reviewing a really nice map and guide of the area, created by Western Maps out of Colorado Springs , refer to http://www.westernmaps.net/SSLkPuebloTrails.html

Here are some short video's of the area:

Hooters Canyon, Pueblo South Shore, CO from Brian Mullin on Vimeo.




Mountain biking - Pueblo South Shore Trails from Brian Mullin on Vimeo.

Other non Pueblo video's:


Stupid Trail, Monument Colorado (higher resolution) from Brian Mullin on Vimeo.


GoPro Hero Test Video's - Monument Preserve, CO from Brian Mullin on Vimeo.

Mountain Lion on the Black Pearl Trail

I was up on one of my local trails yesterday, and they were covered with Slurpee snow. You really had to watch when you applied power to the rear wheel, else you would start to spin out. It was still easier then wind or hard pack snow so at least I was able to pedal through the snow. It was also pretty sloppy so I rode at a pretty slow speed, else you were going to get covered with crud.

Part way up on the Black Pearl trail, after I left some hikers tracks I came upon some unfamiliar tracks. They were walking up the singletrack and by the stride length they were obviously a large animal. When I got a chance to stop and look closer at the tracks, they seemed to me to be a Mountain Lions. When I got back home I was able to cross check the pictures I took, and they were a Mountain Lion's.

The Mountain Lion had walked up most of the Black Pearl trail, and I was glad it wasn't when I was on the trail! Bears and Foxes I can deal with, but Lions are another matter.

Mountain Lion attacks on humans are very rare, but they do happen. A single Mom in the LA area was killed by a Mountain Lion while out jogging in the foothills a number of years ago. The Wildlife department came out and killed the cat, and they then found out she has cub's. In typical California fashion a huge amount of money was raised for the orphaned cubs, but the children got a pittance.