Strawberry Jam – Downhill riding at Granby Ranch

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Strawberry Jam – Granby Ranch – Grand County Colorado

Day 3 – Feature riding of the week was at the Granby Ranch Downhil Bike Park. Basically the ski trails under the main Quad chair lift were now downhill bike trails. A lift ticket gets you all day trips up the mountain and you ride downhill. Awesome concept as I did not have to climb any vertical. So I rode up and down about twenty times. It was great fun, and more work than I thought as I started cramping up with muscles not normally used often of rides. Standing on the pedals and using the brakes so often made the hands and quads rather sore. I soaked in the hot tub at the end of the day and definitely plan to come back. My favorite downhill trail was ‘Strawberry Jam’. Tightly banked turns and really fun terrain. I would have renamed this ‘laugh out loud’ cause this trail was like a carnival ride.

Day 4 – Rain coming down most the day. Ended up napping, nursing sore muscles, and bing watching the SyFy channel. It’s Shark Week!

Above – Aspen stands for many trails meander downhill.

 

Above, – sections of deep woods with shade.
View from the backside of the peak atop the ski area/bike park. The camera cannot capture the immense space ahead.
Above – specially fitted racks. They don’t appear able to carry fat bikes though.
Above: 10 steps off the chair, you can hop of the bike immediately and begin downhill.

 

Above: Trails were marked like ski trails with relative difficulty. These are blue/black trails down.

 

Ahead – jumps at the top of some black trails.
Above: view of the valley below from the top of the chair lift.
Recent rains brought out the flowers, and mud. Several sections rutted but otherwise in good shape overall.
The modern conveniences a la bike. A real treat to spend all day riding downhill.

 

Above: riding out of a shady aspen stand.
Looking down from the lift chair, onto two huge kicker jumps below.
Above: chairlift view of a gnarly rocky section in the trees.

 

Above: chairlift view of this man-made ramp. The bottom was almost too soft but good enough to runout your speed.
Another chairlift shot of this yahoo feature.
Above: Strawberry Jam section. This was an easy section.
Above, the view is always good when you face downhill.
Above: Aspen everywhere and meadow like hillsides.

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