This ride was done with a large group of mountain bikers, many from the Front Range Mountain Biker Yahoo Group. We parked just south of the town of Buffalo Creek on Hwy 126 where it intersects the Colorado Trail.  We gathered a group of 14 riders and then headed NE up the CT (back towards Denver).  This route is generally easy, with lots of rolling hills, great views, and just a bit of sand to liven things up. 

We took a spur trail that leads to a place called Chair Rocks, which is an outstanding viewpoint with lots of exposed rock to climb around on.  After a short break, we returned to the main CT trail, split up our group (some wanted to go ride the other way on the CT across Hwy 126).  I stayed with the group going further down the CT towards the South Platte, and we rode for about another 45 minutes (there is one minor climb to deal with) until we found a spot just before the trail really starts to descend into the South Platte valley.

The return trip was a bit of a climb nonetheless, although there are some extremely fast sections of singletrack just before you reenter the forest fire burn zone (and back out into the heat).  The final few miles were uneventful as we all made it back in one piece.  The total mileage was 16.5 miles.

After the trip we repaired to the Buck Snort Saloon up above the sod huts of Pine for some excellent food in a rustic setting.  There we learned about one of the guys on the group that split away from us had an accident that sent him to the hospital.  Last we heard it was a knee injury requiring stitches.  Hopefully everything turned out alright.

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