Hike & Bike Surprise & O-Uv... 3rd Time's A Charm 18Aug19-19Aug19

Kala led me through a hike up Surprise Trail over in the Natl Forest directly from the house. The network of trails near us is much bigger than I knew and it's all been recently marked with the help of the Summit MTB Club. We'd tried 2 prior times to take the route Kala finally found - the errors were taking a bridge too soon rather than one 50 fit further on the creek... sheesh. The the 4.3mi/600ft vert result is keen views of Frisco and the Lake from the ridge aligned with I70, a walk through awesome new growth pine forest and more.

The hike was great and spurred me to mostly repeat it - but on my Broadaxe. I went down Warden, over Sluice, up So-Uv, down Surprise, up bushwhacking and up Warden. I went a bit further and higher and lower than the hike and was basically in reverse on the looping part. The trail is rock-strewn and not too comfy on the hardtail but doable. It was good to be back on the bike but I'm none too fit or healthy for such endeavors as the 5 miles and 800ft took me an hour, and a number of stops.