A Ride Up Humboldt

I hadn’t been to the top of Humboldt Mountain in about 4 years, so when James said he wanted to go, I quickly agreed. Yesterday’s core workout left my legs and glutes a bit sore, but I wasn’t going to pass up on this ride. It’s a very challenging, and interesting, ride in that there are about 16 miles (8 there and 8 back) of a washboard dirt road that needs to be covered before getting to the base of the climb. The peak of Humbolt sits at around 5200 feet and has a fire lookout out tower and an aviation radar that we call, “The Golf Ball.” We started our journey at about 5:00AM from about 1900 feet. Kyle was riding his usual carbon fiber Fuji road bike, I was riding my old aluminum Klein road bike, and James decided to take his Gary Fisher 29er for a spin. After about an hour of riding on black top through Cave Creek and Seven Springs, we came to where the dirt road began. It’s a fairly well packed road, but it has tons of washout, washboards, and rocks. Aside from these obstacles, another nuisance is that if you don’t stay seated during some of the climbs, your back tire will spin out.

Theres our destination!

Pavement, meet Dirt. Dirt, meet Pavement:

Almost there! You can now clearly see the "Golf Ball" at the top:

After about 8 miles, we finally arrived at the base. The road up is paved, but has numerous pot holes, sink holes, cracks, and plenty of debris. You know you’re in for a treat when the climb STARTS out in the easiest gear and you’ve got about 4 or 5 miles to go. I quickly realized that there was a small issue with my back derailleur when I tried to get into that easiest gear, but it kept slipping back down to the next easiest. The only thing I could do was to throw my shifter (this bike uses SRAM Force) as far left as I could and then actually hold it there. It was definitely awkward, but I did what I had to do. My Garmin says that my speed was staying between 4.5 mph and 8 and that the gradient was between 8% and 25%. Once at the top, you are greeted by that fire lookout, the Golf Ball, and beautiful views of Horseshoe Lake and the surrounding valley. We snapped some pics, refueled, and enjoyed the moment before heading back down. Since James was on his 29er, he was absolutely FLYING down the mountain (he said that his Garmin showed a top speed of 42). Keep in mind what I told you about the condition of this road, it’s an accident waiting to happen at those speeds! Fortunately he made it down safely. I can’t say the same for my rear blinky light. It must have been one of the many bunny hops I did over pot holes that unclipped it from the saddle bag and shatter on the road. I didn’t know anything about it until Kyle met us at the bottom with both pieces in his hand. Overall, this is a GREAT ride, but one that I can feel satisfied doing once every year or so. Here is the link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178155140

The fire lookout and the Golf Ball up close:

We made it: