Not sure why I like riding in the Deckers area as much as I do but...I do. Probably because I get to ride right next to the river for most of the day but there's also a lot of good options out there too (plenty of ATV trails and there's that one Colorado Trail, not to mention all of the shady people growing marijuana out in the hills). Today I stuck to a bit of pavement and then a good chunk of moist fire roads.

This was the start of about an hour straight worth of climbing. I was a little worried but I was able to ride it all even though a chunk at the end was done so at an alarmingly slow pace (more on this in a bit).

After topping out on the climb, I was rewarded with this.

Cool old Ford truck. I'm sure it would fire right up.

This part of the climb put the hurts to me in a big way. It was 15%. Shortly after this I started having my first bit of trouble with the El Mariachi. The rear cog was looser than a thrift store turtleneck. Luckily, it was all downstream or flat back to the car so I was able to limp it on in. I needed another spacer to tighten things up. It was tight before I left so the only thing I can think of is that my brute strength shrunk the thickness of the spacers. I'm quite strong.