Shelf Road

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Canon City to explore Shelf Road a bit.  Shelf is world famous for rock climbing and is part of the Gold Belt scenic byway, and it seemed like a cool gravel road to ride a bike on.  Soon I want to head down to Canon and ride Shelf up to Victor, grab pizza and brews at the Headframe, then return to Canon via Phantom Canyon.  Should be a solid and scenic metric century.  But I was time limited on Saturday, so I just managed an out and back 45 miler on Shelf.

Canon has a bad rep due to all the prisons, but the trails there are top notch.  We've had fun exploring Temple Canyon and Oil Well Flats, and there are plenty of more places I plan to check out.  Not quite Salida, but it's also a 45 minute drive as compared to 2+ hours.  After my ride on Sat I dropped by to see the FAR guys, who have done incredible work over the past few years, and picked up a copy of the new Royal Gorge adventure guide.  Lots of riding and running and hiking and rafting to be done down in Fremont County.

Good ride on Sunday as well, 20 miles from the house to Fossil Brewing via Red Rock Canyon, the Chutes, Cheyenne Canon, Buckhorn, and Cap't Jacks.