Magic Camp taught by a Bear

I had a few hours to grab a quick ride today, and wasn't planning on much. Maybe just a city spin. The warm headwind, and my tired Mountain Bike legs from yesterday seemed to slow me down a bit. I headed out towards Lost Canyon, while slowly creeping on the base of Bear Divide. I've always loved Bear Divide, it's so peaceful, and the scenery is simply breathtaking. I told myself that today would be a slow ride. I would take in my surroundings, and grab a few pictures along the way. I've always gotten a bike picture at the base of the climb, but today, I decided to go above and beyond.


Sooner than I knew, I was at the Santa Clara Truck Road which apparently the locals call, "Magic Mountain". The roadway looks as if it once lead to a camp ground. The entrance signs give a mile marker of 31, and one day I'll make it to the end. These roads have long seen any sort of maintenance over the years. Even back in its prime, the roads yellow dividers don't give much room for passing vehicles on the sharp, "On the ledge" turns. 


I've only really ever ventured down this road a few miles, as it's a road that would best suit a Mountain Bike, and not a 110 psi Road Bike. Carefully maneuvering my bike up through the narrow roads, I decided it was time for an impromptu photo shoot. Since my GoPro mount wasn't functioning properly, I had to be ingenious with rocks for props. The outcome, to my surprise was better than I had expected. 


For those of you who don't know, I'm an Ambassador for Velofix Mobile Bike Shops in the USA, as well as Franchise Development. If you are interested in owning your own bike shop, or simply want to request service in your area, shoot me an email at shane@velofix.com . But enough about my shameless plugs. :)



After I went as far as I was planning on going up Magic Mountain, I turned around and braced myself for the sketchy descent riddled with rocks of all sizes. I kid you not. There are potholes that you could lose basketballs in, I was excited to use my GoPro footage for the ride back down, but with the broken mount, I recorded all the footage while biting on the GoPro while in my mouth. It was such an odd feeling. While I was flying down the mountain side, the inside of my mouth became dry as if someone had stuffed it full of cotton balls, but yet I was drooling like a rabid dog.


I headed back to Tijunja and Sand Canyon and finished the short half mile pedal to the Bear Divide picnic area. That's when I decided to finish the day out and head up to Camp 9. Camp 9 is a fire base with air support for forest fire suppression. And so I kept spinning up to see the trails of Magic Mountain slowly dissipate into the distance.


I was quite tuckered out once I had gotten to the top of Camp 9. I was about 24mi/40kms into my riding, and I was already over 4,000 feet climbed. Well, at least it was all down hill from here on out.


Once I got back to my starting point, I felt a satisfaction of "The Climb". It's such a nice feeling when you complete an epic ride on a day that started out with no route planned.