Broken Mesa

A Tuesday afternoon with not much going on so I headed to the Broken Mesa trail. There was a fire there about a year ago and I haven't been up since then. The trail is much easier as a shuttle but I didn't have anybody to go with me so I rode up the dirt road and made it into a loop. Total mileage 16+. It started sprinkling at about mile 3 and didn't let up until I was nearly done.
This ride links to the Ice House trail that I will get to a little later.



At the trail head I could see that no one had been on this trail in some time. It was overgrown and with the fire killing off most of the grass and trees the water runoff had really done some damage. Lots of loose rock.
At the top of the switchback climb they have built up a dirt ramp to take you over the water pipes headed back to town. You can see the concrete pipe on the left and the newer steel pipe that took it's place.





Looking west at Red Mountain. Scroll back two posts ago to get the ride report on that trail.



I took a little video for you, the views on this ride are absolutely spectacular. None of the photos or this video do it justice. You can hear the wind blowing pretty hard and sorry for the quality I am using the camera that my wife deemed unsuitable for her use.





OK, to get off Broken Mesa you have to descend the Ice House trail. It derives it's name from the road that the pioneers made up the side of the hill. In the fall they would drive empty, specially sealed wagons up the mountain to Pine Valley, fill them with water and leave them until they froze solid. They would then bring the wagons back down the hill and put them in a special barn or "ice house," cover them with hay and would have ice for most of the summer. This next picture shows the trail cut into the side of the hill. This sucker is steep and nasty, I can't imagine who thought this would be a good idea. To ride this down you better bring your "A" game and have your stuff wired pretty tight.




To sum it up, the trail conditions were deplorable and the weather was wet, windy and cold and as I said before the scenery is really good so I had a great time.
What is it about adversity that makes men feel like they are doing something worth doing?