Virginia Range Adventure Ride

April 24 2022 

I don't usually post about day rides. But here's an exception. For some reason I had always considered Ophir Grade a route to be reckoned with. I don't know for sure where that came from but perhaps from a Foresty Forest Instagram post from his nothing-short-of-heroic desert oddessy, the Western Renegade bike route in, I think 2017? In reality it was quite tame. In fact almost all of the climbing on this ride was quite tame. As long as you're going counter-clockwise. That bears repeating, AS LONG AS YOU'RE GOING COUNTER-CLOCKWISE.

The real story here is primarily the historic nature of the Virginia City mining district and from a riding perspective the descent back down to Centennial Park, which in my case was the starting/ending point. Passing from modern Centennial Park with it's golf, frisbee, baseball etc, etc, etc, into historic Silver City, Gold Hill and Virginia City just over the the hill is really quite the contrast. Leaving Virginia City climbing up Ophir grade you get into high meadows, aspen groves and springs going up and over McClellan peak.

The descent. Ahh, it's all downhill from here, right? Dropping down Goni rd isn't noteworthy but after a couple miles I deviated off on a jeep track. What a wild ride! The first really steep section I actually walked maybe 30 yds until I could get off the track into the just as steep but not as loose terrain on the side of the track. Baseball sized cobble completely filled the track and with the steep grade was just incredibly loose. No good line to be had. I rode the shoulder down a couple hundred more feet and got back in the track. Even in the less steep sections it was still like riding loose baseballs for miles. I rode the rest but the GPS track shows it went over 30% grade. 

All in all this was a really good adventure ride.