Sunday, February 28, 2010

Taking A Road Not Taken Before

Decisions, decisions. I could either watch the gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada or I could go for a bike ride. Not a difficult choice at all--and I really like hockey. But I'll spare you what I think about the Olympics.


I decided to check out the Children of the Sun Trail (map in PDF) that parallels the North-South Corridor. Right now it only goes from Farwell Road to Freya about 1/4 mile south of Gerlach.

At the point the trail crosses Fairview, I got curious about where Fairview would lead me and decided to take a detour and see. The gradual climb turned steep near the top where I found what appears to be a "Lion King" themed yard. There are other animals I'm not showing here. The "Entrance" and "Parking" signs are weathered. I have no idea what the story is here. Two alpacas watched over me as I explored.






The sword in the stone didn't fit the theme, but it looked pretty cool.


Continuing on, I crossed over the hill and screamed down to Stoneman. That speed limit is a recommendation, right?

I turned around and headed back up and over to the trail. This was my second ride since last October so the climbs were...how to say this politely...frickin' arduous. If gasping for air makes you climb faster then I reached the top in record time. I figure I have an excuse since I had still and video camera gear in my panniers. And the batteries were fully charged which makes all the difference in the world.


View Fairview in a larger map

This would be a good leg of a club ride, especially if you like hills, scenery, horses, and dogs that don't chase you even though they have a clean shot. Some Mastiff-like beast let me pass with nothing more than a warning bark and a German Shepherd couldn't be bothered to look my way.

I zipped down the hill back to the trail and continued to the south end. From there I shot video of the trail back to Farwell. It took me 12 minutes to ride. For your sake I trimmed the video down to under three minutes. The paved asphalt trail is easy to ride with gentle climbs. There are a couple of sharp turns that are at the bottom of descents and are not designed for higher speeds so be mindful of that. And it's ugly.



I got home a few minutes after Sidney Crosby won the most exciting game ever in the history of hockey for Canada in overtime. Maybe, but there is no instant replay of a bike ride.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dingos got my baby!

That trail could use some shrubbery.

Ken Paulman said...

The sculptor is Bill Sanders. He's got quite a story: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/may/03/creatures-with-character/?print-friendly

Hank Greer said...

Thanks, Ken. I found more on Bill by Colin Mulvaney.