Kingston Peak and Central City riding

Kingston Peak (353.1) has been on my list for quite some time now. And the DRZ is the perfect bike to get up the couple of rocky hill climbs. The trail tops out just under 12,000’, so this will also be a good test for the carb at higher elevations.

This is near the top of Mammoth Gulch Road (CR 4-N).

At the bottom of the first hill climb.

At the top of the first hill climb, I met some guys that were wrenching on their bikes. The KTM had rattled out a bolt, and I just so happened to have some spare bolts and washers in my toolkit that they used to replace the one that fell out. Guess it’s not just KLRs that vibrate bolts out.

Looking South you can see the second hill climb. The valley is Georgetown, I think.

The mailbox.

I rode down off of Kingston, through Saint Mary’s, and to Yankee Hill (175.3H). Yankee Hill is less rocky than Kingston, but it’s steeper for sure.

This thing’s actually pretty serious! It took some effort to keep the front end down, and that’s with my giganto gas tank. I rode up and down this probably five times, taking a variety of routes up and down it.

Notice how my kickstand is expertly placed on that rock? I learned how to do that about 30 seconds before this picture was taken.

After farting around on Yankee Hill, I headed East to Central City. I don’t know the exact route I took (though my GPS probably does) because there is a large number of interconnected trails down this way. Definitely need to come back and explore more.

Once in Central City, I headed up 119 to Pickle Gulch (718.1). There are a couple short hill climbs that I wanted to hit. Maybe it’s because I was tired and my riding was lousier than usual, but the second one seemed steeper and looser than Yankee Hill. On my first try I couldn’t keep the front down and ended up headed off-trail so I bailed. Paying more attention to keeping the bike on the trail, I got it on the second or third try. Note that there are go-arounds for both hill climbs.

After the hill climbs the trail mellows out and becomes rockier, though with small rocks this time. I believe the picture below was taken on 717.1.

I followed 717.1 to 411.1 and headed to Gamble Gulch Rd. Along Gamble Gulch Rd. there is an old mining complex. Pretty cool to see the old buildings and tailing piles.

At this point, I’m pretty much cooked. I get on 119 and take 72 back towards home.