{"id":9462,"date":"2014-08-06T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T04:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=9462"},"modified":"2014-08-06T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T04:54:16","slug":"beatdown-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/beatdown-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatdown Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every single time I ride this trail, it beats me up. It’s long, there’s hike-a-bike, it’s high altitude, there are wild roses and sagebrush that make my legs look like I fight cats for a living. Every time I ride this trail, I feel exhausted- but happily so. You see, it’s my favorite local trail, and has been for a long time.<\/p>\n

Normally, we’ll ride up the Deadman switchbacks and across the Julie Andrews trail. This time, Brittany and I were feeling good, so we descended Deadman’s all the way to Rosebud Gulch for a bonus descent.
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With all the rain we’ve been having, the trails were mostly tacky, with a few puddles along the way. The flowers are still out in force.
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Looking down the Roaring Judy drainage:
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I always look forward to this part of the trail, with some technical moves and a bit of exposure:
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This is when the trail gets amazing. Twists and turns through the aspens, fast and furious and dropping steeply for a long, long way- it’s the payoff after a long uphill to get there.<\/p>\n

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Out of the aspens and into the sage:
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I mixed things up a little, and took some video, hoping it would show the true adventure nature of this trail. Check it out:
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