Ride the Rim: Intermediate Tour

We're still working on a good name for this tour. We used to have three skill levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. We eliminated our advanced tours because they weren't very popular. I think the people who want to ride hard, don't want to stop to look at animals and take rests. So, now we have Beginner and Intermediate. That doesn't really work because Intermediate sounds like it's in the middle of something, and it's not. So, with that all said here's what you have in store.

On the Experienced Tour All 12 miles is off road. You'll start out with a nice grassy pasture, followed by a pretty intense rocky, ledgy downhill. Then wander through a creek bottom and climb out via Shelley's Demise. Pedal through some more pasture (or hammer through if you'd prefer) then hit pavement for about 100 feet. Back into the woods for The Grind–a nice, long, rocky, nasty, descent into the animal area. Ride around and look at (and talk about, and photograph) rhinos, cheetahs, and wolves for a bit, then climb Hamstring Hill (Just for fun, cause we're just gonna turn around and come back down). Then we'll ride out on the Bridle Trail which regains our 300 feet of elevation in 5 small and somewhat painful climbs. Then we're back in the pastures to the descent of Shelley's Demise where we'll crank up our speed and get it to about 25 miles an hour to the base of The Switchback. This challenge hill will score you a Ride the Rim baseball cap if you can climb it without getting off your bike or putting a foot down. I know this might sound intense. It is.