Earlier this year we had a chance to share a day of mountain biking with a visitor from southwest Colorado. She told us about the great mountain biking trails in Cortez, Colorado, and we knew we would have to visit this place.

As spring rolled around and the snow retreated we found ourselves in Cortez and riding the well-designed “Phil’s World” system of trails. These trails were designed for mountain bikers and flow with the contours of the land. While the terrain is truly hilly, there are few tough hills to climb. An interesting aspect of these trails is the one-way flow of traffic. This allows the trails to remain narrow since all traffic flows in the same direction and groups do not pass by each other — although faster groups will pass slower groups in the same direction.

Since we started our riding day early we were able to ride the trails with few other riders out and about. This gave us a feeling of isolation instead of the normal congestion of many popular trail systems.

Our favorite section? Rib Cage! Described as “…a highlight of the system for its whoops and spines and a thrilling series of jumps, banked turns and steep drops. It’s an exercise of inertia and physics performed on a bicycle…”

Congratulations and Thank-You to all those who helped to conceive, develop, and maintain these trails.