Description

If you aren't the type of rider who enjoys riding chairlifts up and brutalizing both your bike and your body as you blast back down the mountain on technical downhill trails, then consider pedaling this loop at Angel Fire Resort instead.

One dedicated climbing trail at Angel Fire claims that it will enlighten you—yes, it's named "Enlightenment." This trail will take you most of the way up the resort, depositing you in the basin below the steep final pitch.

So, you won't be able to access the highest trails in the resort unless you take the lift up, but this will still create a decent loop ride. Even though you aren't pedaling all the way to the summit, it's still a fair climb to reach the top of the Lemonade trail—about 1,200 vertical feet..

While the grades on Enlightenment are optimized with uphill bike traffic in mind, you can still expect some steep pitches.

Still, this delightful singletrack winding back and forth through beautiful aspen groves will lull you even as you're gasping up the mountain. From the end of Enlightenment, there's a myriad of options for getting back down.

The route shown here descends Lemonade to Jazz Hands, providing a high-speed rip down a series of achievable intermediate trails. Lemonade begins as an intermediate tech trail, with some natural root features and f,at corners.

However, this is one of the fastest trails on the mountain, with a few high-speed straightaways where you can quickly get going blazing fast! The high speeds continue with Jazz Hands, but this trail is marked as an intermediate "freeride" trail, due to the berms in the corners and the marked tabletop jumps along the way.

However, Jazz hands isn't nearly as jump-oriented as other "freeride" trails on the mountain.

With some high-speed sections, flowy berms, and a few root webs, it offers a great cross between natural singletrack and machine-built flow trails. Before you know it, you'll be back down at the bottom of the mountain, wondering how it took you so long to pedal up and only the blink of an eye to get back down again.

Maybe chairlifts aren't a bad idea after all.