Coal Bank Pass

As usual, the ride was not quite as planned originally, but it was actually a fair piece shorter than depicted. Princess decided to bail on the ride since he got a bit too much sun the day before while on the river tubing, it was painful just too look at the sunburn. Actually the death march was changed as it incorporated most of our first ride from Molas Pass and once Phil heard how mucky the last few miles of that part was, he was in agreement that we should alter the plan. We stopped short at Coal Bank Pass and headed up to Engineer trail from there rather than all the way from the Colorado Trail. It was still tough climbing for the first few miles but mostly ridable although we ran into a girl that pooh bear talked to on a rail trail the first day he was in town (he recognized her, but it took some prompting before she remembered him, we didn’t let that go unnoticed). Anyways she assured us that it would be tough for us due to the rocks ahead. There was one spot that I don’t think anybody cleaned but it wasn’t too bad. We broke out into some really beautiful vistas including that of Engineer Peak.

From the intersection with the Engineer trail it was more or less downhill back to the Phil’s Subaru for the shuttle back up to the truck at Coal Bank Pass. It was a great ride, nice single track through meadows, pine forests, and aspen groves.

We dumped out on a gravel road and Phil found a less used trail back up the ridge a bit and then down rather than a straight shot back on a gravel road.

It was only 12 miles and change with about 1400 feet of climbing although it was all above 10,000 feet. The ride only lasted about 2.5 hours but it was a great time as we descended 3100 feet total.

On a more important note, I did find some Moose Drool Brown Ale that I had first really appreciated about 4 years ago on our trip to Sun Valley ID. There has also been a few beers from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend OR that have found their way back to the camper. If you see Pooh when he gets back ask him about which chain rings go on what cranks and in what direction.

Currently Pooh and Howie have the map and are trying to figure out tomorrow’s ride. There was some statement about adding in an extra 20 mile loop that caught my ear, but Im doing my best to ignore them so I can still sleep tonight and not worry too much about ending up dead on the trail from exposure….