Monarch Crest to Agate Creek

First off a correction, I knew I would screw it up, its daywalker, not tripper, sorry about that. Anyways the ride today was a shuttle on Monarch Crest trail descending Agate Creek trail to the waiting car. Monarch Crest trail is actually part of the Continental Divide trail starting at 11,200 feet. It was chilly, about 50 degrees at the start. The first part starts out on a jeep trail, then a bit of single track then a rather tough jeep trail climb up to the start of the single track after a mile and change. The disappointing factor was that we were basically riding in a cloud and although there were potential views for miles and miles, I pegged the visibility at about 100 yards, David said 200, so the truth probably lay in between.
It was still pretty wild, the Madness remarked it must be what riding in Scotland would be like.


The crest portion was about 7 miles and after about 6, the clouds lifted a bit for some decent views.

We started down Agate Creek trail with 10 more miles of single track and close to 3000 feet of descending in front of us. It was a bit on the tough side as there were plenty of rocks and roots, most of which were wet, and even if they were not, your tires probably were. After a few miles the boys had to take a break to rest their hands then on we went. Things started to level out a bit but still definitely down hill. At some point we started in with the creek crossings and I was ridiculed ferociously for the rest of the ride for walking across one, trying to keep my feet dry for a while, it was still pretty chilly out. We kept working our way down along the creek, mostly on really nice single track, a few puddles, and a couple of nasty rutted out sections. David and I heard something happen behind us and turned around to see Alex doubled over on the bike. Turns out the seatpost clamp cracked off the top of the carbon fiber seatpost and when Alex went to sit down, the seat gave way. Enough said. We took the seat post out and howie and Alex switched bikes. There was a bailout trail to the road a mile or so down which howie walked the bike out on and then took the road down to the shuttle car. The four of us continued down along the creek, crossing too many times to count. We got to one crossing and upon further examination all came to the conclusion that it would be better to walk than ride. It looked mostly ridable but there was one spot with some white water that we could just not determine how deep it was and if you buried your front tire in it, it would get really ugly. There was one other crossing that David tried that got a bit deeper than he anticipated about 2/3 of the way across, he just about lost the bike when he got stopped. We continued to freeze our feet with a few more crossings, a few technical sections that David did very well on, then back up out of the creek drainage eventually back to the shuttle car.

Reno, Flag, Bear, Deadman

That was the ride for today. It’s a good thing the boys are here, I’ve learned a lot. First I’m part ginger, that is fairskined and redhead and since I go out in the sun I’m also a daytripper, at least I think that’s the right terminology. I’ve also learned that being called a shot caller is a bad thing but being called a baller is a good thing. Ive given up on trying to figure out all their x-box game speak. Howie and I had done this ride last year with a bit of an addition. It started with a 1600 foot climb up a dirt road for a bit over 5 miles up to the Reno divide. It was rather chilly there, waiting for the madness to get up so we put on our jackets as we ate some of our fluff sandwiches. I broke another spoke on the way up for no good reason, note to self, get wheel rebuilt when I get home.
I hooked up the helmet cam and down we went, first through and along a nice alpine meadow on very sweet buff single track. There’s a few muddy spots from the motor cycles but over all a great great piece of track. I came upon david and alex stopped just up from a small tributary crossing, david with his chain in his hand, generally not a good sign. It was a pretty quick fix as I had some extra quick links, the only issue was that things were a little sandy and the link was resisting going back together. The trail took a right and headed down a rather narrow creek valley with some cool beaver dams although you couldn’t pay too much attention to them or you might be in one pretty quick. We stopped where flag creek ran into the creek we were following.

Crossing the creek got the boys feet soaked however I took a bit of an alternate crossing and remained dry. We then climbed back up about 1000 feet again along the creek then as it opened up into a larger meadow. Near the top a road crossed and we took that up a bit, maybe a half mile or so to the top of Bear Creek trail. We ran into some motorcycles that weren’t sure of their route but pretty quickly we found out they were going the same way were as we heard their roar closing on us quickly.

The trail followed the same amazing pattern, starting in a large meadow then necking down into a narrow creek valley eventually leading us to our final climb, again up another creek valley, but this time it never really opened up. More beaver dams, this time we could spend a little more time checking them out as we were mostly in granny gear working our way up.

About 800 feet of vertical later we were at the top of the ridge heading back down the 1000 feet on 27 single track switchback (we counted as we watched the helmet cam footage), really fun but a little rutted out from the motos again. Howie and I were quite thankful of the time spent in the gym exercising our fore arms and triceps as the other had to take a break or two to rest their arms and/or hands. Across the bridge and we were back at the truck. Total ride was 20 miles and at least 3500 feet of climbing, almost all about 10,000 feet. We escaped another ride without getting rained on when it looked really nasty as we drove out along cement creek.

401

Well the campground here in Gunnison CO is most excellent. There are lots of tall trees for shade and things are a little more spread out than most of the RV parks we have been too. Its only 2.5 miles from town so its not even a bad bike ride in. The mosquitoes are a bit of a pain but that seems pretty much par for the course with camping out here.

The cast of characters now stands still with Howie and I, along with his son David and new additions Paul, howie’s brother in law, Alex, howie’s nephew (Paul’s son), and the Meeker Madness, who we actually were on the original RV tour of Colorado a number of years ago with.

The ride today was the Crested Butte Classic know as 401. Its starts past Crested Butte, up a dirt road about 8 miles just outside a place know as Gothic which from the signs and all the people crawling around the meadows is some sort of biological study center with a dozen or so small buildings that I would assume house the researchers. At that point we were at about 9600 feet. Once on the bikes we continued up the dirt road about 5 miles and 1000 feet of climbing or so to Schofield Pass at the top of the valley. The trail starts there and climbs up another 500 feet or so over the next couple miles, with the first mile being pretty steep.

After the climb you head back down the valley on bench cut single track with amazing views of the valley all the way back to Mt Crested Butte. After 3 or 4 miles of that fun you get back down close to the road then head back up away from the road then back down for another 4 miles, ending up where you parked. Total is only about 14 miles, but a good ride for all the new guys’ first day at altitude.

Leaving Durango

Well today we said good by to Durango, Pooh Bear, and Princess. Our schedule had us heading to Grand Junction CO to pick up Howie’s son David at the airport there. Pooh was scheduled out as well and some things came up back at home that necessitated Princess catching a flight back as well. This was the one day of driving that I had been dreading since I first heard the itinerary. It involved heading over the mountains from Durango in Ouray. We had done this drive a number of years ago in a Winnebago type RV and I just remember it being scary, to the point I couldn’t really watch out the front (I wasn’t driving). This time I didn’t have that choice. Actually for the most part it wasn’t too bad. Its really just a matter of paying attention to those yellow signs that warn of turns and give suggested speeds that nobody in cars ever pays attention to. The only real issue was when we ran into a paving crew. They had their traffic cones all the way into our lane and at a few points there was nothing but air on the other side of the white edge line. It was a tight squeeze. We made it down, back into the high desert, going through Montrose then on to the RV park in Fruita, just past Grand Junction. I set up camp as Howie went to retrieve David from the airport. We then went out to ride a bit at the 18 road trails. We were the only ones silly enough to be there since it was 97 degrees. It really wasn’t that bad as it was pretty cloudy and there was a bit of a breeze and of course no humidity. We did the loop up Prime Cut and around and down Chutes and Ladders.

Back at the parking lot we headed up Kessel run to frontside then down Zippity Do Da. By the time we got to zippity the nice breeze had turned into a really strong wind, just in time for us to head out across the very exposed spines. We got about half way through zippity and decided to bail out and take Kessel run as we were about getting blown off the trail and Kessel was down in the wash so it was fairly protected from the wind, plus it was a blast bombing down it, up and down crossing the wash. We covered about 14 miles and were out there a couple hours.

Tomorrow its off to Gunnison to ride Crested Butte with Howie’s brother in law, Paul and his nephew Alex as well as a special guest appearance by the Meeker Madness. Well actually we don’t plan on actually riding tomorrow unless its something right in Gunnison at Hartman rocks.

Critter count went up by one when David spied this really cool looking lizard

The Almost Epic

Over the past few years I have gone from closely inspecting every ride map and elevation chart as I was the slowest/weakest rider of the group to not necessarily caring so much as my strength has increased and I’m at least sort of “mid pack.” Today was one of those days that I just stayed outta the planning. Pooh had this loop in mind the other day and we actually ran into two ladies at the coal bank pass that Pooh asked about the ride. They said it was one of their favorites and actually clued us into a piece of single track that could replace a section of road that we were planning on doing that was not on the map. For the PG blog, we’ll refer to it as the ladies trail. The loop starts at the same trail head that the Hermosa creek ride starts, Hermosa Park. The difference was we headed up the creek instead of down, this time on a nice dirt road. Howie rallied from his bruises and Princess recovered enough from his sunburn, so the whole crew was back in action. The first couple miles was pretty flat along some nice back country camping areas. I was keeping an eye on the GPS and saw that we came upon an intersection but nothing was apparent until I saw an old mining road behind us. I was pretty sure that it was what I saw on the GPS. Turns out I was wrong and it was actually the end of the “ladies trail.” A few hundred yards up the road we ran into what I actually saw on the GPS and we continued up our climb to the right. The next 6 miles or so were a reasonable climb, as I was in my middle ring for all of it. Princess yelled up to us and we turned around at one point as Howie was having some issues. Seems like he felt like his rear cog was coming loose and I had heard something amiss earlier when I passed him. We all agreed it seemed loose but nobody had a cassette lock ring tool. We tried to use howie’s leatherman’s pliers stuck into two of the spline spots to tighten it, nothing. At that point we found what seemed to be fishing line in there. We tried to loosen it, same method with the leatherman and princess holding the cassette. After a valiant attempt but ending in a shriek and princess letting go and a second attempt, same ending, it was deemed that was not gonna work. Princess came up with the ingenious idea of pulling off his chain and using it as a chain whip, wrapping it around the cassette then around the rim and tire. Worked perfectly and Pooh with his bear strength took to the leatherman, snapping the pliers end. There was really not a lot else we could try so Howie decided he could live with the issue. It got steep about 8 miles in, dropping me to my granny ring and oscillating between struggling with riding and thoughts of hopping off and walking. Pooh Bear managed to climb up through a heck of a steep section that finally took me off the bike for a couple hundred yards. We passed through an old mine area, and then rode up the last half mile.

Total of about nine miles later and about 2100 feet of climbing, we reached the Colorado Trail. There was a nice little alpine lake where we took a quick brake but due to flies and mosquitoes we got back to riding, up the trail another few hundred feet of climbing over the next mile, through some nice forest the along some nice bench cut that gave some great views of the valley that we rode up and beyond. The single track was great for the next few miles up and down finally going over the ridge away from the valley we rode up. There was a big snow field just off the trail so we had to go check it out. Pooh, Princess, and I had a heck of a snow ball fight in August, go figure. We finally called it quits as the snow in august is still really darn cold and exerting your self to throw snowballs at 11000 feet is more than you can imagine.


A couple locals passed us as we were just getting back to our bikes. We were up and down within a 100 vertical feet for the next mile on some really nice single track, just on our side of the ridge. We ran into a couple motorcycle riders where a road intersected with the trail, they where pretty cool. The trail followed the old road bed for a mile or so before going back to single track and moving back to the Hermosa creek side of the ridge. Again more exposed single track with beautiful views. It started up again and we saw it head up over the ridge.
We were hoping that this was the “big” climb but if we had really thought about it we would have realized that the big climb would be back the other way. At the top of this “pass” we ran into the locals that passed us earlier and let us know that we would go down a bit then up the real climb, about another hour of riding before we got to head back down towards the vehicle.

At this point there was seriously crappy weather all the way round us but so for now we were staying dry. Neither local had ridden the “ladies trail” but at least one of them had heard of it. The other option if we missed it was to go down to Corral Draw and hit the Hermosa creek trail a few miles down and ride back up to the truck. We got to the point where we saw where what we had to get over and I just about cried. It really wasn’t that bad and the folks from the Colorado Trail Assoc. had just done a bunch of trail work on that bench cut. Pooh Bear with is bear like climbing ability cleaned the whole climb. I on the other had did ok but walked a bit. We took a few pictures at the top while the local took off down the other side. The three of took off down while howie grabbed some pictures of us heading down. It was a bit sketchy as it was somewhat steep and the slope of the trail was a little off camber, sloping out and was a little on the loose side as it was very exposed and dried out. We made it down then watched howie on his decent. At that point is flattened out a bit was less exposed, heading down through the forest. It was a great run, waiting up for howie at a couple points. It was getting dark due to the storm clouds and we decided at one point to put on jackets and for those of us with pack covers, those as well. It started raining a little bit right after that soon turning to hail. Pooh Bear assured us that hail was actually a good sign as that meant the heavy rain was already past or something. Turned out for the time being he was right. It cleared up to some degree and we hit the road at Hotel Draw that we could take back down but the “ladies trail” was bit beyond. As we were debating and looking at the map, it stared to rain a bit so we decided to do the safe thing and head down the road. Just after that the heavens opened up and oh did it rain. It rained cats and dogs for the next few miles down the road. And boy did it get colder. We intersected with the road we came up on continuing to head down it and across Hermosa Creek, which at this point was MUCH wider than when we had crossed it earlier but not a big deal. It had pretty much stopped raining by this time and the last couple miles were rain free and it had never rained at the truck. We got cleaned up as best we could in the creek and headed out before it did start raining at the truck. Our initial plan was to stop at the pizza place at Hermosa but they were closed at it was Sunday. We made due with left over brats, hamburgers, and some chicken along with fresh corn we picked up in town.

An Epic ride is a rather personal thing, really depends on your fitness, skill, and preparedness. It also tends incorporate things like mechanical issues, weather, etc. Taking all that into account, this was almost an epic, as it had all the makings for one but we really were not that spent at the end, although Princess was really darn cold.

Back to Coal Bank Pass

Well the plan today was to do the larger loop that we didn’t do with Phil yesterday. We got an earlier start and Scott came along as our shuttle partner. Princess’ sunburn still made having a pack on too painful so he bailed. The ride started off well, we were all climbing ok, must finally be getting somewhat acclimated to the altitude. About a mile and half into the climb we were waiting for Howie at a little alpine lake. He finally rolls up and turns out he took a little spill off the trail and had a good size goose egg on his shin and his thigh was a bit bruised. We decided the smart thing was for him not to push it so he and I went back down to the truck while Scott and Pooh Bear ended up doing the loop we did yesterday.

They were back by 1:00 and Pooh was still itchin to ride some more so we went over to the dry fork trailhead and basically caught the same loop we did from the Junction Creek trailhead just less climbing to get to the loop and we did it the other way around so it really felt like a different ride. All good fun.

Sorry no pictures from today

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….