We had an EPIC weekend. It was great to escape from the big city and get back into the high country, it just feels right! We rolled into town late and got camp setup, we ended up staying up Slate River Road in the national forest campsites. It was absolutely gorgeous being camped right in the valley!
 |
| At the top of Monarch Pass, we will be back for the Monarch Crest trail later!! |
 |
| Lo uses her gymnast skills to cross a creek |
Our first day was a combination of 4 trails: Reno, Flag, Bear creek, Deadman's gulch. This turned out to be a 20 mile, 3500 ft day.
Reno/flag/bear/deadman strava
The loop was made up of 3 big climbs and 3 big descents. The first climb up (Reno) was a long one, but it was easy going on a well maintained road and had spectacular views of the backside of the butte. Going down Flag was fast and flowy through high country meadows. We soon had smiles plastered to our faces and were ready for the next climb.
 |
| Our newly made group works its way through the mud |
The middle climb was the easiest, rolling up and down through meadows made it almost fun!!! Going down Bear creek was an absolute BLAST! The trail was very well built, fast, flowy, rock gardens, drops and so on. Everybody was having fun, and at this point we had mixed in with another group from Durango and picked up a long time local. All around smiles at the bottom. How lucky are we!
Right about the time we started to climb the final stretch, it began to rain pretty good. The dusty trail then started to stick to the tires like wet flour, sucking up pebbles with it. Needless to say, it made for a slower climb up. But we all conquered the climb and regrouped at the top for the Deadman's descent. The trip down was a slippery and rutted out 37 switchbacks. Rough on the wrists! One river crossing at the bottom and we were off the trail.
 |
| Yes, that's a tamale in my burrito. |
We then hit town to grab some food and check out the bike festivities. It is said that CB has the original bike festival (and mountain biking was invented there) so we wanted in! There was a 24 hr cruiser crit, which we did a few laps of. We hit up a small Mexican restaurant for some tasty eats after a hard days ride and just enjoyed the small town.
 |
| Sunset time |
 |
Sean and Tony reach the top
|
The next day we hit the famous Trail 401. I had ridden this before and wanted to share the experience with my friends! This is best ridden as a loop, you ride up a dirt road from the little town of Gothic to the top of Schofield Pass. Then its a steep climb to the top of the trail and pretty much all downhill from there!
401 strava
 |
360* of awesome from the top
|
 |
Headed back down!
|
 |
| Funky little bridge stretch |
No comments:
Post a Comment