The local tourist center directed us to a B&B that also rented bikes. They weren’t the most desirable bikes and they certainly had their issues. Still, they were bikes. And off we went to experience St. Pierre.

Fully living up to gaper-status.

View of St. Pierre as we headed north out of town.

Exploring a side road to the north, we stumbled upon a system of hiking trails.

Some trails were well traveled, others were not. We went for a short hike.

View of St. Pierre.

The higher elevation areas of St. Pierre are dotted with lakes.

Me with St. Pierre in the background.

The road to the north quickly dead-ended, so we headed back through the town of St. Pierre.

We then followed a road heading southwest. From the viewpoint at Cap aux Basques.

This road too eventually ended at a point on the island.

But we couldn’t help exploring the point further for some great views.

The island of Miquelon-Langlade is in the distance.

We then headed back to the town of St. Pierre, just in time to see a wonderful sailboat coming into the harbor.

We were sad to say goodbye to St. Pierre the following day. The French food and the French way of life are easily missed. But, it was time to head back to Newfoundland!

The map below shows our general biking route. The pink line marks our first ride north out of town. We then turned around, following our original route back into town. From there, we headed south west out of the town of St. Pierre, following the more southern route marked in yellow. We followed this to the end, and then followed the same road back until it split, at which point we took the more northern route.

View looking across the harbor at the island of Marins. It once housed a fishing village of 600 people, but is now a ghost town.

Memorial for those lost a sea.

Church.

Even on a rainy day St. Pierre gleams bright.

A trip to the Musée Héritage was fun and educational at the same time.

Old St. Pierre.

The museum had a big display on the history of fishing on St. Pierre.

Salting fish.

The famed St. Pierre guillotine is on display there. This guillotine was used in the late 19th century after Joseph Néel was convicted of killing Mr. Coupard. It is the only time that a guillotine has been used in North America. The people of St. Pierre disliked it so much the decided to never use it again.

A glass casing from a lighthouse.

View of the harbor from the museum.

We seized up the opportunity to really experience St. Pierre by renting bikes and riding around the island. But, that’s another TR

You might be asking yourself, “Why describe such an awesome ride, why not keep it to yourself?”. One answer is that this trail is far from everything- the closest towns are Lake City and Creede, neither of which is known for mountain biking, so the trailhead is a couple of hours away from any town with a bike culture- namely Gunnison and South Fork. The other, and more important answer, is that this trail is threatened by Wilderness designation, an absolute travesty in my mind given the fact that the area is heavily grazed by both cows and sheep, and will continue to be even after Wilderness designation. Ride this trail, and then scream bloody murder to your representatives. IMBA is (hopefully) on the case. Here’s the proposed Wilderness map:

I’d like to offer up some advice to anyone heading out this way. This trail takes you out there. You’ll be exposed to bad weather for a long time, there are very few escapes, and some of the escapes will take you to Silverton- a long way from the trailhead which is closer to Creede. In addition to whatever you usually bring, I’d add a water filter, lighter/matches, warm clothes, and even a headlamp. Also, keep in mind that the Cataract ridge trail is new as of 2009- this is something neither of our maps showed, nor did any of us know. We easily spent an hour completely confused by our outdated maps. Here’s a new map and website with more maps for more clarity:

On to the good stuff. The trailhead is located at the West end of the Rio Grande Reservoir, at the marked Lost Trail trailhead. The trail is currently under construction and marked “closed-impassable”, but a group of dirtbikers had just finished their ride and confirmed our suspicions that the trail was fine, and only impassable for ATV’s. Lost Trail climbs steeply and is a wide ATV trail, which made it easier to gain the 2,000′ or so to treeline.

You could see the last part of Lost Trail for a while, and it was every bit as steep as it looked:

At least this Eagle kept us company:

The hike-a-bike finished off our elevation gain to reach treeline, and we wouldn’t see trees again until the sun was going down. We made the turn onto the Colorado Trail (CT) and the quality instantly ramped up a few notches. Danny:

Chad:

We reached the top of the first climb, the CT’s high point and started down towards Cataract Lake. Chad:

NW Pole Creek Mountain:

Danny:

Cataract Lake and Sunshine Peak (right):

Chad and Cataract Lake:

Danny and Chad nearing the top of the 2nd climb. There were at least 4 climbs on the CT section; some big, some small; some with hike-a-bike, some without.

Chad:

Danny:

Handies Peak:

American Peak:

Danny checking out Niagara Peak. Needless to say, we were scopiong some winter lines out here:

Chad:

Sheep Mountain in the foreground, Vestal left, Arrow right:

Danny:

Chad:

Danny:

Trail:

Danny:

Chad, Danny, Sheep Mountain:

Finally, we reached West Pole Creek. The CT continues to Stony Pass and onward to Silverton from there. West Pole Creek seems like the best option to drop off the CT, although Middle Pole Creek also has a trail. We ran into an equestrian here and he explained the situation with the recent trail re-route, and let Danny and Chad use his water purifier (I still had some).

Danny on the final descent. It was sad to leave, but the light was fading fast and it was time to start heading to the car. West Pole Creek is a fun descent with a bit of everything, but it does have some boggy sections and cows.

The light was amazing as the sun went down:

Danny taking one last look at where we’d been:

As you can probably tell, we were about to become officially “nighted”. No matter, we had about an hour remaining on the Stony Pass road (FS520) before we’d get back to the start. I can’t speak for Danny or Chad, but I was so stoked I didn’t even care. We even had some moonlight to guide our way. The main concern at that point was getting some dinner. Since we got to the truck around 9pm, we assumed nothing in Creede, about a half hour away, would still be serving food. So, we hightailed it towards home, likewise thinking nothing in Lake City would be open either. We rolled into Lake City a bit before 11pm and the sign at Mean Jean’s coffeehouse said “Open”. We rolled in and they were kind enough to serve us some delicious Chicken Fajita Burritos despite the fact it was just minutes before they were hoping to close. Turns out Jean isn’t so mean after all.

Thanks, Jarret, for staying on my case to ride this thing!

By the numbers: 36.3miles, 5hr, 55min ride time, 10 hours out (much of it looking at a map). The numbers tell the story- there is some elevation gain to be had, at altitude.

Help 14erskiers and yourselves out: All ‘09 Sombrio Must Go – $25 Or Less, Limited Inventory. Valid While Supplies Last.

Pete Sowar:

Views from the top:

And the video:

12,201′ from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

Support 14erskiers.com by shopping the Semi Annual Sale – Women’s The North Face Denali Jacket Only $82.48 & Free Shipping (Regular Price $165) At Backcountry.com. Expires 9/7/2010

Photo from Graphic Guide

How exactly just two small islands off of Newfoundland remained part of France is kind of a weird one. But, it’s likely that the French partially kept the islands in order to maintain fishing rights in the area. St. Pierre is rich with 500 years of fishing history.

Shoreline shortly after leaving Fortune.

The fishing boats are the sea gull’s best friend.

A whale came to say hello.

And then there was the changing of the flags – from Canadian to French.

The area near St. Pierre is dotted with dozens of small islands like this.

France.

I was having fun

The harbor on St. Pierre.

The ferry coming into dock, two days later. We were taking it back to Fortune.

This time, we were not so lucky with the weather.

You can get a feel for the turbulence of the sea by watching this short video.

Growing up on the coast of Lake Erie, ferries and boats of all kinds were a regular mode of transport for me as a kid. But, being land-locked in Colorado for so many years has changed that. Being on this ferry again has made me realize how much I miss the big open water

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.” – Kate Chopin, The Awakening. It certainly speaks to mine.

The ride begins on a fairly steep road.

Yep, that’s a Mennonite.

The road takes us to the single track.

Except most of it’s hike-a-bike.

With a bit of riding.

But, as the up goes up, the views get better and better. Tomichi Pass.

Views from the summit. San Juans in the distance.

Castle.

Tomichi Dome with San Juans in the distance.

Mt. Ouray

Valley below.

Time for some riding!

Frank’s shot of me from his helmet cam.

Frank.

Some air!

Nope, he didn’t fall

Frank’s helmet cam video from the day.

Whitepine Canyon Creek from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

The trail ends at the Whitepine campground which is where we camped for the night.

And found ourselves surrounded by a wonderful stream

and raspberries.

Yum!

The next day, we headed out to ride near Marshall Pass!

On Sale – Up To 40% Off Women’s Mountain Bike Jersey’s At HucknRoll.com. Valid While Supplies Last.

Mt. Ouray:

There were large areas of downed Aspen trees along the road. Our guess was that a windstorm had swept up the valley, knocking down trees of similar aspect as it went. Unless anyone else has some guesses…

We cruised up Marshall at a nice easy pace in a couple of hours and found ourselves at the top of Starvation Creek, along with several other parties. The word is out- Starvation is where it’s at. Brittany:

Frank:

Starvation Creek dumps you out on the Otto Mears Toll Road, where a left hand turn will take you back up to Marshall Pass. We took another break at the top and this extremely bold little fox begged for food as we ate our sandwiches.

We went “backwards” up the Continental Divide Trail, thankful that it was now afternoon and the hordes of Monarch Crest Riders had long come and gone. We reached the start of Agate and our final descent of the day. Brittany:

Frank:

Rocks are less bumpy when you levitate.

One of the nice features our GoPro Helmet Cam has is the ability to take photos, and one of the settings is one photo every 3 seconds. While not all of these shots were great, I thought a number of them had a great effect. Brittany:

Frank crossing one of the many famous (or infamous) crossings of Agate Creek:

Vehicles that don’t make it on Monarch Pass end up down here on Agate:

Agate is a great trail, but at the end the trail is one river crossing after another and it can get old. This is followed by a steep exit back up to Monarch Pass in order to avoid private property. This is unfortunate, since it leaves a bad taste in the mouth after such an otherwise great trail. In any case, we coasted down a couple miles of Monarch pass back to Sargeants for a ride time of about 6 hours and a little under 50 miles. This is a great figure 8 loop and I highly recommend it. Check out our video for more:

Starvation Creek to Agate Creek from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

St. John’s

Newfoundland & Labrador

Cape Spear

Signal Hill

More trip photos and stories coming soon

But, if you look a bit closer, you’ll find the real beauty that Fortune has to offer.

One of my favorite scenes of the day – boat houses.

Dry docks.

My favorite boat, for obvious reasons

Islands in the distance.

Shoreline.

Fortune has a population of about 2,000 people.

With a history linked back to fishing, those lost at sea are deeply remembered.

We were in Fortune to catch the ferry over to St. Pierre, an island that remains a colony of France.

Last view of the Fortune harbor from the ferry.

Next up- ferry ride and wonderful St. Pierre!

The day was foggy, making views more obscure, but perhaps a bit more interesting.

The sea, crashing against the rocks of the most eastern point in North America.

A historic lighthouse sits on the park site.

The old lighthouse.

From the old lighthouse, the new lighthouse could barely be seen as the fog rolled in. Notice the green light?

The fog horn blew about every 40 second or so. Here’s a video clip, capturing the sound that has comforted many seaman in the past. Notice the echo it left, which went on for about 10-15 seconds after the actual horn blew.