The Colorado trail race. 530 miles. 60,000′ of vertical gain. Get on your bike outside of Denver, ride it until Durango on the Colorado Trail (with some detours due to wilderness areas). No support, no entry fee, no help if something goes wrong. Check it out: link1
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I’ve got a couple of friends doing it this year- Ethan Passant and Alison Gannett. The more I think about it, the more I think I might want to do it next year in a twisted kind of way.
It’s certainly fun to think about riding all that amazing singletrack. And equally interesting to think about all of the logistics- there are only a few towns where you can re-load on food and other supplies, and everything else, like camping gear, you need to take with you. No fancy HID lights here, there’s no way to re-charge them (except perhaps one of those little backpacker solar panels, hmmmn?)– most will go with regular batteries and headlamps.
Anyway, maybe next year. Until then, good luck to Alison and Ethan!!
****Postscript: Ethan won!!! Alison unfortunately got sick in summit county and is waiting for next year.
