Biking

Salida is probably more known for its riding off of Monarch Pass along the Monarch Crest. While variations of the Monarch Crest are certainly awesome, Salida also has some great other riding options. Back in mid-Septemeber a front was passing through and I didn’t want to ride in the pouring rain, or potentially snow, in Crested Butte. I was looking for a good desert ride that was not too far away from home and the Arkansas Hills Trail System, off of the S-Mountain, fit the bill.

The first weekend in October took us to Aspen for our friend Jordan’s Wedding. With it being peak leaf time over there and the forecast looking pretty good, we planned for some adequate time for riding. Day one we landed in Hay Park outside of Carbondale. For days 2 and 3 we ended up enjoying the company of riding with our Carbondale-based friend Ann. For day 3 Ann thrilled us with a ride of epic proportions on Red Table and Basalt Mountains. Day 2, however was a bit more mellow, sticking to enjoying the fall colors while mountain biking in Snowmass on more established trails. The riding was fantastically beautiful and amazingly fun.

Mount Sopris has always fascinated me. Before I was even a backcountry skier and paid attention much to that sort of thing, Mount Sopris caught my eye. Rising over 6400 feet from Carbondale at the valley floor with it’s twin east and west summits both sitting at 12,953′, Sopris is simply the Queen of the Valley.. It’s vertical rise reminds more of what I’ve experienced while skiing volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve loved Mount Sopris for all the fabulous skiing that it has to offer, but now I love it for the biking too.

When Brittany and I let our friend Ann know that we would be in her neck of the woods for a wedding on 10/1, she said “Great, I’ve got a ride just for you!” Sounds great, we said- what do you have in mind? “Oh you know, your kind of thing.. It’s an adventure ride. No one really rides it. It should be like 30 miles and 8 hours and 6000′-vertical. I haven’t done it yet.” We thought, an 8 hour adventure ride the day after a wedding with an open bar. What could possibly go wrong?

Earlier this summer, while I was waiting for Brittany to finish running shuttle for the Monarch Crest, I started talking to some other mountain bikers on Monarch Pass. They were heading north of the pass to ride the Boss Lake Trail, which is part of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Hmmn, something new, I thought? The more I looked at it on the map, the more I wanted to add another Monarch Pass area ride to the list. Asking around a bit, the few riders who knew about it said that it was steep, rugged, and technical. Perfect.

After a great downhill to the Tincup Pass road, I had a good sized climb ahead of me back to the continental divide. Mountain biking in this area is always a trip compared to Crested Butte. In Crested Butte, everyone expects mountain bikers. Around here, people are mostly on their ATV’s, and they look at me like I just successfully landed on the moon. I had never been down the other side of Tincup pass- and it’s much harder than the East side.