Monarch Crested Beauty

My annual fall trip to Colorado always begins with the Monarch Crest Trail. Some say it's over-rated, but I say it's hard to argue with a ride that covers 36 miles, 9 of which are above tree-line, has forever views, and a net elevation loss of 7,800 feet!





After traversing the Crest, the trail drops into the Silver Creek drainage which is fast, flowy, and beautiful. You can get some serious MPH going here.



After Silver Creek comes Rainbow Trail - lots of ups and downs and ins and outs through the trees and wildflowers, with incredible views around every corner.



I flashed this ride in less than 4 hours this year - I was having too much fun to go any slower!

After the ride I drove over to Gunnison and got ready for another biggie.


Reno-Flag-Bear-Dead is one of Crested Butte's most popular looped rides, covering 20 miles with 3,400 feet of climbing. The name is shorthand for Reno Divide Road to Flag Creek Trail to Bear Creek Trail to Deadman's Gulch Trail.

The ride starts with a long and steep climb up Reno Divide Road, past this fixer-upper with a view:



Then a long descent on Flag Creek trail. If you like motorcycle ruts and cow shit, you'll love this trail.



I know that most of the trails around Crested Butte were built by motos, but the conditions there don't support the amount of traffic they are getting.

I finished the Flag Creek descent and started up Bear Creek.



Notice the 2 big fresh cow pies in the trail. The first of hundreds. The stench of cow shit was everywhere, accompanied by hordes of biting flies. The only break from this during the long climb was the noise, exhaust fumes, and dust from passing motorcycles. Maybe it was my mistake for hitting this popular loop on a Sunday, but I saw more cow shit and motos in one afternon than I have seen in 10 years of riding in New Mexico. I won't be doing this "classic" again.



Next up was another new-to-me Crested Butte classic, the famous 401 trail. A long climb followed by a long descent. What could be better?

The climb was manageable, and the summit was attained.






Time for the descent. This one lived up to its reputation - fast, steep, and amazing scenery. Too much fun!



I'm sorry to say that the lower section of this trail also had tons of cow shit everywhere. Corporate welfare for America's "ranchers". Grrrr....


Time for an easy ride in anticipation of one last big one. I'm no spring chicken anymore (was I ever?) and riding many days in a row starts to wear me down.

I headed out to the trails on lower Brush Creek road - Canal Trail, Strand Hill, and Farris Creek. I was expecting to be down in the sagebrush and hot sun, but was happily surprised to find myself on twisting swoopy trails in a golden aspen forest, giddy with the joy of riding a bike through the trees on a brand-new trail!



That was FUN ! !



My last day. And a fateful one. I headed out for the Doctor Park loop from the Taylor Reservoir road south of Crested Butte. I had read thru the guidebook description many times, and opted to bring just my topo map, as the guidebook did not fit well into my hydration pack.

I headed up Spring Creek Road, a beautiful long but low-incline climb up a beautiful canyon with huge cliffs and spires on either side, gradually opening up into a wide valley. Having no odometer or GPS, I watched for landmarks mentioned in the guidebook.



Long story short - I missed a well-hidden turn off of this main road and pedaled an extra 5 miles and 1,000 feet before I figured out where I was. No problem - I had eaten a big breakfast, had plenty of water and food, so I scooted back down the road to my turn-off and headed into the... unknown.



The guidebook calls this section of trail a "road". Huh? Oh well.

I passed this spot the thinking the climbing was over. Silly me.




I rode up to the predicted fork in the trail, followed the suggested directions, and found myself at a 4-way intersection that was not shown on the map or mentioned in the guidebook!? I puzzled over this for a while and made my best guess based on the elevation contours shown on my map. One mile and ~800 feet of descending later I dead-ended at a mining claim. My back trail was too steep to climb, so I pushed back up to the 4-way. Oomph.

Attempt #2. I tried my second-best guess and descended about 1,000 feet over a mile before dead-ending at, you guessed it, another mining claim. This also was too steep for me to climb back up in my depleted condition so I pushed it all. Ooomph!

Back at the 4-way, and only one way left to try. It was straight up a loose rocky Jeep road and I just pushed and rested, pushed and rested. I knew I had enough gas in the tank to go back the way I came, but DAMMIT I wanted my singletrack descent and I wasn't ready to give up.

I shed a tear of joy when I finally found this trailhead:





It was all worth it! This was one of the bestest trails I have EVER descended! Easily in my top five ever. Fast swoopy sections through meadows! Rooty twisty sections through the trees. Techy chunky switchbacks. And amazing swoopy flowy mile after mile down a creek lined with golden aspens. Nirvana for a mountain biker. And not a whiff of cow shit anywhere.





Click on the images for a better view. And thanks for looking!

the Jemez Mountains...

It is specified in my will that, when I die, I want my ashes to be scattered over the Jemez Mountains. So beautiful! The dozens of canyons radiating in all directions from the collapsed caldera of this dormant volcano are each unique, mysterious, and breathtakingly beautiful. However difficult or strenuous the journey, when I ride there I always feel that I belong.

On this particular journey, Todd Flatz and I determined to connect two trails by a route neither of us had tried before.

Before we lost cell phone coverage, Todd stayed busy shifting his investments around in anticipation of a big day on Wall Street.


I hope you scored some big dividends Mr. Day Trader, it would be nice if you shared the wealth a little.



From the many bikes in my stable, I elected to ride my sweet Michelob Ultra Trail Shreddr Deluxe:





Many many miles of climbing are required to get from Dixon's Apple Orchard near Cochiti lake (elevation ~6,000 feet) to the top of Cochiti Mesa (elevation ~8,600 feet).

Yours truly on a very welcome flat spot:



And Mr. Flatz on the only other flat spot:



We finally reached Cochiti Mesa and headed down the "Killer Switchbacks" (true trail name), on which we would descend 1,200 feet in about a quarter-mile. Steep and skinny! FOCUS is the word.





We did NOT see this rainbow at any point during the ride:




Todd tried hard to keep up with me on the descent:



The final 6-mile ripping descent down Media Dia canyon was, as always, WAY too fun to stop for any photos. There are few trails in Northern New Mexico as sweet as this one.


Post-ride recovery nutrition so that I can do this ride again tomorrow:



Thanks for looking!

the Emerald City

was lucky enough to be sent out to Seattle for a week of training. I had not been back to Seattle since I moved from there to New Mexico almost 14 years ago.

The Fall Protection training was on Bainbridge Island, which is across Elliot Bay from downtown Seattle. The views from the ferry were nice, especially in the afternoon light.




Bainbridge is a sweet little island, I'm sure you gotta be pretty well-off to live there.



Flowers everywhere...



I had a few hours to check out the city before catching my flight home.
Pike Place Market was the obvious choice.





And then down to Pioneer Square...



Amazingly, I was able to catch this shot of the Space Needle with my arm out the window as I drove by...



It was nice to see Seattle again, it reminded me of all the reasons why I left (traffic, weather, people), and of all the reasons why I love the Southwest (way too numerous to list).

Thanks for looking!

Rancho Viejo

y favorite ride close to Santa Fe is the Rancho Viejo loop. I'm not sure why we call it that - none of the actual trails have that name. But there are some old relics along the way that could be the remnants of an old ranch.



This ride has a lot going for it - six or eight separate climbs and descents, 4K feet of climbing, 20-plus miles, and great Sangre de Cristo scenery.



Much of the riding is on the historic Borrego Trail which connected the northern New Mexico villages of Cordova and Truchas to the town of Santa Fe.





Borrego Trail crosses the rios Pacheco, en Medio, and Nambe, then climbs up and over yet one more ridge to the rio Capulin, follows it downstream, then crosses back over rios Nambe, en Medio, and finally the rio Pacheco.



It is rare to see a hiker or another rider out on these back-country trails. Your only company is the locals.





There is a tribe of Hippies living near the end of the loop that like to build loopy rock stacks. Although I am an avowed hater of rock cairns, I decline deconstruction and let them have their fun.





Good times in the back country.



Thanks for looking!

Life After Gooseberry

rom Gooseberry Mesa / southwest Utah, I drove to California to visit family and friends. And did my first-ever mountain bike ride in the Golden State on the unremarkable San Joaquin River Trail. In a nutshell, the trail went up and over a big ridge, then followed the shoreline of Pine Flat Reservoir forever, so far that I gave up after 11 miles out. The best part was the wildflowers.








Happy to be leaving the Central Valley (sorry Mom), I eagerly headed over to my former college town of San Luis Obispo. I thoroughly enjoyed my 5 years at Cal Poly and the following 3 years that I taught at Cuesta College. Those were the formative years of my life, where I discovered my affinities for both science and art, and equally importantly, learned that even I (who grew up as a fat boy) could enjoy and excel at endurance sports. I became first a runner, then a cyclist, a swimmer, a triathlete, a marathoner, and a USCF Cat 3 bicycle racer. Those were some of the happiest years of my life.

I had done some interwebz searching and knew there was not a lot in the way of trails on the Central Coast but I was determined to ride what I could.

Day 1 was a short ride in the Irish Hills, so named because they are as green as Ireland.



The next day I hooked up with a couple of locals and we rode some stuff on Cuesta Grade above town. A lotta lotta lotta steep climbing.



Damned if I didn't forget both their names already. Sorry.



We rode past some crazy antennas




And through an explosives disposal area...



The we went downhill on some of the crappiest stuff I have ever ridden. A quarter mile of chunky singletrack followed by maybe 5 miles of old reverted doubletrack. These locals kept grinning at me and saying "Isn't this awesome?" And I'm thinking, "NO! this sucks ass!".

But eventually we got onto a singletrack trail that was pretty damn fun, if only for a couple of miles.



We were crossing the creek and saw this scary water bug with her eggs glued onto her back. Ick!



I made sure to go to the beach a few times. I like the ocean, but not as much as I love the mountains.






On my last day on the Central Coast, I rode at Montana de Oro with a cool local guy. His parents named him Taurus, after the car I guess, but he goes by Brown Teeth.



We rode a fun trail up through thickets of poison oak to a peak, then down to the bluffs over the ocean and back. I enjoyed it very much.



A pic from the peak:




Th ride back out went past all these sweet-smelling sage bushes. Not the desert type of sage out here in New Messico, but the kind of sage you would cook with. It smelled heavenly.



So that was my week in California. Then I drove home. I'll tell more about that later.


Thanks for looking!