Oh Pagosa

For the first time in I don't know how long, I was a regular old tourist! I traveled on a weekend and did all of the touristy things there were to do in Pagosa Springs. It was a girl's family weekend and my aunts and cousins from both Arizona and Omaha, as well as my mom and myself all met up for a little family fun. And fun we had, let me tell you! We stayed in two separate condos: one for the moms and one for the cousins. Most of our time was spent talking and playing games like Catch Phrase (my favorite!!), Guesstures, and Apples to Apples. Just a bunch of silly board type games that were, I must say, quite a riot with 6 female family members. It was pretty great to see everyone; to be honest, I was happily surprised.

Then on Monday I had the day to slowly make my way back to Grand Lake. I decided to try to find a good place for a quick ride and then head homeward. The day before I found a bike shop that I thought I could stop by for some ride ideas. I pulled up, got out and asked the guy rolling bikes out where a good mountain bike ride would be. He simply said, "I don't know, I don't ride mountain bikes." Can you believe that?!?!? Neither could I. After a bit more prompting, he told me that there is a dirt parking lot a few miles down the road that had some kind of a trail leading out of it. Not exactly the help I was hoping for. Oh well. I took matters into my own hands and decided to drive around town looking for perhaps another info source. Then, I remembered reading something about a mountain biking area behind the post office. Found it! It was called Spa Mountain and it was pretty cool to have a trail system right in the middle of town! I briefly looked at the map at the trailhead and figured it was a small enough area that I couldn't really get lost. I also saw that one section to the east of the mountain was rated red (most difficult) and not recommended for mountain biking. I hit the trail and off I went. Climb, climb, climb and then I found myself in a bit of a clearing with a great view. I wasn't too impressed with the amount of marking of the different trails. Once in a while there would be either a green, blue, or red number nailed to a tree but a few times I got a bit confused and ended up not on a trail at all. Finally, I found a blue arrow pointing down the back of the mountain, which I decided to follow. After a fun tight switchbacky descent, I ended up dead ending into a river!

So, after admiring the river and sheer cliffs to the west where I had just come from, I backtracked a bit and found what kind of looked like a game trail, or rarely used steeeeeeep trail that I eventually understood to be that red trail that wasn't suggested for mountain bikers. Now I see why. I climbed and climbed and climbed (on foot pushing my bike since the pitch was so steep) and laughed out loud at how crazy this idea was. Hoping that it would eventually lead back to the less intense trail system, I kept going. Finally, I ventured upon this













Holy SH*T!!!

Ssscccaaarrrryyyy!!!!!! I thankfully walked up on it and was pretty grateful that I wasn't bombing down the trail and then thinking mid-air that, "Oh, isn't this special?!" Maybe if I was some kind of downhill daredevil this would be fun, but I still don't think that there is enough of a landing area. You just shoot right into the straight down narrow steep singletrack. You'd have to land it slowly and beautifully to not just tumble down the crazy steep edge of the mountain! I don't get it. But maybe that's why it isn't widely used. I did actually see a whole bunch of tire tracks around it though. IMBA, this area needs your love!!





Steep, off camber, crazy!!!! After about a half hour of hike-a-bike and taking pictures, I got to some rideable trail and recognized where I was. I finished up the ride and headed back into town for pizza and tea for the road. It is such a beautiful area that I had to stop every few mile to admire the scenery. Here are a few more photos...






Treasure Falls and a few photos from the top of Wolf Creek Pass, which may be one of my new favorite passes in Colorado.

Alright, enough already!!! Hope you enjoy the pics!

Yet another road trip

This time we headed westward to drier warmer climates (it started snowing this morning by the way) and ended up in Fruita for a few days. We left G.L. on Tuesday after getting a bunch of work-related errands out of the way so we could hit the road stress-free. Basically any time we travel anywhere near Edwards, we have to stop and see our buddy Frank who owns Moontime Cyclery there. You should also know that it's unheard of to show up at Moontime without a sixer of some tasty barley pop from the Cork & Bottle next door. This time our brew of choice was a delicious Red Truck IPA from the Palisade Brewery. After a few hours of shop b.s. we said goodbye to Frank and hello to the road!



The sunset was so beautiful that even Echo appreciated it!




We used a free La Quinta coupon we had (and upgraded to a jacuzzi suite) and hit the hay after a delicious meal at our favorite Fruita dining establishment, Fiesta Guadalajara. And a fiesta it was indeed! Man we love that place. Good service, awesome food, and the best margs this side of the border.




The next day we woke up and drove around Fruita for a while figuring out where we wanted to camp and where to ride the next day. Highline Park was the camp spot for the next two nights and the Kokopelli Trail side was the ride locale.
We gradually set up camp and enjoyed a few adult beverages which may have helped us come up with electrical tape as a broken tent pole solution!



We knew the last time we camped in Salida that a new tent pole was in our future but didn't know just how urgent that was. As you can see, we did a poor job at taping it up but it made it through 2 more nights!



After we got all set up at the camp site we meandered back into town for some grub at the Hot Tomato Cafe. Pretty tasty pizza joint across the street from OTE bike shop. I'd eat there again. New Belgium on tap with happy hour specials and live music. Not bad, not bad at all.



Pretty sunset we enjoyed during a walk by the lake.

The next day we decided to ride the Kokopelli side off the Loma exit and really had a great time. Usually we ride Mary's Loop to Horsethief, throw in Steve's for good measure and then ride Rustler's to wear out the dogs. This time instead of the first climb up Mary's we took the next climb (which was a bit steeper but definitely managable) which apparently was the Wrangler loop and connected it to Mary's, then Steve's, then part of a new trail but ended up turning around and riding Mary's back out. Then we picked up the dogs and did a quick lap around Rustler's.











Pictures never do the scenery justice!!! It was a perfect day to enjoy a little time in the saddle. The sun was shining and the views were spectacular.

After the ride we re-organized the vehicle and took a little break in the shade before heading in to town for food and then back to camp.




Beauty!!! Another amazing sunset on the lake. We took a fun lap around the lake at dusk before hitting the sack. All in all, a great day of riding.

The next and final day, we decided to try a ride at the top of the Colorado Monument. As we were cleaning up camp, I was loading up the bikes and noticed that a thorn was the culprit of a flat rear tire on Tim's Orbea. No big deal, flat tire, right?! So, I loaded the bike (after debating whether or not to change the flat before loading it on the rack) and we headed into town for a cup of coffee before heading to the trail. Grabbed the joe to go and started the beautiful drive up the Monument.






This is what we saw when we went to unload the bikes...




Tim's rear wheel was trashed! It looked like a potato chip! We don't exactly know what happened but assume that we must have hit a bump that was severe enough to crack the rim (which may have already been weak?) at the seam. We still don't fully understand how that happened. Oh well. Needless to say, our ride was shot so we decided to take a little hike instead. Not what we had in mind for the day, but nice nonetheless.

We enjoyed our trip so much that Tim & Rob are headed that direction again this week. Also, the 24 hours of Moab is this weekend so get out there and have a good time!