Mountain biking

Smooooooth

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This past Thursday, I decided to head up to Buena Vista to check out what they have to offer in the way of mountain bike trails.  I had never ridden in BV but I know they have a network of trails in the Arkansas Hills similar to Salida’s.  The trails are the creation of the Buena Vista Singletrack Coalition and their website has maps and information to help you orient yourself.  The Midland Hill section on the south end of the network looked promising and I plotted out an eleven-mile loop for my introduction to BV mountain biking.  

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FIBArk

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Long before it was a mountain bike town, long before it was a hiking town, long before it was a camping town, Salida was a river town.  Every June since 1949, pandemic years excepted, they have held an event called FIBArk, for First in Boating in the Arkansas river, to celebrate the river and those who love it.  That first event was a single race of 57 miles from Salida to Canon City.  Twenty three entered, only two finished.  These days, FIBArk is a full-blown four-day festival with multiple races on and off the river, music, food and all types of white-water shenanigans.  

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Semi-Epic

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For some time now I’ve been trying to think of a way to do the Monarch Crest trail without a shuttle.  That is, ride to the top of the pass from Salida and then ride the Crest trail in one big loop.  But the logistics are daunting.  The Crest is long enough on its own at approximately 36 miles, so to ride it from town you’re looking at least a 70-mile round trip and probably eight hours in the saddle.  

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Spring!

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I realize my posts haven’t been all that frequent lately.  That’s partly due to the fact that we’ve begun to settle into our lives here in Colorado and while that’s all wonderful and good, the things we’re doing don’t nicely fit into a blog that I’m sharing with the world. And partly because, as mentioned in the previous post, the spastic weather has kept our outdoor activities local, which end up being much like the ones I’ve already talked about in previous posts.  But in the past few weeks the weather has started to warm up, the intermittent snow storms have turned to intermittent rain showers and things are finally starting to turn green around here.  It seems like spring is real.

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The right tool for the job

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WARNING:  This post contains material that may not be suitable for all readers.  It contains bicycle maintenance descriptions and images that, while not necessarily disturbing, may cause drowsiness for non-bike geeks and irritability in small children.  Seekingtimberline.com does not condone the activities depicted and discourages anyone from attempting them.  Reader discretion is advised.  

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Epic, as usual

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When you’re new in town it’s important to talk to the locals to get the low down on how things, you know, work.  Where are the good restaurants?  Who’s your vet? Know a good car mechanic?  And when a local asks you to participate in something, no matter what it is, you do it.  Hey, want to go for a ride?  Sure!  We’re hiking tomorrow, you interested?  Would love to!  Goat yoga?  In! 

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Somewhere over the burning Rainbow

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Our house is on Methodist mountain, the northern most peak in the Sangre de Cristo range.  Methodist is more of a big green lump than something spectacular like the Sawatch range across the valley or the Sangres further south.  Most of the peaks around here are named after Native American chiefs or ivy league colleges so I was curious how Methodist got its name.  I did some research (ok, I Googled for 30 minutes) but didn’t turn up anything definitive on the name origin.  I like to think that it had something to do with Methodist pioneers who lived in the area performing long-forgotten rituals in the woods, druid pot luck dinners, bingo games and such.  But I digress.

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