For as long as I can remember, Crested Butte has been one of my favorite places to ride. I’ve had the opportunity to ride my bike in places all over the U.S. but more than anywhere else, the rides that have burned themselves deepest into my memory are the ones I’ve done at Crested Butte. The number and quality of trails, combined with the natural beauty of the place makes riding there something special.
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It’s been almost a year of riding the trails here in Salida and I still can’t get over how good they are. But lately, what’s really got me interested is the prospect of linking together the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide trail into a single big loop doable in a day.
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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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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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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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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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A few weeks ago we had a couple of sunny, 70-degree days in a row. We were sitting outside at Soulcraft having beers with friends, enjoying the perfect weather and celebrating a great day on the slopes.
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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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While the start of winter is defined as a date on the calendar, specifically the winter solstice on Dec 21st, around here winter comes more in layers than by date.
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Besides being the year of the global pandemic, 2020 marked two momentous and significantly more positive events in my life. I retired, twice. I checked out of the corporate meat grinder after 35 years and I retired from bike racing after 24 years.
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