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.
One of the things I’ve been looking forward to is riding a brand spanking new trail on the Methodist Mountain side of town. Not only do the Salida Mountain Trails guys build great trails, they’re constantly building new ones. Case in point, Pot-O-Gold, which I may or may not have poached last fall about the time it was finished but not officially open.
Besides being a great trail in its own right, what Pot-O-Gold does is it completes a loop between the Rainbow Trail high on Methodist Mountain and the local Methodist Mountain trail system that runs by our neighborhood. This allows me, from my front door, to string together an amazing 23-mile loop with over 3,000 feet of climbing and descending without ever crossing highway 50. New season, new trail. Pretty dang great.
The ride starts with a climb up county road 101, past the green meadows along Bear Creek to the Columbine trail. The cottonwood trees haven’t quite leafed out yet but the green fields look great against still snow-covered Simmons peak.
The Columbine trail is a steady climb up to the Rainbow trail through the remnants of the Decker fire, which I talked about here.
The new sign at the top of the Columbine trail where it meets the Rainbow. The previous one was a victim of the fire. The air here still smells like an old campfire but the gray ash has been packed down by the winter snow and the landscape, while still sparse, is beginning to look somewhat less lunar.
Rolling along the Rainbow.
A couple of the last remaining snow patches.
Bear creek was running fast from all the snow melt.
My Native American friends Shavano, Tabeguache and Antero from the Rainbow.
Pot-O-Gold drops off the Rainbow at about 9,000 feet and begins a winding descent down a long ridge. That’s Salida in the distance.
Start of the narrow ledge section. Keep your eyes on the trail along here, the price of distraction is fairly high.
Berms! This section of switchbacks down a steep face is unbelievably fun. Like having your own personal roller coaster that you get to steer.
Smooth, new bench cut.
Large jump with an optional “aw, hell no” line for those of us who prefer to keep the rubber fairly close to terra firma.
Nice flowy section with a few rocks thrown in.
Spring flowers along the trail.
Approaching the bottom and seemingly endless, fast berms.
It’s springtime in Colorado, even the cactus blooms!
Hello Spring and kudos to Salida Mountain Trails for another amazing local ride!