Way back in the 1860’s and 1870’s, back before Colorado even became a state, survey crews from what is now called the U.S. Geological Survey fanned out across the Rocky Mountains to catalogue, measure, map and name the mountains. Imagine that, being given the authority to name mountains! Most of the names we use to this day came from those 19th century surveys.
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Although I officially retired from bike racing in 2020, I find that even now, whenever I catch wind of a race in the area, my ears sort of perk up and next thing I know, I find myself signed up. Can’t help it. Something about you can take the boy out of the race but you can’t take the race out of the boy, I guess.
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Continuing with my plan to work out a loop linking the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail I set out to test ride another segment this week. This time around I started where I left off here, at the narrow-gauge railroad grade above Mt. Princeton Hot Springs.
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Under the category of “it’s a small world”, a few weeks ago Ms. Seeking and I were walking around the Salida Art Festival at Riverside Park checking out the artisanal offerings when I came to a booth featuring handmade pottery.
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Seeking Timberline is one year old today! This time last year we were packing up to leave for Colorado and I started this blog to describe what life looks like post-employment and to share stories with anyone who might be interested. Fifty-four posts and one year later and here we are.
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One of the most interesting things about living in Colorado is the variety and abundance of geology all around you. If you venture outside anywhere in the mountains, you’re bound to find strange rock formations, fossils, crystals, and all manner of other minerally things. As a non-geologist I don’t know what ninety percent of it is but I find the whole thing fascinating and I’m slowly learning about it as I go.
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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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It’s mid-June and most of the snow has melted from the high country so it was time for our first 14er of 2021. I picked La Plata Peak as our objective for the day. La Plata Peak sits deep in the central Sawatch range near Mt. Elbert and Twin Lakes. At 14,336 feet, it is the fifth highest mountain in Colorado.
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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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