On to brighter skies and lighter trails. Jessica and I headed down to Salida this past weekend to visit friends and ride some of the beautiful CO trails. We were lucky enough to have our friends Brandi and Eric open their house to us and tolerate a couple of dirty mtn bikers taking over a room in their remodeled Salida abode. They have several wonderful 4 legged family members who kept us quite entertained and even though they were both very busy all weekend, we were able have dinner and share in some fun and interesting conversation Sunday night. All I need to do now is find the funds to buy Eric's incredible home brewing equipment.
Tim and his family also met us there along with a solid motley Santa Fe crew of the two wheeled variety. The first day was set aside for the Monarch Crest trail which of course, did not let us down. Even though this high alpine beauty had us loopier than a prom date on wine coolers at some points, we all had a stellar time mashing to the top high above tree line. The snow fields had just finished melting out the week before so our timing was perfect.
Tim on top of the world
The crew strung out above tree line
I was still feeling a bit sluggish from the weekend before but came around towards the end. For some reason, I figured I would ride the schwalbe tire on the rear with a tube since it was already on there and switch my tire out on Saturday night. I thought it would last at least one ride without flatting but I was proved wrong and got another flat. I quickly applied the 3 strike rule soon after the ride. That tire is bound for it's new destiny as part of a sculpture.
After the flat, we hit a few fun sections right before we dropped into the the Rainbow trail.
Sometimes the trail turns into a stream
Mark stays off the beaten path
Taking a short break before Rainbow trail
Mark, Stefan, and Tim sense that danger could be coming our way
Having fun is what it is all about
On Sunday, we decided to ride Bear Creek from town to a different section of the Rainbow trail and back down to town. The climb up was about what I remembered and the first 2/3 were mighty warm indeed.
We had debated driving up north to hit part of the CO trail to avoid the heat which caused us to miss the rest of the crew who all started the same ride earlier. TT, Jessica, and I met a woman from Breckenridge towards the top of the climb who rode the rest of the way with us. I already forgot her name but she hung in there even though she was not planning on riding the route we took her on. I think she enjoyed it despite a hard slam halfway down.
We even saw MJ out there out there on the trail. Those brakes are baller
This is my bike, there are many others like it but this one is mine
We did this same ride last year but with all the rain they had been getting, we were railing high speed corners and off camber descents like we knew what we were doing on what Tim calls hero dirt. This year, it has been much drier so you had to be on your game or you could find your front wheel quickly taking you on journey downtown.
Tim showing some guts
We had a great time in Salida and hope to hit it again one day soon. It's a fun little town and a perfect midway meeting point between here and NM. What better way to spend the weekend than riding epics with friends.
One quick very worthy side note, while we were drinking beer and riding with friends in Salida over the weekend, the Bach team represented up at the 24 hr nationals in WI. Fran took 3rd in the SS solo class, Dax and Dean won the national title for Duo class beating geared riders on their SS rigs, and Josh took an amazing 2nd to legend Chris Eatough in mens PRO solo forcing the champion to go out on another lap which in his words has never happened before, amazing ride! Great job to everyone who went up there and represented.
1 comment:
Classic Salida ride - awesome!
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