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Colorado Vacation Pics

Heidi

Der hund ist laut und braun
Aug 22, 2001
10,184
797
Bend, Oregon
Derek and I just got back from a trip to Colorado where we did some EXCELLENT riding. I've been dieing to go there, but had to wait for my knee to heal enough to do the kinds of trails I wanted to. We flew to Denver, rented a car, and drove to the Boulder area to stay with JOJO. Squeak/Brian met us and the fun began. Saturday night we went to dinner with Motionboy/Josh where we had a great time.

Sunday we went to Hall Ranch for a fun ride. The trail is primarily rocky like this heading up, then it gets smooth and fast, then you get to come back down this! Sorry Jack for forgetting to call you, I didn't remember about it until we were at the trailhead. :(

Squeak gives it a try.


Then Derek makes it up


Derek masters the uphill section.


Derek and the 575 GitRdone!



The group at the top (Derek, Heidi, JOJO, Squeak)


JOJO near the top


The view on the way out.


After goofing around in Excel Sports in Boulder, eating and drinking on Pearl Street, and a good nights sleep, Squeak, Derek and I headed to Winter Park for some more high altitude riding.

Here we are annoying Josh at work.





Winter Park is in one word, awesome. We did the Tipperary race course which follows miles and miles of some really technical sections of singletrack. You climb through aspen fields, then higher up into the roots and rocks, meander around, turn on more singletrack, weave through the trees, bomb down rocky rooty trails, climb some more, climb some more, climb some more, climb rooty stuff, climb more, and descend a ton.

Brian and I on a stream crossing


I could climb all day with views like this.



The sign told it all. The trail narrowed after this and was very swoopy.




Brian likes curves. :)



We failed to take any DH pictures and I am sad for that because it completely rocked. After all that riding we rewarded ourselves with fried food and beer. Then next day we headed on through Leadville, Colorado (the highest incorporated city), where we ate lunch and bought fudge. Mmmmmmmmm. We drove on down to Salida, CO where we spent the next three days riding.

If you live in Colorado and haven’t done the Monarch Crest Trail, you are straight up…a loser. That whole trail system absolutely rocks. The first day thunderstorms and rain were threatening so we took a shorter option down. We started at the top of Monarch Crest wayyyyyyyy high in the mountains, and rode along the Continental Divide and dropped down into the valley via Fooses Creek trail which is supposed to be one of the more technical ways down. It was cold and foggy when we started but it cleared up enough to get some good pics.

Us at the top.


We signed the guest book and began our adventure.








The drop down into Fooses was pretty steep and loose for the first section.



The next day we took a picture when it was clear.


The view up there is awesome - there are 11 mountain tops that are all above 14,000! I was surprized to see very little snow up there.




The ground was covered with flowers.


Brian rockin the stream crossing.


You can’t see it good, but I’m throwing down an RM gang sign. For real though, we had to take a break because our wrists hurt from the DH.


Another stream crossing. The roots on the downhills were quite slippery and required the perfect weighting.



We took a lunch break here.


At the end we looked up to find HUGE thunderclouds rolling in and the sound of thunder rumbling in the sky. So, instead of riding the road back up to fetch the car, we sent Brian hitchhiking. The third car that passed stopped for him!


That night back in Salida we ate lots of pizza and drank lots of beer at a great brewery and pizza place in Salida called Amicas – very cool place.

That’s it for part one, part two will be sometime later…maybe tomorrow.
 

hooples3

Fuggetaboutit!
Mar 14, 2005
5,245
0
Brooklyn
wow that is awesome.. great pics

:sigh: so many beautiful places in this world to ride ... hoow do you choose which one to go to next :D
 

laura

DH_Laura
Jul 16, 2002
6,259
15
Glitter Gulch
AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME.


we head out to CO in a couple of months and i can't wait. i think we are going to stick to around fruita and maybe close to durango though, because we are going to hit up moab yet again. thanks for the pics heidi. gets me inspired.
 

Motionboy2

Calendar Dominator
Apr 23, 2002
1,800
0
Broomfield, Colorado
It was great to see you guys! You should come out more often. Next time hopefully I will have a bike...and the time to ride it! I guess you will have to suffer through pix from my Europe trip instead this time around...since that is why I couldn't take off work!

Great pix! I am jealous!
 

Squeak

Get your pork here.
Sep 26, 2001
1,546
0
COlo style
I have a few pics too, I need to get busy with PS. :)

It was a great time! Heidi and Derek are great people, and I would go anywhere in the world with them. Oh wait, I have. :)

Thanks Jo for hospitality and ridin, you are a great friend. :) Josh, thanks for the quick fix it job on the bike, wish you could have rode with us!
 

JOJO

Top Banana
Jun 28, 2001
421
0
Superior, CO
stosh said:
OMG it's JOJO!!!


Awesome pics!!!
I love this time of year on RM.

I been lurking...... :D

I wish I could have made it to Salida with you guys. I tried to do the Monarch Crest Trail once but we forgot our map and got all confused... the part we did was awesome though:-)
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,375
12,529
In a van.... down by the river
Thanks for the pics, Heidi! I wanna get back up to the Crest and do the Agate Creek trail.

And then there's this descent that Pau11y told me about.

And the Fooses Creek one.

And the Crest on the other side of the highway.......

And......

And......

:D
 

Heidi

Der hund ist laut und braun
Aug 22, 2001
10,184
797
Bend, Oregon
ghostrider said:
This thread saved my day. Thanks Heidi. Happy to see you are back on the bike. Must suck to be back suffering in Bend after all that good riding in CO.

Oh yah it's horrible. :) Last night I rode out KGB all the way up Phil's and bombed down Whoops! :heart:
 

Morryjg

Mr. Ho Jangles
May 9, 2003
905
0
Littleton
Heidi said:
Sorry Jack for forgetting to call you, I didn't remember about it until we were at the trailhead. :(
No worries! I figured you did like any good Mt biker should and were too excited to drink lots of brews and get on the trail. I put plan B into effect and put in 50 miles on the roady that afternoon.

I really wish I could've ridden Fooses creek with you!! That looks awesome! Glad you found the pizza place in Salida, that place is soooooo good. We go there every time we head down to Salida.

Can't wait for pt II of the pictures. :D
 

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,885
6,191
sweet! hi, i'm a loser, i live in colorado and have not ridden monarch.....though i've ridden plenty of other big epic rides in that state.

heading down there weekend after next to hit it for the first time, actually.

and i live about 15 minutes from hall ranch. it's my "go to" trail when time is short, or other trails are wet and snowy still. it dries way faster than many of the other local spots.