Today, we ride again!

We were going to ride the trails on the other side of town from yesterday’s, but found out that they’re closed because of the 4th – fireworks going on out there, so they want people off.

So, instead, we go to Buena Vista – there’s a rails-to-trails out there, nine miles out-and-back, and it sounds pretty good.

We get to the trailhead and decide instead to make a loop of it – we’re going to ride it clockwise, because that seems to work out well – we would come back on the rails-to-trails, dropping all the way, so it should work out well.

Luckily, there are some locals at the trailhead, so Richard asks them of advice – they suggest riding it counter-clockwise! Good to know! In retrospect, a spectacular idea, as it would have been a killer ride the other way.

This is the map at the trailhead:

Damned photo-bombers! Anyway, here’s a closeup:

The red loop is what we’re going to do, we’re at the lower left trailhead, then go East on the rails-to-trails:

Yup! That’s the start of the rail bed – looks easy, doesn’t it? Well, it is, except that there are four trestles (bridges) that are missing, and you have to ride down into the ravine, then back out. The down is not the problem! Luckily, the fourth one is down only, as the trail stops there, at the East Trailhead. Along the way, I got this shot of Richard:

Now, we have to ride vaguely North on a dirt road, for probably three miles. Doesn’t seem too bad, until we get there – it’s VERY sandy, and therefore hard to ride.Hard because it pulls your front wheel this way and that, and also hard just because you sink into it about a half to a full inch, and that makes it quite hard going. And it is ALL uphill, with NEVER a respite. Ugh! A few vehicles pass, but fortunately most of them slow down so as to kick up minimal dust, but of course, there’s always ONE asshole in the bunch. Maybe it was Richard signaling for him to please slow down that did it. Who knew that that was rude! He does slow down, but as soon as he gets even with Richard, he purposely gasses it to kick up maximum dust. Nice!

Later he returns, kicks up a bunch of dust, and flips us off. Nice! He must be the ambassador for the area.

At tho point, there are storms in the distance, and we get sprinkled on a bit:

Anyway, finally very close to the top, and soon we find our return route, which we’ve been led to believe is single-track. Ok, no suspense – “they” lied. It’s double-track, but it IS mostly downhill. Ok, to be fair, from here it looks like it’s ALL downhill, but we’re not to be disappointed for a while. It starts its way down, and gradually gets steeper. Here’s a shot from near the top:

It get steeper further down. Fun stuff! Of course, it also gets rockier, with loose, big rocks, and it would have been a BITCH to ride up – SO glad we listened to those guys!

A few hours after we start, we’re done, and it’s time to go somewhere for food! We choose Eddylime Pub and Brewing Company, get some beers, and some pizzas. The beers were good:

The pizzas were good too, but only good. Moonlight Pizza has nothing to worry about!

Tomorrow, we try the Monarch Crest Trail!

Today, we ride! We’re going to re-ride the part of Little Rainbow that The Bear and I rode the other day, and then we’re going to ride the other side, which none of us have seen.

The ride goes well. Even The Bear and I ride better than we did the other day. We take about 8 minutes off our time out, and almost three minutes on the ride back, so we feel pretty good about that. Richard seems totally unaffected by the altitude. Bastard!

Now, we’re ready for the new section. Logic dictates that it’s all downhill,but this trail is not logical – at the start, we have to climb a bit,but it’s not too bad. A couple of miles out, we hit the Lost Trail, that goes South to the truck. It’s rated Most Difficult, but Richard decides to try it. The Bear and I are not going to do that, so we go on to Race Track, and that one lives up to its name – almost all downhill, and nothing but lefts and rights, and some straightaways, all the way down. A couple of dodgy spots, and the towards the end, one really badly washed out spot that made me come to a screaming stop, but overall, a great amount of fun! Gotta do that one again soon!

A good day!

Today, mostly waiting for Richard White to arrive. This will be fun. Richard is an old-timer from DORBA, and we’ve been on trips together, though it’s been over a decade (maybe two!).

We mostly walk around town, and try to figure out where to ride when there are three of us.

Trailhead seeking day. We went up to Monarch Pass:

This is important, because this is where the Monarch Crest Trail begins, and that’s one that Richard wants to do, so we went looking for it:

Yeah, I know, the sign says Continental Divide Trail. One and the same.

Beautiful vistas!

Today we ride again! Short ride, but it should be a beaut.

We decide to park half way up the mountain so we can cut out some climbing. Here’s a map of these trails:

We’re going to do ‘Lil Rattler, because it’s rated “easiest”. Of course, here at the trailhead is the obligatory “Trail Monster”, I call them:

And so the Dallas folks don’t feel left out, there are snakes here also:

Before we head out, I take a pano of the town below:

I’ll have to climb higher to get a better shot:

There is a mountain (or hill, I guess) that has a road going to the top. We took the trail most of the way up, but as you near the very top, the trail peters out. Anyway, that was the view from way up there. Could have climbed up to the very top where there’s a little building, but this was all we needed to get a good view of town. BTW, if you click on it, you should get a bigger view of it.

After the ride, it was off exploring, and one place we went was Buena Vista, where we stopped for lunch at The Evergreen Cafe. Forgot to take a picture of the Philly Beef sandwich I had, but here’s dessert:

Bread pudding with whiskey sauce … mmmmmm. Great!

After that, Boneshaker Cycles:

That’s their mascot. And for sale they had:

YES! A growler holder for the water bottle cage location! Woohoo!

Next stop of course, was Eddyline Brewing, where The Bear had a Boater Beer Pilsner, and I had a Root Beer:

Both were very good.

From there, exploring again. Out to find new trails, so we run across this choice:

go left and catch this vista:

Not much further was the trailhead:

Not sure if bikes are allowed, but it was worth the drive anyway.

Another GSD day. Go exploring, wash the truck (need to wash the trailer, too, and get all that diesel crap off of it from when that fuel line broke. It’s hard to find a car wash big enough!).

Basically just tromp around and get things done.

Today, we did something we haven’t done in FOREVER – we rode our bikes! It felt good! Well, other than the familiar “I can’t breathe!”.

We picked an “easiest”-rated trail, the Little Rainbow Trail, and at that, we only did half of it, but we still got six miles in, with 1,059 feet of climbing. We knew we wanted to start in the middle, where we went the other day, but we wanted to find our destination first, so we found the West trailhead. Here is what greets you as you step on the trail here:

This is how they ask for donations – maybe DORBA should try this? And here is the map they posted:

We’re doing the red trail, and we’ll start in the middle, end up here, on the left side – you can almost imagine the “You are here” if you really try.

Anyway, we go back to the middle and start riding – we know it’s mostly uphill, and it definitely is, but not too horrible – the main issue is still lack of oxygen. Dang, you’d think we’d be climatized after about a month at 7,000 feet. Or maybe we’re just fat and out of shape … NAH, that can’t be it! We’re in shape – round is a shape!

Ok, here’s what we got to see:

and a closeup of town from the trail:

Great views from the trail! The ride West was kinda hard for us, as I mentioned, and I hoped that the return would be better, and by golly, it was! Two monster hills, but other than that pretty much all downhill. It took us a bit over half the time to return as it took to get there. 56 minutes out, 30 back, and of course, both were kind of taking our time – the way out to breathe, the way back because a lot of the turns were a bit skittish, so we didn’t want to build up too much speed. should not take long to get used to the difference in terrain, but we’re out here for the fun, not to race.

Rest of the day – jigsaw puzzles! And some nips from the growler of Smoked Stout we got the other day. Mmmm…

Friday! Wow. All day we’ve been thinking it’s Saturday. Go figure.

So, we had some cereal for breakfast, and first thing on the agenda is to take the bikes in to get the tires put on. They don’t open until 10 supposedly, so we can take our time. Actually got up pretty early. Well, the sun is so damned bright up here that it’s impossible to sleep past about 7, even with a dark towel over the big window. We HAVE to get something to put on the skylight!

Ok, in to town, drop off the bikes … they’re REALLY busy. BUT – they can make it happen! Super nice folks – the guy who’s helped us both days here is Ryan Knobbe (I asked him if it’s pronounced like the tire – “knobby”, but sadly it’s not), and here he is:

VERY helpful guy, and extremely friendly, as they’ve all been in this shop. So, we drop them off, but now need a way to kill time. “How about going to the place next door for a cup of coffee?” he says. You see, Absolute bikes is right next door, literally, as they have a door between them – that’s how you get there. We tromp over and get a “would you also like to see a breakfast menu?” Well, food? Of course! Looks like it’s good, and it’s priced very reasonably … so of course, we sit to have breakfast. We’re gonna put on a LOT of weight on this trip. Here’s breakfast, after we’ve eaten most of it:

The Bear had biscuits and gravy, topped with two eggs over easy, and I had a bagel with eggs, green chiles, cheese and bacon. Both had decaf, and the total tab was barely over 20 bucks! Needless today, we’ll be back! AND a super-friendly staff. We’ve noticed that everywhere we’ve been in Salida – EVERYONE is  super-friendly. I like it here! We ate out on the patin, and here’s the view:

That’s river you see shining past the railing. Don’t worry, we were not the only ones there, I purposely shot to avoid catching anyone.

After breakfast (second breakfast, that is), we walked around a bit, and saw some folks kayaking:

In funny little river yaks:

More views of town:

And when we returned, here’s what the two places look like, bike shop on the left, restaurant on the right:

When we returned, the bikes were ready, and Ryan showed us the artwork that came out of two of the tires:

Looks like rubber coral, but it’s what I call “Tire boogers”. It’s the dried-up sealant that you put inside bicycle tires when you run them tubeless (it’s liquid when you put it in). On a DVD case for scale. I’m surprised we didn’t hear those massive clumps bumping around in there while we rode!

Anyway, after that we went looking for trailheads, one of which is here:

This is Little Rainbow, and it’s rated “easiest”, so this is what we’ll ride tomorrow. Yes, today is YET ANOTHER rest day, I suppose. Well, we’re walking, at least, so getting some exercise. While going a bit into the trail, ran into this:

Not sure how it happened, but there it is.

Ok, so after that, on the way home, stopped by O’Reilly Auto Parts to get a small air tank. NOW I have what we need to install tubeless tires. Whew! Well, it was worth it to have the bike shop do it, they found some small issues with my bike, but took care of EVERYTHING, and for a VERY reasonable price. Well, ok, we DID buy a lot of stuff the other day (dropped several hundred bucks on tires and rails to transport the road bikes) but I’m not sure that had so much to do with it, I think these guys want to help you out if you’re visiting and really need something done. If you’re in Salida, they seem to be by far the largest bike shop, tell ’em Bill and Barri sent you!

Today is work on bikes day! Off to town to get things we need, then we’ll return to do the work.

Walking through town, we saw this:

The cool part is it seems to be fully functional!

We were looking for breweries, and the distillery, found them, and then decided to get some lunch, as it had been a while since breakfast. Saw a lot of places, but the desire to try a Moonlight Pizza overcame us, so we returned. We ordered the T-Guns – Special red sauce, tomatoes, spinach, pepperoni, cream cheese and jalapeños. Wow! We have a NEW winner! THIS is the best pizza I’ve EVER had, never mind the tour. The crust is what makes it. It’s a thin crust, but airy, yet it still tastes like the bread ones I’ve always liked. Look:

And here’s a close-up of a slice:

Heaven on a plate! We’ll be back to try some of the others, I guarantee. Since it was before happy hour (half-price pints), we had soft drinks. First round was a root beer for The Bear, and a ginger beer for me:

Mmmmmm … GOOD! A little bite to the ginger beer. All made with Salida water and cane sugar, no high-fructose corn syrup. For a second, I had the Vanilla Cream:

Yeah, I know, looks like it’s just water, but trust me, it did not taste like just water! On the way out, we picked up a growler of Smoked Stout for the road – 64oz of wonderful stout for $9! Ok, it was an extra $4 for the growler itself, but after that, refills are just $9! For a half-gallon of beer! Woohoo!

Ok, time for something stronger to drink, so off we go to find Elevation Beer Co. It’s on the way home, so we whip in and have a couple of brews, I have the Lil Mo’ Porter, and The Bear has a Señorita, also a porter – the weird part is that while it is smaller, as you might expect  (considering the name), it is stronger (alcohol-wise). Go figure. Here they are:

Good stuff! After that we head home to work on the bikes.

We start with The Bear’s bike, front tire change-out, but soon realize that our floor pump, even though it’s a high-volume one, does not seat the bead on the tubeless tire. AHA! But I have a compressor! True – but what I don’t have is a Schrader-to-Presta adapter. Damn!

Off to Walmart it is, where we find our adapter and a lot of candy to soothe our pains. We return only to find yet another setback. Yes, I have a compressor, but it still cannot put out enough volume of air to seat the beads. Double damn! I guess it’s off to the bike shop tomorrow.