I just got back from some mountain biking in Colorado. I must say this was probably the best riding I have ever done but let’s start from the beginning. We left the town early wed morning the goal was to get to Salida at reasonable time and swing by new Belgium brewery on the way there( by going 60 miles out of our way). I will admit most of those reasons were selfish and revolved around me buy new Belgium merino wool jersey ( which i did do) The brewery is pretty good size, the best part was free beer (jessica’s porter and biere de mars should be made available to everyone) Somehow i ended up with 10 beers and that was just no fun for anyone. The house we stayed at was pretty cool with awesome views.
Now to the rides Monarch crest is a pretty epic ride. One can find anything up there awesome views, snow, stream hours of fun. You have an option or riding for about 40 miles in one day that’s one giant loop (compared to omaha area where the the longest ride is 7 mile loop) The views are awesome the altitude is killer for someone who came from 1300 feet to ride at 11800 feet, this will equal being out of breath and having no energy in your legs just something else to work on… The good news was i wasn’t the only one with that problem ( there were couple of guys from bolder who flaked out and took the first fire road that made Damon and I feel better about ourselves) The rocky terrain was perfect of my 29er the big wheels do shine when you bombing on rocky descent … The people at absolute bikes were just awesome laid back and really helpful spend about 20-30 minutes talking about local trails… The owner of the store can also give you a tour of the bikes at the shop like first tubeless mountain bike made and mountain bike with 220 cranks, as well as history of the suspension forks
On day 3 we rode up to rainbow trail which was an awesome rolling hills single track probably my favorite out of the trip. The diffrence between the wet and dry side of the continental divide are pretty obvious just look at the pictures that damon took.. I will try to post rest of the pictures this week and Damon will try to get the google earch routes uploaded somewhere as well… The album of the trip can be found here
