Simple

I’m still pinching myself that I get to spend all summer in a place like Salida. The bike rides have been many, the computer time productive, and the friends never too far away. Things are pretty simple for me here in Salida. And I like it that way.

Lee made his annual pilgrimage to Colorado for the summer, stopping in Salida on the way for a ride and to pick up a new bike with a friend.

New singlespeed, purchased from Absolute Bikes right before we rode.

Lee’s friend turned around after a nice tour of the “S” Mtn trails, not wanting to overdo it. Lee and I continued up the Ute Trail, an hour climb on the Great Divide Route.

Then there was nothing to do but rip back down the various drainages and singletracky sweets, all the way into town. Closer to the bottom I saw a trail I hadn’t been on, and knew I could tempt Lee with it. His friend was waiting for us in town, but neither of us could resist. The combination of Scott+Lee is a dangerous one sometimes.

techy wash riding, just like home…

Not in this case though. This trail wasn’t on the map, but it drops very cleanly back into familiar ground, so the adventure was minimal. Alas.

I’ve used my car exactly once since I got here, and that was to head over Monarch Pass for the weekend in Gunnison. There’s a fair bit of snow up there, though not as much as I expected given all the snow talk of late. Tour Divide is going to be a different race this year, but then it’s always a different race, right?

I was heading over to the Original Growler, which is an MTB marathon race put on by Dave Wiens to benefit Gunnison Trails. I was able to set Dave up with TopoFusion and some GPS advice/help early on, so I was stoked to finally be a part of the event and further support his efforts. Plus I knew the race would be extremely competitive, with hordes of Colorado riders stronger than me.

oh, the clouds…

I also knew, from my limited experience, that the course would be among the best out there. Hartman Rocks is so naturally well suited to mountain bike travel, it almost seems hard to believe, or unnatural.

I went for a quick “pre-ride” / “opener” ride the day before the race, and just couldn’t believe my good fortune in all of this. That was I here, now, feeling good and able to drive just an hour to a place like this, race my bike, stay with friends, and most of all, be outside in the wind and the elements, expending myself and marveling at the clouds, the snow capped mountains and the unmistakeable flow of the trail.

So, yes, I was stoked to be there. I absolutely couldn’t wait for the next day, to get out there and turn the screws to this route.

I also had a secret weapon — I was only doing one lap. How am I going to learn how to ride with the fast guys if I don’t ever ride with the fast guys? This was the perfect opportunity to see exactly how fast they ride for 64 miles, but not have to actually ride 64 miles myself. You see, there’s a “Half Growler”, which is most definitely the “wuss” category, and only does one 32 mile lap. I signed up for it, going through a number of excuses in my mind as I clicked on the option. This is my “short” year, right?

And then the race started, and I still got blown out of the water. After the neutral roll from town (I *love* races that start from the middle of town) there’s a little climb called “Kill Hill” that serves to really break up the group. Unlike every other race I’ve done this year, I couldn’t have been near the front even if my life depended on it. I was doing pretty much everything I could just to stay near the top 20. I might like to placate myself with excuses such as “elevation”, but for whichever reason, I was struggling. But I refused to give up.

photo by Annette Hayden

It was impressive how fast everyone was riding at the start of a 64 mile (and ~6 hour) race. No doubt some were going out “too fast”, whatever that means, but it was a little surprising I couldn’t rally forward a little more given that I knew I’d be done in less than three hours. Colorado racers are fast.

I got a kick out of scrolling through the racers around me at Mountain Moon’s gallery and noting all the grimaces and faces of pain. Me? Stupid grin, tongue sticking out, having probably too much fun. Bike racing is supposed to be serious, right?

photo by Annette Hayden

Serious suffering at times, for sure. I noticed throughout the race that though I didn’t have much top end speed and would get close to red-lining near the top of most climbs, I was very quickly recovering from the effort. Downhills never seemed to faze me, and I could keep pedaling hard through the flats. This was a new experience for me, especially when going for broke on the climbs (at ~3 hours I basically raced XC pace the whole time), and it was a good one. I found myself stuck behind people on some of the flowy trail sections where people would be recovering and I’d be thinking “aren’t we racing here?”

I worked my way up throughout the race, until I was maybe in 15th place overall, but then I cracked for a short time and saw a bunch of strong riders get ahead of me, some who had been behind me the entire time, much to my surprise. I was pretty happy with my effort, and was also happy to be almost done.

I had a moment, on the Ridge Trail (I think) where suddenly the Gunnison Valley became visible. The bright and unnatural colors of the buildings and fields below seemed a perfect match to the bright jerseys and colors of the riders ahead of me, weaving their way along the tops of the cliffs, and right near the edge. If I’d had a camera, I would have stopped for a million pictures. Instead, all I could think is, “wow, this is real… but am I really here?” The trail demanded my attention before I could process that thought, but that moment and that view made the whole race worth it.

I dropped down to the finish line, and after standing around for a minute the announcer said, “and that was Scott Morris, the unofficial winner of the Half Growler.” To the spectators in the immediate area, I commented, “yeah, but what about the twenty people doing the Full Growler, who already came by?!” It was a strange “win” without a doubt, by default and by cowardice, largely. Just 2 minutes later they announced Jason Stubbe coming in second in the Half, so I had at least earned it, in some small respect. I figured everyone I was racing against was doing the full, but I think I battled on and off with Jason for a while there, and I was pretty happy with 2:52 for a lap out there, even if it was only one.

eszter coming down collarbone hill to a 4th place finish

I rolled back to town, changed, called Paula with a report, then headed back to the finish to see Brian Smith absolutely destroy the route (his first lap was some 20 minutes faster than mine), setting a new record. Then I cheered my friends in, some who I had just met crashing at Eszter’s place the night before (thanks E!). It was a good group, and a nice afternoon to spend eating and chilling while waiting for awards.

The Growler is one of the best races I’ve done. I highly recommend it, and may just have to come back for a “full” growler next year. Of course I am curious how much slower I would have been had I continued on for a second lap. At the time, and even now, I have no regrets, but I do wonder…

Meanwhile I am continuing to explore the many trails that are rideable from my door, like the “Blood Trail” that I stumbled onto while trying to find a non-road climb up to the Rainbow trail. Super climb challenge, but next time I’ll try to do it with something a little more grippy than a balding Small Block 8 tire.

This ant was feverishly trying to access the caterpillar goodies inside, but he wasn’t making any headway into the fortress.

There’s some fun stuff up in the hills!

When you’re surrounded by mountains there’s only one direction the trails go: UP! It’s almost alarming how quickly you climb away from the valley (look at how tiny “S” mtn is, in the upper left corner of the photo above). Good thing I love climbing, and have been longing for it. I’ll bet by the end of the summer I’ll be missing my flat wash rides and other recovery rides, though…

Colorado is still a desert state, though you can fool yourself into thinking its not pretty easily.

craig finishing another fast loop

I met Craig at the MSC race here in town, and he was kind enough to show me his workout/race loop up at the top of Bear Creek. ~20 minute climb on steep roads, 3 miles of FAST contouring singletrack, then an even FASTER trail descent back to complete the triangle. It’s a hoot, start to finish, and we worked it over nice and good.

So much so, that as I rode along the banks of the Arkansas River, for quite a few miles back to town, my thoughts turned to some rivertime recovery. It was so cold that I could only stand it for a few minutes, but very refreshing!

Alright, I’ve got Tour Divide GPX files to mash up, and still lots more work to get Trackleaders V2 up and ready for the big race, which starts a week from today.