Sky prelude

A small mountain of packages was waiting for me in Salida. SPOTs that had been all over the divide, and more. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to cover the Colorado Trail Race, so I had to scramble for units and wait for the postman to (hopefully) deliver a few more. It was difficult to track them all down, with all the unit swaps, lost units and failures that occurred out there. The divide is not only hard on bodies and bikes, but SPOTs, too! And Matthew was still bikepacking and shooting film around the world, so I had to do some sleuthing on my own.

That’s most of them, ready to take on the Colorado Trail! The race was just incredible this year. There was some serious carnage in the upper ranks of the men’s race, but not in the women’s. Eszter rode such an incredible and inspiring race (read her report here, and also her husband Chris’s). And Cat came in so fast behind her (writeup here). Carney, who I rode with for the first half of CTR09, whipped up a fast time and came home with a nice collection of photos to boot (see here). And there are so many others I could mention too. I was really stoked to see so many finishes under 6 days. Bikepack racing is getting serious and people are upping their game. Guess I better get back in there and see what I can do from Denver to Durango…

Pretty sure I scored more blue dot heroin in the veins than anyone else. I suppose it was partly my job, so it may not count, but I sure wore out the ‘refresh’ button. I love my job!

Between getting CTR tracking on its course and being worn down from racing and traveling, I was in evening spin mode.

The timing was perfect.

The monsoonal tap was on full blast, giving the sky artists giant brushes and color collectors.

That storm was making a few CTR racers wet.

I want to be a sky painter, contrasting deep blue canvas with scattering particles and long waves of light.

Such creative genius, and such complexity. Yet so simply beautiful.

Or maybe I just want to get closer to the sky. The paths are all around me, and my bike will take me there. 12,000′ passes, 14,000′ peaks. The snow has finally melted, the cross country season is winding down. It’s time to get up there.

My first thought, as I laid my bike down in the grass and sat on the rocks at just shy of 12,000′, was “we don’t spend nearly enough time in places like this.”

I took a day and rode to Greens Creek, climbed it to the Monarch Crest, and then crested my way along Salida’s most famous ride, through the Colorado Trail, Silver Creek and the Rainbow.

chubby (and squeaky) rock mice!

And I was totally enthralled by everything I saw and felt up there.

There is a very good reason this ride is so famous. It really is that good.

It was my first ‘hit’ of high altitude riding: breathing hard and moving slowly, as close to the sky as one can imagine. And pretty soon it was just about all I could think of. Somebody turned off the monsoon tap shortly after my Monarch ride, leading to what only can be described as a week of altitude binge riding, including 5 fourteeners. Oh yes, I love Colorado.