Somewhere in Summertime (Pics and Video)

by Mitchell Sprinsky on Jul.01, 2012, under California, Colorado, Colorado, Ride Reports, Videos

Hauling the camper to the Arkansas River headwaters. A bastion of recreational goodness in the heart of Colorado. A mere three hours from the hot and smokey air of the Front Range to the sound of the rushing river and unique community that is Salida. A very livable community at the base of several 14,000′ mountains. I camped, I ate, I fished, I drank beer, but the best part of it all, was riding the Monarch Crest trail.

I guess my goal in going it alone, wasn’t to score any brownie points. When I am alone, that usually means the horse blinders are on. Not this time. I got thrust into the limelight as soon as I registered for the campsite. Do I give off some kind of computer geek aura?

“Do you want wireless access?”, the clerk said.

Sure.

“Do you know how to enter the password?”, she quipped again.

Sure.

“Do you know how to fix a computer, because I can’t get one of our seasonal retirees laptop to work”.

Huh? Now why do you think that? Let me see. Um, you have to push the button to turn the wireless card on.

Ding ding. Score a karma point. The first of a few, I hope.

Saturday morning I ponied up my $20 for the shuttle ride to Monarch Pass. This was the sky that greeted me at the top. A sight that would not change throughout the five hours and thirty two some odd miles of the ride. I had thoughts of completing this in three, but who was I kidding? Monarch Crest, Silver Creek, and the new to me, Rainbow Trail (it’s always been sketchy weather every other time I had gotten to that point before).

I think five hours was pretty respectable with the extra mileage and time of shooting non-POV video. There were seventeen people on my shuttle. I would never see them again. Somehow, I was way in front.

I’ll be the first one to recommend not riding alone on a long backcountry ride. But, I figured it would be busy enough that someone would see my dead body laying on the trail, and roll me to the side. All kidding aside, I was sure that I’d end up tagging along with some group at some point. Still, I signed the book though I am sure they never read it.

And off I went. Like a bat out of hell, in my own mind. I was cruising at a pretty good clip as all the familiar landmarks came into view and passed on my way to 11,000′ continuous nirvana.

I passed a few people and a few people passed me. Some of those would be the group I ended up tagging along with. Pretty cool how that all works out.

But that is for later in the story. Right now it was about basking in the high altitude cloudless glory.

There is something truly magnificent about riding above treeline. That, and having a 360 degree few of the entire United States is jaw dropping goodness. In my short stay at this location, I looked out to the Pacific and turned to my birth home on the Atlantic.

Sweet singletrack is a blessing. Though I didn’t take their picture, I passed a good size crew working on the trail and a lot of flagging for re-routes. I thanked them for the effort.

Working on karma #2. Did you lose something at this location on 6/29/12? I am trying to find you. I know that you did the 24 hours of Moab last year and that you are from SLC. I think I have your name. Let me know the details of the item, and I will make sure it gets back to you, unless I find you first. I know that sounds kind of creepy, but I would hope someone would do the same for me and this particular item.

Silver Creek was a blast as usual and I spent the rest of the ride with two guys from Colorado Springs. I kind of pushed my way into their ride, but our skill level was pretty close. I also talked them into doing Rainbow trail. Yeah, I had an ulterior motive since I had not dome that trail before. It brought along karma #3, when one guy lost a cleat screw and I had extras. I really appreciated the company. Good people. I can remember every password to every system I have ever used, but I can’t remember names to save my life.

One thing I will say about Rainbow Trail is that it rocks! What a fun trail, though it would be better if I wasn’t so tired. It will test you if you make it to this extra mileage bonus round. And I will say that the end will be eye opening.