Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

Middle Earth - Salida

2K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  CSPRINGS 
#1 · (Edited)
So Salida is one of those towns that just doesn't seem to fit into the Front Range or the Western Slope venues, it's an entity unto itself. Seems the Western Slope forum folks get very little in the way of pic passion so I'm gonna throw some pics their way. And besides, we were on the Western Slope for this ride.

On Sunday I drove on down the line to Salida to meet up with TomP for a nice ride scheduled for Monday. We planned to do an epic ride and it turned out to be semi-epic thanks to the monsoons. Because of the threat of said monsoons we got an early start, up and at 'em at 4:30am yesterday so we could meet our friends at Absolute Cycles by 6am.

Now 4:30am is a tough enough hour of the day but Tom was up until 1am transcribing the epic adventures of the GDR riders and I sort of helped (moral support) so we were not exactly "chipper".

http://greatdividerace.blogspot.com/

So we get to Absolute, we loaded up the truck, drove up to Old Monarch Pass and began our expedition.

1) Another stellar morning for unpacking the truck!

2) Top of Old Monarch Pass. Monsoons?

3) Truckin'

4) Truckins'

5) And some singletrack riding off of Old Monarch Pass Rd.
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#6 ·
And then the monsoons hit, so plans to also ride Monarch Crest/Greens Creek fell through. The end!

1) Looking for storm refugees

2) Finding storm refugees

3) Hail

4) Tom undeterred by the weather rode on down Hwy. 50 and we saw him near Salida.
 

Attachments

#7 ·
Nice!!! :) Great write-up, and super photos!

We just returned from 5 days in Crested Butte (last week). Only on our last day / ride (401) did we get any afternoon thunder showers, and at that it was not enough to even wet the ground. However, two days later in Durango (our next stop on our trip), we get some major downpours. This would have been about June 28th.

Looks like you had a blast!

Thanks for sharing!
 
#8 ·
Magic Camera-man

So, here's a puzzle:

How is it that all those action shots got snapped, and why aren't any of them featuring Ed?

Answer: Ed schooled us all, and therefore always managed to be out ahead with plenty of time to set up the shots.

Thanks Ed, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you. And man is it fun to watch you railing that singletrack from your rigid platform. And when it was time to climb, it was inspiring to watch you ride away from the group up Old Monarch. What a motor.

You da man.

-Tom P.
 
#13 ·
TomP said:
So, here's a puzzle:

How is it that all those action shots got snapped, and why aren't any of them featuring Ed?

Answer: Ed schooled us all, and therefore always managed to be out ahead with plenty of time to set up the shots.

Thanks Ed, it's always a pleasure to spend time with you. And man is it fun to watch you railing that singletrack from your rigid platform. And when it was time to climb, it was inspiring to watch you ride away from the group up Old Monarch. What a motor.

You da man.

-Tom P.
Was one of those pics at Pringles horse camp along one of my favorite trails? (one of my favorite trails is quite similar to my handle)
 
#15 ·
edemtbs said:
Why yes, and speaking of such trails, here's an autumn sampler you may also recognize:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=134303
Nice autumn pics, and I do recognize some of them. Especially the very top of some amazing alpine singletrack.

In the 5 yrs. I have been riding that trail, I have never before seen another mtn biker. (just the occasional motorcycle) So I was quite surprised to see the pics of the trail

It does make me curious what loop you did starting up on old Monarch Pass?

I would love to join up if you guys are doing any other big rides in that area in the future.
 
#16 ·
It's a trail I had my eye on for years when I was studying maps of that region. I finally rode it last fall.

It was more of an out and back last weekend not a loop. Down Old Monarch up Tomichi Pass Rd., the trail to Pringles and back the same way. I saw one rider going in the opposite direction and he scared the pants off of me because I never see anyone back there either - he was riding a green VooDoo I think. It looks like some work's been done to the trail.

Unfortunately our ultimate plan to continue on to Monarch Crest and Greens Creek and back to Salida fell through due to the storms that rolled in.

Last fall when I took those pics I did a huge loop starting at Sargents. All the clues are in this opening sentence from my previous post (ignore "starving" that was the day before ride ;) ):

Headed to Salida, starving for singletrack, ready to explore canyons and look for horseshoes, wuanited to see them gold aspen leaves quake. Did all that if you know what I mean.
PM's work for coordinating rides. We're into the big ones that explore.

Ed E
 
#18 ·
Looking for a local host

This thread seemed like the perfect place to post.

I recognized TomP and Anton from the bike shop in Salida. Was up there in early June, doing some riding with Anthony. I LOVE Salida! I'm seriously thinking of moving there. And I have a few days in August to spend in that area, from the 16th to the 21st.

So I'm wondering if there might be anyone who could put me up for a few days? And people who might like to take me on some of the local trails?

Or if you have any suggestions for someone you think I should contact, please let me know.

thanks,
clair
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top