SSS - Sweet Salida Singletrack
Update! - data - I have data!
I finally got my GPS to download...elevation and mileage stats now included.
My friend Alex invited me on this trip - ~100miles in 3 days with nothing under 8k feet elevation.
Due to a mechanical - I only got in ~80miles - but that was plenty as I'm pretty darn tired. I just hope I didn't torpedo myself for the WP race this Saturday...my poor little ole legs aren't used to that much riding day-after-day. Guess I should done the "jeny style rides" this season of riding lots of long days - maybe I wouldn't be so wasted. ;)
Getting Started
We start off the day @ 9am at the Poncha Springs visitor center. There were 41 riders with 6 of us being girls. Now this isn't the normal group of people I'm used to riding with - it looked more like a group of casual weekend mtn bikers. Most of the folks I ride with are super strong fitness wise with great technical skills.
I wondered about some people being in over their heads. However, the way Alex has the trip setup - we would have a SAG/lunch spot at the halfway point every day - so if people were having problems they could SAG.
I guess that's the difference between most of the folks I ride with and the 'rest of the world' - the people I know don't need a SAG at the halfway point. But still - it was gonna be nice to not have to carry water for the full day, be able to reload at the halfway point and then have someone cook dinner and breakfast for me. ;)
Day 1 - the first 15 miles
The 1st part of the day starts off on the Colorado Trail - basically section 2 of the Vapor Trail "ride". After a mellow start on the trail - it turns into a 10minute hike-a-bike. Knowing I had 99 more miles to ride in the next couple of days - I was keeping a casual pace.
Some of the riders seemed to think it was a race tho and blasted up the hill. In particular 2 of the girls on the ride seemed kinda aggro - I let them ride past me - they were huffing and puffing pretty good.
pix poached off the Vapor Trail website.
It mellowed out a bit and I saw the 2 girls that passed me churning hard on the trail - they both bobbled and came off their bikes at a short technical uphill and at that point I rode up the rocks and past them. My "aggro" assessment of them seemed right on the money as the trail became non-technical again they blasted past me. I kept on keeping it dialed back and let them go.
The first couple of miles contained a few more short hike-a-bike sections and at one point one of the girls was stopped on the trail hanging over her bike for support and gasping for air. I hiked past her and never saw her until the end of the day. I'm guessing she blew herself up pretty good.
At this point the trail got super fun. I LOVE riding a "new to me" trail. I was happy I was able to ride unexpected technical sections most of the time. As I was cruising along the other girl that had blasted past me bobbled a little technical section and I rode through - then she passed me again only to walk her bike up a switchback a little bit later. I rode up behind her and called out "rider!" and went past - I didn't see her until I was hanging out at the SAG spot having a PB&J sandwich.
I continued along - Man(!) this singletrack was fun....I have to admit I was a bit more cautious and walked a couple of things I normally would have tried if this was just a 1 day ride - but since I had 2 more days I of riding I was being conservative. I continued to have a good ole time riding the rest of the trail and made it to the SAG spot after 2:45 of being out on the trail. I was shocked to only see 5 other people at the SAG spot - Leisa(one of the support crew) was checking people in said "dang girl! I want mtn bike lessons from you - you are one of the first people in!"
I guess for it not being a race - i was still keeping track...jeesh - what a nerd!
Day 1 - the last 15 miles
The last 15miles of the day was a beautiful, crotch numbingly, boring climb. Now how can a ride with such beautiful scenery be so boring?? when the grade never changes and it's challenging enough to keep you working but never steep enough you have to get off your saddle - that's how.
Aggro girl #1 passed me during this slog - but I smiled and said hello as she passed and kept my HR in the 140s as i spun along in my middle chain ring. I wanted to save my legs for the next couple of days.
Our campsite was at Hancock. The last 5 miles of this slog a fellow rider, Todd caught up to me. Actually I had met this guy @ Hall Ranch 3 or so years ago - so he slowed down and we rode that last 5 miles together. Funny if you have someone to chat with the time goes so much faster. We finally made it to camp ~5pm. I was glad to get off my saddle for sure!
Day 1 totals - 28.84 miles and 5047 elevation gain.
Day 2 - William Pass, Tomichi Pass, Granite Mtn, Old Monarch Pass Rd
The way the ride was setup - there are several options - everyone had to go over Tomichi Pass.
Option 1(vapor trail route) the Alpine Tunnel route supposedly the most scenic route.
Option 2 was over Williams Pass(tops out at 11,762 feet) which was promised to be a technical rocky ascent and descent.
Option 3 was over Hancock - the fastest most direct route.
From there all 3 options required going over Tomichi Pass which tops out at 12413 feet.
another pix poached from the Vapor Trail site (tomichi pass)
From Tomichi Pass there were 2 options
Option 1) straight down Tomichi Pass Road to Monarch Pass Road
Option 2) up and over Granite Mountain (topping out @ 12598 feet) down to 10.5 miles of *supposedly* downhill sweet secret singletrack of Canyon Creek Trail
During camp the night before I had made friends with a really nice guy, Garrett. To my single girls friends out there - this guy is a sweetie. Smart, funny, good looking, professional, easy going and loves to ride - a total catch for sure.
We ended up riding together all the 2nd day - he a slightly better rider than me on the up and the downs but not so much it's too out of kilter.
Of course we choose the most technical route - Williams Pass was interesting - the last 1 mile or so over the pass is a technical climb up a rocky creek and the descent is more the same. It is here where I found out I had no rear brake. WTF??? Last time i road the gearie I had no front brake - that had gotten fixed and now my rear brake was gone? jeesh - needless to say I had to end up walking a lot of the ledgey technical descent because that is not a place to use a front brake. I was sorely disappointed - but what can you do...
From there over Tomichi Pass up and over Granite Mountain which was a long grueling 1 mile hike-a-bike. Seriously - i felt like I was climbing a 14er. The trail was narrow with loose fist sized rocks. Biking shoes weren't made for hiking this stuff. All I can say is it sucked - big time. It took us a full hour to do this hike-a-bike. I just downloaded my GPS data and the last half of a mile was a whopping 19% grade. No wonder I felt like i was climbing up a rocky ladder! I kept an eye on my altimeter as I watched the number click over to 12600ft I knew we finally made it to the "top of the world".
We finally made it over the top and it was seriously over 10 miles of slightly downhill sweet singletrack. Wow! Rolling, fast, technical in some spots, beautiful and FUN! We hooked up with a group of 4 other riders from our crew and rode with them. My rear brake was fading in and out and I had to be cautious on the descent but it was still a blast. This is trail I'd love to go ride again. No pix as we were having too much fun. Then it was a small climb out to Tomichi Pass road to Old Monarch Pass Road.
Our camp was 7 miles up Old Monarch Pass Rd and I was sure glad to get there after another day of 5+ hours in the saddle.
Day 2 totals - 29.54 miles and 4398 elevation gain
Day 3 - broken bike, Absolute Bikes Bike Shop and Monarch Crest
I had the camp mechanic look at my rear brake. First of all the calibers wouldn't open - apparently i had been riding all of Day 2 with the rear brake dragging so badly my rear wheel wouldn't spin freely. They decided it was beyond their ability to fix. My only option would be to go to Absolute Bikes in the morning and get dropped off to do the last 25miles of the Monarch Crest ride instead of the whole 35.
Absolute Bikes rocks! Shaun got his top notch mechanic, Scott, to look at my bike and he determined my issue was my rear rotor was worn. He replaced it and the brakes didn't require bleeding. He did this in all of 30minutes.
I was able to get on the trail @ 12:30 and blasted down the last 25miles of the Monarch Crest trail and got back to my car @ 3:30. No pix on this part of the ride as I was by myself and having too much fun.
Day 3 totals - 26.19 miles and 2140 elevation gain
All-in-all around 84 miles of fun riding. On a low point - I have all this data GPSed on my Garmin Edge 305. But now the thing is broke - it won't connect to my computer and after talking to Garmin tech support - they may have to replace it again! I'm crushed I don't have my data...you guys know what the means to me!
Alex's trips
I've never done one of Alex's trip because why pay money when you could those trails for free? Since I had coordinated registration for his Sunrise Century Ride and promised to do that again for him next year - he gave me a special "friend deal".
I have to say - it sure is nice having your camp moved for you, being fed, having porta potties, sun showers and such setup for you. Plus you can ride the pace you're comfortable with and even tho there is a large group of people - several times I felt like I was all by myself out on the trail.
I'm planning on doing this trip next year - but next time i'm taking the SS. So I guess next year my post will be SSing on SSS. ;)
I finally got my GPS to download...elevation and mileage stats now included.
My friend Alex invited me on this trip - ~100miles in 3 days with nothing under 8k feet elevation.
Due to a mechanical - I only got in ~80miles - but that was plenty as I'm pretty darn tired. I just hope I didn't torpedo myself for the WP race this Saturday...my poor little ole legs aren't used to that much riding day-after-day. Guess I should done the "jeny style rides" this season of riding lots of long days - maybe I wouldn't be so wasted. ;)
Getting Started
We start off the day @ 9am at the Poncha Springs visitor center. There were 41 riders with 6 of us being girls. Now this isn't the normal group of people I'm used to riding with - it looked more like a group of casual weekend mtn bikers. Most of the folks I ride with are super strong fitness wise with great technical skills.
I wondered about some people being in over their heads. However, the way Alex has the trip setup - we would have a SAG/lunch spot at the halfway point every day - so if people were having problems they could SAG.
I guess that's the difference between most of the folks I ride with and the 'rest of the world' - the people I know don't need a SAG at the halfway point. But still - it was gonna be nice to not have to carry water for the full day, be able to reload at the halfway point and then have someone cook dinner and breakfast for me. ;)
Day 1 - the first 15 miles
The 1st part of the day starts off on the Colorado Trail - basically section 2 of the Vapor Trail "ride". After a mellow start on the trail - it turns into a 10minute hike-a-bike. Knowing I had 99 more miles to ride in the next couple of days - I was keeping a casual pace.
Some of the riders seemed to think it was a race tho and blasted up the hill. In particular 2 of the girls on the ride seemed kinda aggro - I let them ride past me - they were huffing and puffing pretty good.
pix poached off the Vapor Trail website.
It mellowed out a bit and I saw the 2 girls that passed me churning hard on the trail - they both bobbled and came off their bikes at a short technical uphill and at that point I rode up the rocks and past them. My "aggro" assessment of them seemed right on the money as the trail became non-technical again they blasted past me. I kept on keeping it dialed back and let them go.
The first couple of miles contained a few more short hike-a-bike sections and at one point one of the girls was stopped on the trail hanging over her bike for support and gasping for air. I hiked past her and never saw her until the end of the day. I'm guessing she blew herself up pretty good.
At this point the trail got super fun. I LOVE riding a "new to me" trail. I was happy I was able to ride unexpected technical sections most of the time. As I was cruising along the other girl that had blasted past me bobbled a little technical section and I rode through - then she passed me again only to walk her bike up a switchback a little bit later. I rode up behind her and called out "rider!" and went past - I didn't see her until I was hanging out at the SAG spot having a PB&J sandwich.
I continued along - Man(!) this singletrack was fun....I have to admit I was a bit more cautious and walked a couple of things I normally would have tried if this was just a 1 day ride - but since I had 2 more days I of riding I was being conservative. I continued to have a good ole time riding the rest of the trail and made it to the SAG spot after 2:45 of being out on the trail. I was shocked to only see 5 other people at the SAG spot - Leisa(one of the support crew) was checking people in said "dang girl! I want mtn bike lessons from you - you are one of the first people in!"
I guess for it not being a race - i was still keeping track...jeesh - what a nerd!
Day 1 - the last 15 miles
The last 15miles of the day was a beautiful, crotch numbingly, boring climb. Now how can a ride with such beautiful scenery be so boring?? when the grade never changes and it's challenging enough to keep you working but never steep enough you have to get off your saddle - that's how.Aggro girl #1 passed me during this slog - but I smiled and said hello as she passed and kept my HR in the 140s as i spun along in my middle chain ring. I wanted to save my legs for the next couple of days.
Our campsite was at Hancock. The last 5 miles of this slog a fellow rider, Todd caught up to me. Actually I had met this guy @ Hall Ranch 3 or so years ago - so he slowed down and we rode that last 5 miles together. Funny if you have someone to chat with the time goes so much faster. We finally made it to camp ~5pm. I was glad to get off my saddle for sure!
Day 1 totals - 28.84 miles and 5047 elevation gain.
Day 2 - William Pass, Tomichi Pass, Granite Mtn, Old Monarch Pass Rd
The way the ride was setup - there are several options - everyone had to go over Tomichi Pass.
Option 1(vapor trail route) the Alpine Tunnel route supposedly the most scenic route.
Option 2 was over Williams Pass(tops out at 11,762 feet) which was promised to be a technical rocky ascent and descent.
Option 3 was over Hancock - the fastest most direct route.
From there all 3 options required going over Tomichi Pass which tops out at 12413 feet.
another pix poached from the Vapor Trail site (tomichi pass)
From Tomichi Pass there were 2 options
Option 1) straight down Tomichi Pass Road to Monarch Pass Road
Option 2) up and over Granite Mountain (topping out @ 12598 feet) down to 10.5 miles of *supposedly* downhill sweet secret singletrack of Canyon Creek Trail
During camp the night before I had made friends with a really nice guy, Garrett. To my single girls friends out there - this guy is a sweetie. Smart, funny, good looking, professional, easy going and loves to ride - a total catch for sure.
We ended up riding together all the 2nd day - he a slightly better rider than me on the up and the downs but not so much it's too out of kilter.
Of course we choose the most technical route - Williams Pass was interesting - the last 1 mile or so over the pass is a technical climb up a rocky creek and the descent is more the same. It is here where I found out I had no rear brake. WTF??? Last time i road the gearie I had no front brake - that had gotten fixed and now my rear brake was gone? jeesh - needless to say I had to end up walking a lot of the ledgey technical descent because that is not a place to use a front brake. I was sorely disappointed - but what can you do...
From there over Tomichi Pass up and over Granite Mountain which was a long grueling 1 mile hike-a-bike. Seriously - i felt like I was climbing a 14er. The trail was narrow with loose fist sized rocks. Biking shoes weren't made for hiking this stuff. All I can say is it sucked - big time. It took us a full hour to do this hike-a-bike. I just downloaded my GPS data and the last half of a mile was a whopping 19% grade. No wonder I felt like i was climbing up a rocky ladder! I kept an eye on my altimeter as I watched the number click over to 12600ft I knew we finally made it to the "top of the world".
We finally made it over the top and it was seriously over 10 miles of slightly downhill sweet singletrack. Wow! Rolling, fast, technical in some spots, beautiful and FUN! We hooked up with a group of 4 other riders from our crew and rode with them. My rear brake was fading in and out and I had to be cautious on the descent but it was still a blast. This is trail I'd love to go ride again. No pix as we were having too much fun. Then it was a small climb out to Tomichi Pass road to Old Monarch Pass Road.
Our camp was 7 miles up Old Monarch Pass Rd and I was sure glad to get there after another day of 5+ hours in the saddle.
Day 2 totals - 29.54 miles and 4398 elevation gain
Day 3 - broken bike, Absolute Bikes Bike Shop and Monarch Crest
I had the camp mechanic look at my rear brake. First of all the calibers wouldn't open - apparently i had been riding all of Day 2 with the rear brake dragging so badly my rear wheel wouldn't spin freely. They decided it was beyond their ability to fix. My only option would be to go to Absolute Bikes in the morning and get dropped off to do the last 25miles of the Monarch Crest ride instead of the whole 35.
Absolute Bikes rocks! Shaun got his top notch mechanic, Scott, to look at my bike and he determined my issue was my rear rotor was worn. He replaced it and the brakes didn't require bleeding. He did this in all of 30minutes.
I was able to get on the trail @ 12:30 and blasted down the last 25miles of the Monarch Crest trail and got back to my car @ 3:30. No pix on this part of the ride as I was by myself and having too much fun.
Day 3 totals - 26.19 miles and 2140 elevation gain
All-in-all around 84 miles of fun riding. On a low point - I have all this data GPSed on my Garmin Edge 305. But now the thing is broke - it won't connect to my computer and after talking to Garmin tech support - they may have to replace it again! I'm crushed I don't have my data...you guys know what the means to me!
Alex's trips
I've never done one of Alex's trip because why pay money when you could those trails for free? Since I had coordinated registration for his Sunrise Century Ride and promised to do that again for him next year - he gave me a special "friend deal".
I have to say - it sure is nice having your camp moved for you, being fed, having porta potties, sun showers and such setup for you. Plus you can ride the pace you're comfortable with and even tho there is a large group of people - several times I felt like I was all by myself out on the trail.
I'm planning on doing this trip next year - but next time i'm taking the SS. So I guess next year my post will be SSing on SSS. ;)
Comments
I have to hit Kenosha to Georgia in the fall, the colors are the best up there. Golden aspens are hard to pass up.
Aaron