White Rim Trail Adventures!
Adventure: The White Rim Trail
Date: March 30 - 31, 2024
Trail Beta: 97 mi (156km), 90% unpaved, 0% singletrack, 100% rideable (depending on how hard the wind is blowing and how heavy your bike is)
Total Vert: 5,459’, High Point: 6,170’
Bikepacking.com rating difficulty (1-10): 5
Bike: Salsa Woodsmoke, 2.6” tires
Island in the Sky Visitor’s Center
We started our loop here. We had a parking permit for overnight that is issued with the White Rim backcountry permit.
We finally got to cross the White Rim Trail off the bucket list! And we did it in high-fashion! This 100 mile loop that circumnavigates the Island in the Sky wilderness near Moab, Utah is known for its epic views of the surrounding red rocky landscapes and the Colorado River. Permits are required and as such, I can’t think of a more pristine area to spend some solitudinal Type 2 Fun. My partner, Patrick, and I knew that we were in for an adventure when we looked for the -nth time weather forecast. Saturday was supposed to be 25-30 mph SSE winds with gusts in the afternoon/evening of up to 45 mph. Sunday was projected to be cool but “breezy” so we figured we’d pack our strongest tent stakes (providing they would actually be able to anchor into the souther UT rocky terrain), all of our layers and hope for the best.
We had previously booked permits in 2023 around the same time of year because they were the most easily accessible. I guess that’s because folks don’t want to gamble with the unpredictable weather. Our friend Aliza had even flown down from the PNW to join us in our White Rim shenanigans and to no avail, the weekend of our ride ended up being horrible weather with lows below freezing, sleet, hail and significant winds. So, we opted to do a last minute Kofa Wilderness trip instead, which ended up being 80 degrees! (Talk about a drastic difference!). Anyway, Patty and I had decided that this year we would go no matter what. That’s what all of our gear is for, right?
Taking multi-day adventures for me at this time in my life is a bit different than in my previous years of adventuring. In August of 2023, I transitioned from teaching piano lessons and gigging as a pianist full time, to a “9-5” administrative job. Though I know it is the best thing for me to do at this point in my life, for many reasons, it’s been a tough pill to swallow. While there are definitely benefits (literally) to having paid vacation, personal sick days, paid holidays, among other perks of a full time job, it also means that I can’t take off whenever I want. It means I am limited in my paid time off, and it also means that I don’t have time during my regular week day to prep for said adventures. I’m still getting used to this, and prepping for this trip was definitely a learning process.
In a nutshell, work life, leading up to this adventure was CHAOS. I’m taking on more responsibilities, have some health stuff going on, and was trying to adjust to working with a running coach all at the same time. A couple days before the trip, shit hit the fan and I sort of lost it. Lesson learned, delegating is my best friend, and prioritizing and lists are my most valuable tools in the book. Patty helped at home, cooking, cleaning, and trying to get stuff prepped as much as possible, which I am ultimately grateful for.
I packed as much as possible during the week nights leading up to the trip. We had planned to leave early on Friday morning so we could get to Moab area, camp and be ready to head out first thing on Saturday. When I arrived at home Thursday evening and attempted to finish packing, my head/brain said “no”. I was so exhausted that I couldn't finish a sentence. At one point I spent probably 15 minutes trying to figure out what to do next, standing in front of the pile of food, clothes, and gear that had amassed in my living room. I decided to go to bed and pack first thing in the morning, which proved to be a wise decision.
Patty and I managed to get out the door on Friday morning around 8:30 am and away we went. The drive was smooth, filled with tunes and the Dexter Series Audiobooks that I subjected Patty to while I was driving. Moab came before I knew it and we set up camp in the late afternoon at Horsethief Campground, which is a first-come-first-serve campground and was not crowded at all. We grabbed tasty dinner from TrailHead pub in Moab, which I would highly recommend for fairly priced, fresh ingredients with large portions. I have found that a lot of the food spots in Moab are overpriced and not super tasty, so it was good to find a spot that (literally) fit the bill.
Patty’s sleeping pad had a hole in it. This was one of the first of a comedy of errors that we discovered when we went to set up camp. First, we have a home-built platform that we used when we car camp that fits snugly in the back of Patty’s car. I went to open the back of the car to set out our sleeping pads and such and the platform wasn’t in there! Then, we figured, well, we have our air mattress that fits into the back of the car perfectly, so maybe we won’t even notice the bumpy surface underneath. No air mattress. We had the accessories in a little bag, but no mattress. So, we unpacked our super light camping pads and to Patty’s dismay, his immediately went flat. UGH! Luckily, we had some blankets and such to pad his tender body, so he still got some sleep. But that meant that we had no way to patch the pad for the next night when we’d be on the ground. Usually, I come prepared with extra patches of sorts for times like these, especially in the SW desert which is full of pokies and rocks, but alas, this was one of the things that had slipped past me in the pile on the floor.
And we’re off into the wind!
We woke with first light and munched on our cold breakfast, which we had planned for the day before and had ordered extra breakfast sammies so that we could save time and energy getting started. Very smart choice, especially because the sammies were portable and I could easily finish mine, even after we got started on our bikes. We headed the short drive down the road to the Island in the Skies visitors center and finished the final packing of our bikes in the cold breeze. An otherwise uneventful morning threw us one more loop when we went to load the course to our Garmin and realized that it hadn’t previously synced. We spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the visitors center looking for spots of service (the center didn’t have any public wi-fi) to successfully sync the device in whichever way we could get to work. We eventually had success, though I don’t really know how we got it to work. Later during the trip we realized that the trail is VERY well marked and we really wouldn’t need the Garmin for navigation, but it’s always good to have it, so I’m glad we tried. We also had the route loaded on Ride with GPS, Trailforks and my Garmin watch, so we were overly prepared, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The route, starting from the Center, takes you down a few miles and turns right, heading clockwise down Shafer Rd. to get to the official White Rim Trail. The initial part is paved and soon turns into a fairly well-maintained gravel road as you traverse across the top of the rim. It was a little chilly with a light breeze, but the sun had peeked out and started to warm us as we immediately headed downhill on the Shafer Trail Road switchbacks. We were treated with the most epic view, overlooking the Colorado River and the valley below. It makes you want to take pictures every two minutes, which we did. There’s nothing like a vast canyon view that makes you feel as small as an ant.
The long and winding dirt road snakes from the top of the canyon down past Shafer Canyon Campsite and gets lost in the red rock below. One of my favorite landscape features is when you can see forever into the distance and the plateaus or mountains change in shape and hue as they disappear into the sky. This scenic opportunity did not disappoint.
We stopped for obligatory selfies and to just capture the beauty of what lay ahead and dropped down the 1700 or so feet to what seems like the bottom of the canyon. The descent is well maintained and even with the switchbacks, it didn’t ever get too crazy - but I like a solid descent, so you can judge for yourself. The road was in excellent condition when we went with just a bit of loose gravel in the corners of the main switchbacks.
We stopped at Gooseneck overlook and then again at Musselman Arch. There was most definitely a small sign in the parking area that states, “Do Not Climb on Archways.” We may or may not have seen the sign since we didn’t “park” and just rode to the area and then hopped off of our bikes to hike over to see the arch. One of us may or may not have ended up on the arch for a photo opp but then later realized that was a no-no. So, note to all of you, make sure to read the signs and don’t climb on the arches! It’s a pretty cool arch and you can see across the canyon to the other side.
The rest of the trek from Musselman to Gooseberry Canyon went by in a blur. I was not in the best frame of mind, feeling very tired mentally from the prior week. This, along with heading directly into ever-increasing headwinds made me feel like we were standing still. I didn’t dare look at my watch to see how far we’d gone. It is usually better for me not to know until we are more than halfway through the day’s mileage, so that then I can start the countdown, especially on days where I don’t feel like I have it mentally or physically to keep pushing on. A few times, even though I wasn’t exhausted, I just had to stop for a break, putting my bike down and just standing there in the breeze, eating snacks and daydreaming about camp and my mashed potatoes I had packed for dinner. Patty was patient with me, even though I knew he was anxious to get out of the wind as well.
At some point I pulled the plug and knew I just needed to rest for a while, so we sat for lunch in the warm breeze and got pelted with sand as we sat on the cliff overlooking the valley below. You really can’t complain about sand in the eyes with views like that, right? Oh, how ironic…. haha!
WATER SITUATION:
One of the stresses of riding in the desert is water. I have horrible water anxiety. FAter experiencing heat exhaustion years ago on the Oregon Timber Trail, I am constantly worried if I have enough water. I drink quite a bit while I’m on the bike, and while I knew that this trip would take quite a bit of water for me, I had “only” packed 7 Liters. I had seen recommendations about carrying about 4L a day for a cool day, so I don’t know what I was thinking (I wasn’t - cause my brain was tired). As the day went on, I felt like I was rationing the entire time, and that really stresses me out. Patrick assured me that he had plenty (he tends to drink a lot less than me), and that he had no shame in asking for water from folks who were driving the route if it came down to it. I had to remember that I SHOULD be drinking more than half of my water that first day, because we were going 65 miles the first day and “only” 30 the next, and it was supposed to be a lot cooler the next day.
If you are doing this ride unsupported, definitely bring AT LEAST 4L per day and that would be on a cool day. Do not plan on relying on there being any puddles to filter out of. The area had just experienced some significant rain a couple of days before we got there and there was not a drop in sight as far as we could see. So, in a nutshell, it is the desert and even in cool season can be fairly warm when the sun comes out. The wind also helps to dehydrate you, so just make sure to carry more than you think you need!
So, I tried to put this out of my mind, and drink as I wished and it made me feel a bit better. I think somewhere between Gooseberry Canyon and Murphy’s Hogback, we crested a small hill and Patty almost ran into a scrawny looking animal that we discovered was a mountian sheep. Another rider who was riding the loop in a single day, unsupported, was out there right behind us and we all stopped to admire the small sheep as she grazed. I was excited for Patty because he’s been wanting to see some mountain sheep for some time now, and it was finally his dream come true! Little did we know, that right around the corner would be a whole herd of them, fully grown, grazing on the poky shrubbery that the desert had to offer. We took a brief repreive to appreciate these beautiful animals in their habitat, trying to be as quiet as mice, but knowing all the well that they didn’t give two craps about us being there, though one of us gave us “the eye” a couple of times.
The road from thereon out was very much a slog. The wind was sort of starting to turn, aka we just started heading in a different direction but going along the bottom side of the loop heading west meant that we had an extremely strong cross wind that occasionally would whip up, steal your breath and lob you sideways. Luckily, this section, which is notorious for being sandy, wasn’t too deep and we had no issues riding through it, though sometimes at a total standstill because of the wind gusts. And then came the big hill that we had to get over in order to continue our descent down to the Green River for our campsite at Potato Bottom C. Oofdah! That was a hill!
We had booked the Potato Bottom C campsite and it was late afternoon with the wind picking up even more. This said, once we turned to head north on the loop, Heading toward Murphy camp, the wind was in our favor and we started sailing except for the occasional cross wind. My mood lifted and felt like we were making good time. We meandered on some “FUNdulating” trail with a bit a moon-landing feel. Both of us thought we’d never make it down to the river, to the campsite. But sure enough, we rounded the bend in the setting sun and the aptly named Green River was right there! My favorite time of adventure rides is that time of day when it starts to cool off a bit, the light changes to signal the start of magic hour and all of the colors of the trail start to illuminate in that special way. The shadows shadow, the colors pop and there’s a bit of sparkle in the air. This is a most excellent time, especially when it is combined with the knowledge that your campsite is just around the corner.
We passed two other parties of folks, one with a Toyota Tacoma with a top tent and a family who were relaxing under the trees in Potato Bottom A. We then passed a large group fellow MTBers who had two pickups supporting them who were making dinner and having a hell of a good time. Then we finally arrived at our home away from home. The spot was large, sandy, flat and backed by two large spooky-looking trees that beckoned us in to our humble abode. Since we were somewhat near the river’s edge, we decided to explore and see if we could actually get down to the river’s edge and try to filter some incredibly sediment-filled water. There was a promising looking path that guided us all the way down along the most eerie little brush covered path I think I have ever been on. I felt like Hansel and Gretel and the evil witch was waiting for us at the end! But, the end turned out to be a 6’ drop directly to the river, so there was absolutely no access, at least from where we were. A bit defeated, we sauntered back to our camp and decided it would be worth going to ask the folks next to us if they had any extra H20.
Potato Bottom C
Here’s the thing about me. For those who know me, they wouldn’t believe it if I said that I was shy, but I truly am. Nothing gives me anxiety like having to approach new people, especially a group of people that I don’t know and especially out in the general public, and ESPECIALLY when having to ask for something. But, here we were. I made a deal with Patty that if he lead the way and started the conversation, I would accompany him over to their camp so that he wouldn’t have to carry all of the water back. On the way there, upon seeing all their bikes, I realized, hey - these are mtb people, chances are they are going to be super rad. And sure enough, they were! These rad folks from Denver topped us off with all the water we could want, offered us a LaCroix, which we graciously accepted and let us know that if we needed water in the morning, we could come back for more. While I know that we would have been okay the next day (we ended up with MORE than enough water left over), it was comforting to know that we could guzzle as much water as we needed, including my recovery mix and a night time tea without worrying if we had enough to make it back to our car the next day. Thanks Denver friends!!!
The wind reallllllly picked up as we went to cook dinner so we had to hide behind our Tent vestibule to cook. We had simple meals of ramen for Patty with some shredded beef from a pouch and I had mashed potatoes with shredded beef from a pouch and some parmesan cheese. Food never tastes so good as it does out in the wilderness after a long day in the saddle. I just can’t get over it! And who doesn’t like instant buttery mashed potatoes, anyway? Sleep came quick, and I was out like a light. Patty on the other hand (which I would find out the next morning), was up for most of the night because he couldn’t get comfortable on the cold, hard ground, because we were unable to patch the hole in his sleeping pad. :( Sad Patty.
We woke up covered in red dust. Even with the vestibule of the tent nice and taut (probably one of the best tent set ups we have ever had with our Big Agnes Tiger Wall (thanks to Patty - I taught him well…), the wind had kicked up so much dust, my sleeping pad looked like I had rolled in it. We wiped the grit from our eyes with the first light and started to pack up. The weather was MUCH cooler than the day before and overcast. We could see the storms rolling in over Moab and knew it would be advantageous to start as soon as we could to beat the rain.
After leaving our campsite, we crawled and climbed up some of the steeper kicker sections on our way up to Hard Scrabble camps. Now, I feel like some of them may have been rideable for me, but some of these kickers make you cringe, especially with a 60+ pound bike underneath you. So, hike-a-bike was had. The good news is that they aren’t long, and most of the kickers were condensed into the one general area leading up to Hardscrabble. I had glanced at the elevation profile before we started for the day, just to see what we had in store, and this is what it looked like: Small mesa-looking hump, then down, then flat, then HUGE climb (which I knew was the Mineral Road climb) and then a long 10-mile general uphill drag back to the Visitor’s center, half of which was on paved roads. Well, the small mesa-looking hump, which paled in comparison on the map to the HUGE climb of Mineral Road, turned out to be all of those steep kickers rising up above the river, most of which we walked at least a bit.
The flat part ended up being a nice jaunt, peppered with 45-mile per hour side gusts. And then we started the 12% climb up Mineral. Both Patty and I had expected the worst for this climb, since we had to walk so much of the previous climbs leading up to it, but we were pleasantly surprised that the entire climb was rideable. It was fairly smooth conditions, a steady pitch, and we were somewhat shielded from the tormenting breeze since we were sort of encapsulated in a small canyon.
Right as we started the climb, we saw a dog (for a minute we thought it was a large wild animal of some sort), and then a woman running after it. We thought she was running after her dog, but it turned out she was just running. Up. And Up and up and FAST! I have never seen someone run so fast up a hill before. Before we even got half way up she I saw her head bop up along the crest of the top of the hill and I couldn’t believe my eyes. We kept crawling up the dragon’s back (that’s what I felt like we were riding because the rock is all hard and cracked), and a couple of minutes later, the gal came HAULING ass back down the hill (sans dog). We cheered her on as she went, while we tried to figure out what happened to her dog, and why on earth she’d be running back down the hill (since there were no cars at the bottom for her to go to). I mean, why on earth would you want to run up that hill more than once?
After 40 minutes, a couple of breather breaks later, we crested the top. Patty looked back down the hill as we sheltered by the pit toilets and noted that this woman was already on her way back up and was almost to the top again. She crested for her second time up and her Sprinter van door opened and her cute golden hopped out to greet her. She grabbed a handheld bottle, said hi to her companion in the van,(comvanion) and took the dog with her again. As she was setting to take off, Patty asked what on earth she was doing. Turns out she’s on a training run and her goal was to complete 5 repeats on this 1700 ft relentless climb of approximately two miles long. Oh you know, just running 20 miles with over 8k ft of vert on a weekend. I did notice that she had a Hoka shirt on, and by deductive reasoning including her pace and motivation for training, I figured she must be a sponsored athlete. Sure enough! I later did some sleuthing and figured out that we had run into none other than Allie Macoughlin who has won the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships. What a rockstar!
We also met a guy from Utah, via Idaho at the top of the climb that was about to set off for a three day excursion through the White Rim Trail and heading off on Potash road back to Moab. He generously offered us a beer, of which he had four on his bike along with his 12L of water that he was carrying. We kindly declined, chatted for a bit and went on our way in the cold cross wind that would occasionally try to knock us off our bikes as we rode the rest of the 10 mile slog back to the visitor’s center.
After taking the shortcut through the campground at the highpoint of the trail, we turned onto the pavement and braced against the evil headwind. Growling even more now than ever with the impending storm, we gritted our teeth and pedaled squares to get us closer to our ending point. What we thought was going to be a rolling pavement section back to the car turned out not to be that and instead a slow drawl of ups and downs, none of which were steep, but all of which were long and never ending. I swear I looked at my Garmin 10 times to make sure we were, in fact, going the correct way, thinking that maybe we had somehow gotten lost on a route where there was nowhere to turn the wrong way. Soon enough though, the long-awaited “Reduced Speed Ahead” signs popped up on the side of the road and we knew we were close. The car was still there, complete with coca-cola’s that we had kept in the cooler, waiting to refresh us from our efforts of the day. We made it!
Things I learned on this trip:
Carry as much water as you can when you are riding in the desert and especially on this trip. A note about water: you can stache water near the Gooseberry canyon, with the Trailhead off of the Grand View Point road, which does not require 4x4 vehicle. It is a 5 mile out and back with a significant vert gain to return to the road, but it would be well worth the stash if you had time/energy/need to do so. We did not do this, and we would have been okay with the water we had, but none to spare, and if it were any warmer out, we would have suffered big time. I am constantly reminded that the desert is unpredictable and deals a heavy hand when it comes to the elements, so always be more than prepared. This includes sun protection, water, and food and any other items that might help you not suffer out there in the open.
Not all vertical gain is created equal, especially when combined with the wind. Some of the flatter parts were very bumpy and felt like you were riding on the moon (similar to the feel of the Whole Enchilada trail in some parts), which zaps your energy much more than a smoother but steeper portion. So even though the middle part looks “mellow” as far as vert, this is not an easy trail.
Where to start this loop: As I mentioned, we started at the visitors center and left our car there. While this was optimal for being able to use the restrooms and things like that, i would have much rather parked elsewhere. If we were to do the loop clockwise again, I would park at the small dirt lot at the top of the Mineral Bottom Road. This would mean that, yes, you are finishing with a long climb, but then the car is right there and you get to be done! There is also a pit toilet there at the lot, so you get the best of both worlds. This also means that you get to do the long slog up and about and past the visitors center in the early part of the day (hopefully), and when you have the most energy. The rest will seem like a breeze after that! This also opens up more of the camping options for you including Shafer Canyon, Airport tower, etc. that are too close to the visitor’s center to hit on the first day if you start where we did.
I wayyyyyy overpacked for this trip. I probably also under-ate so did not use nearly enough of my snacks, but I brought two lights plus my head lamp, multiple breakfast options, so many layers (which, you know, I wanted to be prepared), a beanie plus an ear buff, plus a neck buff, plus a handkerchief. I blame it on the tired brain when I was packing, but I definitely could have left 3-4 lbs of stuff at home and fit more water. Lesson learned: pack well, and thoughtfully. It’s always good to have more than enough food and layers, but it doesn’t help to go overboard. I do have a list that I use to pack with but I haven’t done a 2-day, 1-night trip for a long time, so I definitely went overboard. Oh well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Next time I’ll be leaving that 10th packet of Clif blocks at home!
Be patient with yourself when you aren’t feeling it. There are reasons to not feel like you are doing an ample job out there. Just keep moving forward, and enjoy the place that you are in. Whenever I was able to stop and take a breather and a rest, I made sure to take some pictures, and sometimes I just took a moment to look around and take in the beautiful landscape of where we were. You really can’t beat being out there in the middle of it all, even if mother nature or your brain is raging.
Don’t be afraid to ask. Everyone out there is enjoying themselves in a place where not a lot of people can get to, and it really is a privilege and a treat to be out there. As such, there is a feeling of comradery and respect with most everyone out there. As such, there seems to also be a general understanding of how rugged it can be out there and folks will go out of their way, if they are able, to get you what you need, especially if it’s an emergency. So, don’t be afraid to ask. Not only will they maybe offer you a LaCroix, but you may also make some new friends in unexpected places!
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 6
Day 11: Razor Creek to Cathedral Creek Cabins
Stats: 54.56 mi, Elevation Gain: 4528 ft, Moving Time: 7h0m, Elapsed Time: 9h46m
The beginning of this day was pretty unremarkable. We got up early and started riding because we had to get a lot of miles under our belt. For once, we had a day that was generally “downhill.” Even still, we ended up gaining about 4.5k ft throughout the day and felt every minute of it, but it was a much needed reprieve to be able to ride more than hike our bike.
After arriving at Cochetopa Pass, we started the La Garita Wilderness Bicycle Detour. It was a very pleasant ride as far as I remember. We passed Dome Lakes along the way and stopped to take in the view, but didn’t stop for long, though there were beautiful campsites around the lakes. As we descended we could see a trail angel set up at the point where the detour rejoins with the trail. As we approached we could see quite the smorgasbord set up with coolers and a small dome tent for shelter from the sun/rain. This was the infamous Trail Angel Apple and we felt so excited to be able to meet him while he was there and to talk to some of the through hikers, not to mention have an ice cold cocacola and cold water!
The passage just after meeting with Apple and the hikers was brilliant. It was pretty easy meadow riding through wildflowers and open air. There were views for miles and our moods instantly lifted as we made up some substantial miles in a little bit of time. The trial turned into gravel road and we rode on the detour towards the Dome Lakes Wildlife area. This area was absolutely beautiful and we had the opportunity to ride alond sides these lakes for miles.
The wind started to pick up and before we knew it we were battling a headwind as we motored towards our destination, which we had planned to go about 70 or so miles that day.
At probably around mile 45 or so, we started to realize that we would not make it to our destination until well after dark. Again, both of us were very tired, and Aliza didn’t feel like continuing in the dark so we called Patty Sag and asked if he could call and see if any of the cabins at Cathedral Cabins were available. We lucked out and there was 1 cabin with two beds! At least we knew where we were going to sleep for the night, and it would be with showers and a comfortable bed!
The trek from where we turned off to follow Cebola Creek uphill was a long schlog. The wind was picking up by the minute and the road was progressively more rough as we went. We wove back and forth to each side of the rode, avoiding the large cracks and rocks as we went, or at least trying to. Then the real climb started. Our legs ached from the elevation at this point of the day and it really took everything I had to keep motoring. My underside was taking a beating and my back hurt pretty badly from riding quite hard for so long. It was another situation where we just had to put our heads down and pedal and just sort of make sure we were both still pedaling our bikes at any given time. I listened to almost all of the podcasts I had downloaded and that’s really what saved me, mentally, though now every time I listen to That’s Bananas, I think of how horrible that climb was.
What goes up, must come down and down we went. Here was the glorious descent we had been hoping for for so long. The road meandered down as we careened through the corners and let or legs rest for a bit. It was twilight hour and there was a slight rain in the air, but the sun rays still poked through the clouds. It was magical. At the bottom of the descent, I managed to pass the turn off for the cabins, and it took us just a bit to realize it, but thankfully we noticed before too long and turned back.
The jaunt back to the cabins was a bit longer than we expected and on the way through the ranch we were chased by a couple of dogs which scared the crappers out of me! The owners weren’t far away, but it got my heart rate up. Eventually, I pulled up to the cabin to see Patty waiting for us! Wahoo!
There was just enough of the golden evening left to take a tour of the cabin area and ranch, which was absolutely beautiful and had everything we needed. There was a little shop in the house of the owner with goodies including freezer foods which we definitely bought and heated up in our cabin including breakfast sammies for the next morning and corn dogs for that evening! The shower was hot and therapeutic and washed away the day. I have definitely been on adventures where niceties such as a shower and a Patty sag were not an option, but I will say that it felt like such a luxury to take advantage of Patty’s support and lucky that we got a spot in the cabins. It really made the rest of the trip much more doable for both of us.
Day 12: Unplanned Zero Day
Stats: 0mi, Elevation Gain: 0ft, Moving Time: 0h0m, Elapsed Time: 24h
We woke up in the morning to sunbeams and rainbows. Well, maybe not rainbows, but at least sunbeams. Things had dried out, we’d had a warm bed and I was ready to attack the day. Aliza had other things on her mind. SHe was sore and tired and mentally just flambéed so, she made it known that she felt like she had two options. Option one was to ride the planned route for that day. We would be able to hit the highest point on the route, just past Spring Creek Pass at 13,271 feet. The climb is supposed to be epically difficult, especially by bike, but worth the views at the top. But…she felt that if she did this ride, it would sap basically all she would have left in her and she didn’t know that she’d be able to or be willing to finish the last couple of days. Option 2 was that I would ride the route alone and she would ride with Patty sag and catch me on the other side, where she would rejoin me for the last two days. Though I was half tempted to do this, I also knew that it would not be as much fun without ALiza and also we had made a pact that whatever decisions we made on the trail, we would do it together and get to the end together no matter what. It meant much more to me to cross the “finish line” with Aliza than to make sure we rode every single mile of the trail. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to experience the awesomeness of the high point, but also I knew it would still be there in years to come, so I could always come back if I wanted. Option 3, and the one we decided on was that we would hop in the Patty Sag wagon and make the drive up to Silverton and have a rest day and then leave from Silverton to complete the rest of the trail, which would take us two days. Aliza felt comfortable with that, said she’d try her best and so we agreed. We packed everything in the car and headed out.
Everything did not go as planned though…On the map, it looked like there was a “shortcut” through the middle of the mountain over to Silverton which would cut more than an hour off of our drive time. We didn’t know anything about the road, but we thought we’d give it a shot. The “shortcut” road eventually turned pretty bumpy, and then very unmaintained and basically turned into a jeep road. So, here were were with this large, fully packed, top heavy, outfitted van, bumbling up the road over increasingly large boulders and washouts and the like. Not a pretty sight. We eventually decided that we shouldn't go any further because the potential for getting high-centered and stuck with no turn around point was high. So, while the drive was really beautiful, and interesting as we passed a really cool old mining area, we had lost a lot of time (and gas), and I was feeling a bit grumpy since I wanted to be out riding anyway. I think this the theme of things - if I’m out riding, even on a hard day, even when I’m losing my shit, I don’t consider myself grumpy (unless I’m hangry - as both Aliza and Patty can attest to, but who isn’t grumpy when they get the hangries?) Anyway, I digress. But on rest days, when I want to be out riding my bike, especially if it’s an unplanned one, I’m not in my element and I go stir crazy. Anyway, we turned it around and I tried to get some sleep.
Somewhere in between the cabin loops and Silverton, on our new route which would take us about 3.5 hours, we stopped for lunch and had a mediocre bbq meal. It hit the spot, but I was tired and ready for the day to be over with. Anyway, we headed to Silverton, and were going to try to find a dispersed campspot just up the road from the town proper. We lucked out because our friends from Phoenix were in the area on a weekend moto trip and had camped just up the road as well and managed to save us a spot just down from where they were. We pulled in just at dark, ate a bit of food, set up a tent for Patty and I right next to a clear flowing creek. This moment was memorable to me, because there’s something about sleeping next to a creek/river that I absolutely love. It calms me, puts me at ease, makes me feel connected with nature. So, Patty and I got a little time to recap and decompress about the day and the adventure so far and he gave me a little pep talk for the two days more to come. I went to bed feeling ready to tackle whatever the CT would bring in the coming 48 hours.
Day 13: Molas TH to Hotel Draw Intersection
Stats: 29.03 mi, Elevation Gain: 5030ft, Moving Time: 6h38m, Elapsed Time: 10h18m
We rose early and Patty Sag drove us up to Molas Lake Trailhead. This allowed Aliza and I a head start of the day and we just skipped the stretch of the Wiminuche Wilderness Bike Detour from Silverton to Molas pass, which I didn’t feel bad about. Little did we know, but there was an Ultra Running event going on and one of the pitstops/feed stations was at Molas pass. Luckily we had arrived quite early so found a place for the van and geared up and threw down half of an energy bar because we hadn’t had breakfast that morning. Some of the first runners started coming through right as we approached the Trailhead. I figured we’d just pass them and that would be it. But! (There’s always a but) I didn’t have my climbing or my trail eyes on yet, especially because we’d had a rest day before. We also hadn’t had breakfast yet. AND there was a thick smoke in the air from the fires in, I don't know where - maybe Oregon, maybe california? I can’t remember. Anyway, it was thick and I couldn’t breathe. Though the trail at this point was rideable I was having a difficult time and we played leapfrog with multiple runners. I felt bad bevacuse I felt like we were ruining their race. Then I felt pressure to try to push as hard as I could on climbs because I didn’t want to get in someone’s way that I had just passed on the descent. The runners were all very kind, and we had a Timber Bell on so they could hear us coming, so I don’t think it was as big of a deal to them as it was to me, but suddenly I felt the overwhelming desire to just huck my bike off the side of the mountain and call it quits.
So far this trip, I had felt good. I had felt tired, happy, elated, exhausted, sore, hungry, a bit grumpy, but never defeated. I had kept my cool the entire time, never going into a tizzy, never feeling like I wanted to quit, and had tried to be positive the entire ride, especially because Aliza was having such a hard time. But this was my time. Every bump, bruise, slip, root, rock, hike a bike had caught up with me. I got off my bike, moved to the side of the trail. Aliza and I looked at each other and I just said, “THIS IS BLEEP DIFFICULT! I CAN’T EVEN! I feel pressure to go fast, and it’s making me mess things up and then I hike my bike more than I want to, etc. etc. And then came the tears. She just looked at me and cried a bit as well and said, “Hell, I was up for quitting like three days ago!” haha We had a little laugh, gave each other a hug and agreed that we’d just make it up the mountain at our pace and screw the runners and we’d have breakfast at the top.
So I mounted my trusty steed again, this time a bit more calm and collected, ate a quick snack and started the slog to the top. I felt much more confident, less hurried, and more mentally able to tackle the elevation we were in for that day. The only real bummer about this portion of thet rail is that it’s supposed to hold some of the best views of the entire trail. The San Juans are a destination point. And here we were, right in the middle of them, and yet we couldn’t see anything more than about 6 feet in front of us because of the smoke. I can’t imagine running an ultra in those conditions! But these runners were doing it! (I can’t imagine running an ultra…period). Probably somewhere at about 6 miles in, we hunkered down behind a rock because it was pretty windy and warmed up our breakfast. Oatmeal and Coffee never tasted so good. I felt revived and refreshed!
The climb seemed to continue for days - we eventually veered off where most of the runners were running (the 50k had a different turn off than the 100k and there are much less 100k folks than 50k folks). There were a few other cyclists out there that were on day-trips and I envied them for a brief second, but then decided not to because we were more badass than them without loaded bikes! They didn’t envy us, but were in awe that we were riding all that we did and cheered us on at a few spots when they were taking a break. Engineer mountain, one of the most famous destination peaks was also right behind us, but we couldn’t even see it. I had to trust that it was beautiful based on the 6ft range of sight that we had.
At the top we ran into a few through hikers that had camped on the ridge in a beautifully sunny spot and said hello. They looked like they were having the best time together and I appreciated what they had! That’s what it’s all about, right? We also ran into a mother and son hiking duo that were doing the whole trail together. It was so great to be able to talk to all these folks and just be there appreciating where we were and what we each were doing for our own reasons. This is one of the things that I love most about adventure trips like these.
Just before the descent down to cascade creek, we summited the Blackhawk Mountain turn off. This was one of the last major climbs of the entire trip and we were elated. We ran into two lady through-hikers who were stopped for lunch. We had a nice chat, they graciously took our picture for us and then were in awe as we started the rocky descent down to the creek. The decent was glorious, that was until I locked up my front break and endo’d into the side of the hill. Luckily, I caught it on my go-pro so it wasn’t all for nothing! Haha I was a little shaken by it, but hopped back up, nothing broken, nothing bruised really and continued my way down. I think that was probably Aliza’s favorite part (bar a few really exposed areas, which I actually enjoyed) and she killed the descent! It was absolutely beautiful. There was a bit less smoke on this side of the mountain and it was soooooo green and muttered with wildflowers.
We took a reprieve at Cascade Creek where we ran into a guy who had been out on the trail for a couple of months. He was one of those people who didn’t really have a schedule, and didn’t really have a time when he needed to get back. He felt like his time was soon, but he was still enjoying himself out there, so there he was! We would later run into his friend who had been hiking with him. This much older gentleman was kind and full of sage advice and we talked to him as we rested from the challenging climb out of Cascade creek.
We had communicated with Patty Sag and had planned that if the Van could make it to the intersection of Hotel Draw and the trail, that it would be nice if he could meet us there. So! He did! We pulled up around twilight hour, which is the best hour. We had an awesome descent coming into the camp area and I was actually surprised that we had met him so soon! I knew the van was a nicety to have because we could have either kept going to water or just camped on our own, but again, we were taking advantage of it because we could.
Protein Rice Crispy Treats for the Win!
As we were setting up camp, a cute little +60 Asian couple hiked on by and stopped to chat for a bit. They were doing the trail as well and had been out for a while. They were so full of joy and excitement, even on their last few days. They planned to take about 3 days to finish what we would do on our bikes, in one day. They were almost done with the entire CT and had been having the best time! #relationshipadventuregoals!
Patty and I got to sleep in the van that night and Aliza took the tent, which was such a treat! Also, such a treat was that I had made some Protein Rice Crispy treats before we left for the trail and had forgotten about them so we pulled them out and had a delicious post-ride snack! If you haven’t made those for any of your adventure trips, you should! They are delicious!!!!
Day 14: Hotel Draw Road to Junction Creek Trailhead (THE END!)
Stats: 40.8m, Elevation Gain: 5361ft, Moving time: 7h11m, Elapsed Time: 9h49m
For a day that is predominantly “downhill” much work was to be had. We had heard that some of the best trail, especially downhill trail in the CT is on the final day descending from Blackhawk Mountain. I would agree with that, but I would also say that no one talks about all of the elevation you gain in the mean time. What goes down must go up, and eventually comes down but with a roller coast in the middle. Mentally I wasn’t super prepared for the last day, even though I knew that we’d have over 5k ft of elevation gain. I figured maybe it was a misprint. How could there be that much climbing when we had to descend almost 10k ft! Well, that’s the CT for you!
We woke up early and started out. We left most of the stuff on our bike, just in case, but packed very light and actually removed our rear packs and left them in the van. Call it “cheating” if you will, but I knew that it would be so much better to be able to use our dropper posts on those descents, so why not have as much fun as possible on the final day of our epic journey! I was feeling pumped and ready to go. Aliza was feeling just ready to be done, so that was her motivation for the day.
This final day truly was epic. You get to ride through multiple layers of forest, descending through shale, rocky boulders, alpine single track, hero dirt, fading into thick shaded forest with pines, and eventually clear down to the forest bed by the streams and almost marshy areas and rock beds (which are not fun to ride, btw). Anyway, for the most part things went very well for both of us. Aliza was killing it in the first part of the day (Again, I think her motivation was just to be done with the whole blasted thing), which really fueled her fire.
I think for both of us, the most difficult part was along the stream bed. The trail was a rollercoaster with tight turns and steep pitches coming up and away from the stream. It was also a little muddy because of all the moisture from the previous days and just really taxed us. We had heard from someone that “you’re almost there,” which you should never believe because if you are expecting that you are “almost there,” you almost never are. Each turn becomes a tease and you are forever disappointed. We rode well together though and as the day went on, I started getting my legs under me as Aliza sort of faded. So I tried to help her out by some pep talks, positive energies (but not to the annoying amount) and to just keep moving.
The final hill was a bugger but I was on fire! I flew up that mountain and was super stoked! I kept looking back for Aliza and knew that she was coming and just kept on going. Eventually, she joined me for the final crest to the climb before we headed down the final descent. We ran into a young couple who were bikepacking just a few day trip on the CT. They were experienced adventurers and were having a blast - but going the opposite way we were. They gave their congrats on it being our last day and away we went!
The trail coming down from that final summit is epic. It was flowy and then rocky and full of technical bits followed by fast hero dirt through the trees with epic views, rocky, shale, everything! Aliza definitely killed the descent on her full suspension bike and I was just proud of myself for riding it all on my hardtail.
Suddenly, about half way down the trail, we saw Patty riding up towards us! It was so great to see him! We were spent and he had all this energy and just rode behind us and cheered us on. IT was loads of fun! I managed to crash a bit on some rocks though on a turn because I lost my front wheel, but again, nothing was damaged and I got up without a scratch. Patty finally went ahead so he could be there at the end with snacks and cold drinks ready. I’m not going to lie, but the last part of the trail seemed to take forever. It is generally downhill, but sort of flattens out and is very pedally. By the time we saw the sign of the TH coming up, I was definitely ready to be off my bike! We pulled through the finish line and just sort of stopped. It’s strangely anticlimatic to have finished riding that far and put in that much energy just to suddenly stop riding at a trailhead where there’s not really anyone there, no medals, no recognition. But that’s not why we do stuff like this, is it? I did feel accomplished, but I also just felt tired and grateful to be done. We took some photos by the sign and collapsed over by the van. More nom noms were had and definitely an ice-cold coca cola or two was drunk. We had completed what we had set out to do - which was to tackle the CT and get from start to finish in the best way we knew how.
Aliza was and is such a great adventure buddy. We have experienced so much type-2-fun together and I know she is one of those people who can motivate me when I need it, give me a hug when I’m down, just listen when I cry, and allow me to give the same to her. We often ride the highs and lows at a bit different times during our adventures which is perfect because she’s there to lift me up and push me when I need it and I do the same for her. Having an adventure buddy like this is such a wonderful thing and I’m looking forward to even more adventures with her in the future! Here’s to all of your and my future adventures! Signing out!
I feel very fortunate and lucky also that my boyfriend and forever partner, Patty, was there for the trip and was able to offer support when he could. He also got to experience the magic of Colorado backcountry riding and I’m looking forward to when we can go back on our full squish and experience some of those trails again. A special thanks goes out to all of the trail angels who we saw that helped us with a cold drink or a quick snack. We didn’t use/see them as much as the hikers do, but still greatly appreciate everything they do when they are out there. Also, a huge thanks to the Colorado Trail Association and all of the volunteer time and energy that goes into keeping the trail maintained. It’s a monstrous beast of a trail to manage and they do an excellent job! Lastly, thank you to Joan and John in Durango and Will in Denver who were kind enough to open their doors to us and be the best hosts we could ask for. It’s people like these in our lives that make these adventures possible! Happy adventuring you all! I wish the best for you and your type-2-fun adventures!
Signing out!
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 5
Day 9: Shavano CG to just past Marshall Pass TH
Stats: 13.39mi Elevation Gain: 3806ft, Moving time: 3h58m, Elapsed time: 6h25m
The morning was dry but still cloudy. The ground was still wet, but we took the time to set out all of our wet gear to try to dry some things out while we ate breakfast, sipped our steaming coffee and packed. Our goal for the day was to try to get up and across Marshall Pass by the thunderstorms and then just get as far as we could, which didn’t turn out to be very far… haha Though, elevation-wise 3.8k ft in 13 miles is a pretty big feat.
So, the day started out alright, but before too long, the rain began. We began the climb up towards Fooses TH that would lead us to the top of Monarch Crest and over to Marshall Pass. I was pleasantly surprised with the climb up towards Foose’s. Aliza was not. Her legs weren’t having it, and it turned out that she was also very distracted mentally because she was going through some relationship stuff which had come to a head while she was out on the trail. So, needless to say, with her brain energy going elsewhere, she didn’t have much grit left to help push her along the relentless ascending landscape.
We arrived at the Fooses trailhead and saw her van parked. We got pretty excited because we were thinking that maybe we could get some dry socks and clothes, but alas, it was all locked up and Patty was nowhere to be seen. We knew he was out riding that morning, but didn’t know where he was at the time, so we decided not to wait for him since we needed to keep climbing to avoid any worse weather. So much of the trail was rideable, much more than I had thought, which put my spirits in top gear and propelled me forward. I kept pulling ahead a bit and then waiting for my buddy to make sure she was alright and still moving forward.
Up the trail I saw/heard some MTB brakes coming towards us and out of the forest appeared Patty and his friend Chris, who had joined him for some rainy riding. They had ridden up Foose’s Creek access road, which connected to Monarch Crest, took that over and went down Foose’s creek. So, they got to experience the epic climb going the opposite way. After experiencing the up way, I don’t know which I would have rather done. Either way is epically steep and rocky.
Anyway, we chatted for just a bit, they were just as soggy as we were. Aliza finally joined with a not so happy countenance, said hello, and then we kept trudging upwards. I was under the impression that we had done most of the climbing and I was ecstatic that I had ridden so much so far. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come.
From then on out, the trail just got steeper and more rocky. Here was the part that everyone talked about. My mental party came to a halt when I realized that this was serious business. I just needed my shoulder to hold out through all the pushing and carrying my bike and we needed to get to the top before the big storm that was rolling in. Our mentality from here on out was just to get up to the top at our own pace. I made sure to check on Aliza, especially on any of the especially steep spots where you had to hoist your bike or shove your bike inch by inch up the hill. Her knee was very tired/painful and she was not in a good head space.
Eventually after hours of pushing/hauling, I crested the very top of Monarch Crest. I thought I almost wasn’t going to be able to push my bike fully-loaded by myself up the last stretch. To say steep was an understatement. It was, by far, the steepest section of trail we had to hike up. Aliza was a ways back so I ditched my bike after a quick breather and hiked back down to help. She graciously accepted and we inched our way up to the top, her pushing from the front and me following from behind. The relief from being at the top quickly overrun by the urgency to get down off the mountain. We could see the darkness creeping in and it was freezing at the top. We managed a quick snack, a few pictures and tried to enjoy the view and kept pushing on.
Once you crest, you get to traverse the ridge and head generally downhill towards Marshall Pass and the jeep road. This section would have been fun had we not been in a hurry and not been freezing cold. The wind was whipping around us, and the rain which had started to sprinkle was feeling more like a sleet on our faces. We made it to the road without any major incidents and sat on the side of the road deciding what we wanted to do next. As we ate lunch, suddenly there was a boom of thunder and a torrential downpour began complete with wind, sleet, lightning, etc. We had missed the storm by just minutes and were glad we weren’t hadn’t spent any more time at the crest. Aliza decided that it would be best for her to call it for a while. We agreed to set up the tent and sleep/chill for a bit to see if the rain would dissipate after a few hours.
This is when the already blowing/raining chaos that was already happening got even worse. We were trying to find a spot right off the road to set up the tent. We found a bit of “dryer” ground under some trees right down from the roadside, though it was covered with cowpies. We scouted around and finally found a small space that we thought would suffice for our tent. So, now, to get the full picture - we are trying to set up a tent in a monsoon, sleeting, hailing, full wind, trying to avoid cowpies, sopping wet with freezing hands, and trying to do so as quickly as possible. We got the tent set out on the footprint, but then quickly realized that rain was getting inside the body of the tent because it was netted and the rainfly wasn’t on. We just figured that we’d hurry, but then as we were trying to get the poles out, one of the pole parts unlodged from the middle part, and looked like it broke off. AFter a bit of scrambling, we got the poles together again, and started fitting it to the tent when it came apart again. It was then, that we realized, thankfully that it wasn’t broken, but it had come unscrewed at the center joint. ONce that was fixed, the rest went quickly, but not before Aliza managed to lodge her entire foot into a thick and juicy cowpie. Ugh! I felt so bad for her! What else could go wrong!
As soon as we got the tent up, Aliza got in the tent, gear and all and got in her sleeping bag to warm up. I managed to get into some warm clothing and got in my bag as well and we sat in silence, I think somewhat in shock and somewhat just relieved that we weren’t in the rain and the cold any more. ALiza had been smart and brought hand warmers, so she shared one with me, which was a life saver.
She fell asleep instantly and I sat there wondering what I was going to do for the time being. It was still early in the day and I didn’t know whether to change my clothes to night time clothes or to make dinner or lunch or just try to fall asleep. I felt a bit claustrophobic: too cold and wet to go outside, but too restless to be sitting in a tent for the next however many hours. Eventually I dozed for a bit once I got warm, and then woke up very hungry. Now, I know that it is against the rules to eat or have food in your tent, but we agreed that this was a dire situation. After Aliza woke up I stressed to her that she needed to eat something, even though she didn’t want to, so we grabbed our goodies and made up some hot meal, keeping our food and fuel in the vestibule. We both kept our heated dehydrated meal packs in our sleeping bag as we waited for it to “cook” and I don’t think I’ve ever been so warm in such a dreary situation.
The rain didn’t let up and Aliza couldn’t bear to think of getting out of the warm, dry-ish tent to continue any further, so that was that. We slept on and off, eating when needed, only to get out of the tent to take care of business and put away food, and that was the rest of the day. We did “see” or rather hear one through-hiker that was actually hiking the CDT. We talked to him a bit through the walls of the tent. He mentioned that he had heard rumors of moose sightings right where we were camped. We hadn’t seen any, and hoped that they would just leave us alone if they came through when we were in the tent. The gentleman went on his way, I don’t know who he was or even what he looked like - but I hope he had a good rest of his rainy day hike! I think we were asleep before dark and slept through the night until morning.
Are we there yet?
Day 10: Marshall Pass to Razor Cr Trail/Lujan Creek
Stats: 21.5mi, Elevation Gain: 3829 ft, Moving Time: 5h50m, Elapsed Time: 9h22m
We woke up to glorious sun beams shooting rays through the clouds! It’s truly amazing what a little vitamin D does for the soul. Also, we had slept for probably 10 hours the night before so we were up and ready. We sprawled everything out in the meadow area to try to dry things out. We took a somewhat leisurely morning, trying to let things air out, and eventually we were on our way. Most of the next section of the CT is open to motorized traffic and eventually we would run into quite a few motos that we had to contend with. The beginning of the day went fairly quickly, open road, good weather and we made good time.
This was, until we ran into we ran into unrideable, deep, thick, peanutbutter puddles of mud. There was actually a small group of people doing trail work on the area and said that after they got done with the work, it would be mostly rideable. They were fixing the drainage on the trail so the puddling woudln’t happen. It was obvious that the moisture had just wrecked the trail so it was great to see that they were in the process of rehabilitating it. We said our thanks and proceeded to choose between whether we wanted to slosh our feet in the puddles or risk falling over on our bikes. A little of both happened as we made our way through to the other side.
From what I remember, the climb up Sargants Mesa wasn’t horrible. The trail was pretty smooth with occasional roots or rocks and the grade was more bearable. But not so horrible dissolved quickly as we navigated baby head sized rocks on a consistent false-flat ascent. Aliza’s patience for such terrain was short and she started cussing/walking quite a while before I did, which was surprising because she had the full suspension bike. Thai said, after a while, though a lot of the trail was “rideable” my butt finally got fed up and I just lost my mind a bit and had to get off my bike and walk. I just couldn’t even deal any more. You just really start to feel like all of your energy is sucked out by each baby head that your tire rolls over or bumps into. That, combined with the fact that I was on a hardtail just started to add up until I couldn’t take it any more and walking was had for a while until I could gather my wits again.
The descent from Sargents Mesa was no better. It’s always a disappointing thing when you get excited about descending because you should be able to go way faster with way less energy expenditure than all other parts of the trail, but the trail had other things in mind for us.
We came to see that instead of glorious descent as we had hoped, the trail funneled us into an un-rideable very rocky, rooty, jumble of boulders and washed away crevices of a trail, which was shared by motos. We approached a steep descent part of the trail to find a couple on motos heading the same way we were. They ended up passing us, which we were thankful for, but then we caught up to them eventually as they tried to push/navigate their machines down the narrow, steep “trail.” We waited for quit a while as they hefted and rolled and gunned their motors, slowly making progress. Finally, they let us pass. Even though we weren’t really riding the boulders, our bikes were a lot more manageable than theirs and we eventually made our way down the hill.
Our plan was to make it to Razor Creek, where we hoped there would be water somewhere near a place that we could camp.
We had run into a few people who had mentioned that there was an amazing view point that we could see if we left the trail just a bit and rode a few miles and then back. By the time we got to the turn off it was getting late so we coudln’t be bothered. Aliza was struggling again both mentally and physically and I did my best to be moral support and understanding but also had to give a bit of a pep talk to get her through the afternoon. We crested over the high point of the day and followed the Continental Divide for a short portion before descending towards Razor Creek. There were a smattering of tents at the top of the descent near Razor Creek and we started to worry a bit about the water situation because we didn’t see much as the creek trickled down the hill, disappearing into the moss and dead logs.
We finally found a place that seemed to have a bit of water and would be large enough space for our tent. Aliza started putting up the tent and I went to scout water. The water was only a trickle, but about 300 yards from camp I found a spot where it pooled. I dug a little bit into the mud and created a larger pool, waited for the sediment to dissipate and then used my mug to put water into the filter. It took quite a while, but worked in a pinch! The rain actually wasn’t so bad as we cooked our dinner and settled in for the night.
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 4
Day 6: Just below Searle Pass to Leadville
Stats: 28.95, Elevation Gain: 3,238ft, Moving time: 4h51m, Elapsed Time: 9h03m
We were on the trail at 4:50am, soggy as could be with almost all of our layers on. I’ll tell you what: one of my least favorite things about adventuring in weather is putting on wet shoes. I can handle most things, but wet shoes in the morning makes me grumpy. But so does having to wake up at 3:00am, so either way, it wasn’t going to be the best morning for me. The rain had ceased at some point in the night but everything was dripping and damp. We still had a bit to go before the tree line so riding through large wet roots was a thing. My headlamp wasn’t in a spot that I could really see over my baggage on the front of my bike so I was having a heck of a time.
Also, we had chosen not to eat breakfast, but just have a snack/munch as we rode and have a proper breakfast with coffee later. So, here I am, no good lighting, no breakfast, no coffee, 3am wake up call and wet cold shoes. How do you think things went? Aliza kept on trucking, which was great because it forced me to keep doing the same, even if I was crying just a wee bit. (Shhhh… don’t tell her). Finally I stopped and had a snack, which put a little fire under my tushy and I rode/hiked my bike a little faster to catch up with Aliza.
As the sun rose and we began to be able to see without lights, we were also cresting above the treeline and my mood lifted immediately. It was like we had transported to Ireland, or somewhere with rocky crags and spotted green patches of grass and I’m sure there were mountain sheep somewhere out there (though we didn’t see any). We got to Searle Passe at around 5:20am and celebrated with an obligatory summit dance. We crushed Kokomo Pass, which was our highest point of the trip so far at 12,022 ft. I think we did another dance, but it was short lived because it was friggin’ COLD up there! The wind about blew us over and it made us so glad that we had not ventured up there during a storm. We did talk to one rider who had been up there during hte storm the night before and said it was huge hail and scary lightning and thunder, which just validated us that we had made some smart decisions! Go team!
The descent from Kokomo was a blast. It was mostly rideable, as far as I can remember and it went pretty quickly, which was good because once again, the thunderstorms came right on time. The trail pops out on the road where the bike Wilderness detour leads toward Leadville. Though the pavement was fast rolling, the wind was strong. Aliza’s energy was waning quickly and her ability to put the pedal to the metal was long gone. We tried to motor together, but she wasn’t having it, so we needed to take it slow and steady. We were starting to realize that we would not be able to get to Buena Vista via our own two wheels unless we rode through the night because of how long everything was taking. So, we called ahead to the awesome Patty Sag wagon and he met us in Leadville just as the rain started pelting down. We hopped in the van and rode the rest of the way to Buena Vista where to our Airbnb where we would be spending the next day as a much needed Zero day. At first, I will admit that I was a bit disappointed by having to miss some of the trail and felt a little blow to my pride for getting some rides to specific points on the trail, but going into this adventure, Aliza and I had agreed that no matter what happened, we were in it together and we would make decisions together about what we needed to do to complete it together and that’s what we did! We went and grabbed dinner in Buena Vista - a cute little fresh foods place that I can’t remember the name of. Loads of laundry were done and we relaxed like nobody’s business.
Day 7: Zero Day: Buena Vista
Stats: 0 mi, Elevation Gain: 0ft, Moving Time: 0h0m, Elapsed Time: 24hrs
Our rest day was magical, but as with all rest days, I felt very restless. You go from pedaling your bike all day every day to doing absolutely nothing besides eating, resting, laundry, a quick bike wash and check and then going back to resting and eating. We ate Casa Sanchez Mexican restaurant and it hit the spot. This cute little joint had outdoor seating in their covered patio area and the meal included the most delicious sopapillas for dessert! We hear they sometimes include a shot of Tequila with the meal, but we didn’t order drinks in the first place, so they didn’t offer. We saw another table that got shots delivered all around, though, so I think the rumors are true!
We also had to make an obligatory stop to the bike shop in Buena Vista. My derailleur wasn’t shifting properly after a couple spills and some mud and grime, so I had them check that out. Aliza also got her crank looked at again. They got us in quickly and our bikes were ready to go in a couple hours. In the mean time, we treated ourselves to some mini belgian waffles in the little cafe that is attached to the bike shop. GET THESE IF YOU ARE THERE! They were only $3 or so for one and I could have eaten 10! (though I did a great job of restraining myself!).
We also ventured over to Cottonwood Hot Springs to have a soak.
The mineral hot springs in man made pools were a much needed reprieve for our tired legs. There’s also a little area where you can scramble down to the river next to the springs to take a quick cold soak, so of course we had to experience the thrill of immersing ourselves in cold river water. I’m a wuss with such things and while I soaked for a bit, I got out pretty quickly. Aliza was a champ and stayed in quite long. Patty even submerged his head under! His bravery would prove futile later though, because he started to feel under the weather and after some internet research, we “diagnosed” him with cold shock, which apparently can happen when going from one extreme temperature to the other. He felt very out of it and a bit dizzy and nauseous for the next couple of days, poor guy.
Anyway, I was glad we were only resting for one day and was anxious to get back on the trail. My grumpiness and tummy start to act up on rest days, though I know it’s so good for me, so I tried to just chill and headed to bed early after a good stretch session.
Patty in pure sopapilla bliss!
Day 8: Avalanche Trailhead to Shavano CG
Stats: 29.11mi Elevation Gain: 4688ft, Moving Time: 5h38m Elapsed Time: 8h54m
Ready to Roll at Avalanche Trail Head
Patty Sag drove us to the Avalanche Trailhead, which is where the bike wilderness detour meets back up with the CT proper. This way, we avoided a generally boring road/gravel climb out of Buena Vista. It was overcast and a little chilly and we assumed we were in for some weather that day.
The trail conditions in this section of the CT were spot on! We could actually pedal our bikes, it wasn’t too soggy and the ups and downs weren’t horrible. We did have to cross a couple of creeks, some of which had little bridges and some did not, but we were already sort of soggy anyway due to a misty rain, so it wasn’t a big deal to get our feet a bit wet.
Not too far into the ride, I managed to slide out a bit on a wet section and banged my derailleur again! Ugh! All the $$ out the door and now I had a derailleur that wasn’t shifting properly. I tried to adjust it on the fly and it helped a bit, but was limited in my gear options.
After descending off the ridge, we popped out on a road, so it was pretty quick riding for a while. This part of the trail is for both hikers and cyclists, and bypasses around private land. We saw a couple of hikers on this section, going the opposite way. I vaguely remember having a bit of a hard time mentally on this part, but I don’t quite remember. We stopped for a bit for some reason, but then obviously kept on truckin after a quick snack and a stretch.
At one point, after we returned to trail, we were on the 6.6 mile section where there are several water sources and good camping areas, though everything was just a damp soggy mess and we weren’t looking to stop here anyway. We did see quite a few hikers through this area. We decided to hunker down in a little shire area for some nom noms and ran into two day-hikers, young guys, who were out looking for mushrooms. The damp, moss and aspen covered hills definitely seemed like prime mushroom housing, and they showed us their bounty. They had foraged all types of mushrooms, some of which were definitely chanterelles, some lobster and some that they weren’t so sure about. They offered some of the chanterelles to us, and I took them up on it, but after riding with them for a bit they became a little too moist and broke down a bit so I ended up tossing them, but dang, they would have been good with my dindin!
From the end of this roller coaster trail, traversing down into creek crossings and up again and again, the rest of the trail was climb, climb, climb. From what I remember we could ride most of it, with small areas of hike a bike, but could be rideable if you had the legs. Somewhere in this area of the trail it had started raining profusely and we were soaked to the bone. We didn’t know how far we were going to get that day and decided to ride until we couldn’t any more. I think both of our morale was low and our rested legs wanted to rest for longer. We descended down a ways and the trail reaches the Angel of Shavano trailhead. Here, it was raining so hard, we could hardly see anything, so we pulled over at the day-use area at Shavano CG and joined some through-hikers in the pavilion in having a hot drink to try to warm our weary bones. The longer we sat there, it was very apparent that Aliza didn’t want to go any further that day. I probably could have made it happen, but we also knew that we had already done almost 5k ft of climbing that day, our legs were tired, and we had another big climb in front of us, which would lead to higher elevation, colder temperatures, and a chance of being exposed in a thunderstorm.
The rest of the through-hikers had decided to call it a day too and ambled their wet selves over to the campsites. We went and looked at the campsites and realized we were a bit late to the game, with no campsites open, we returned to the pavilion. It did say no camping, but we figured that we’d just go ahead and set up and if someone kicked us out, we’d let them deal with trying to find us a spot in the campground. We put our belongings in the outhouse, which was rather warm and we hoped it would dry things out a bit. Having the overhang at the pavilion as well as tables was a treat and we stayed pretty dry and warm for the rest of the night. We set up a tent on the pavement of the pavilion and stayed pretty warm! It was a great set up! And bonus! We didn’t get kicked out, though I do think we had a friend that visited us in the night and tried to munch our food. I always travel with a critter/bear proof Ursack and scent-proof bags, in which our food was stashed, so this staved away any critters that attempted to feast on our food.
Trying to find my mojo somewhere…
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 3
Day 4:Jefferson Cr. CG to Miners Creek Trail just past Breckenridge
Stats: 29.25mi, Elevation Gain: 4045ft, Moving Time: 5h14m, Elapsed time: 11h47m (including dinner stop)
The morning started out beautifully. We had a lot of climbing to do in a short amount of miles, most of which were single track so we knew we were in for a big day. We were on the trail pretty early with some refreshed energy, which we would definitely need. We immediately started climbing up towards Georgia Pass. The clouds were grey and it was chilly, but not too bad as we got started. We expected that the climb would be difficult, but it was actually pretty rideable…until it wasn’t.
The trail turned from turned into baby heads, turned into goat heads, turned into boulders, even on the descent. From what I remember this didn’t last forever, though, and once started the descent proper down into Breckenridge, things turned for the better. We flew down the flowy descent, making all the switchbacks (for the most part) and had views for days. Our energy was pretty good, from what I remember, I think boosted by the fact that we’d have a good dinner in Breckenridge. At some point Aliza’s bike crank started having some issues, so we were in a rush to also get into town to make sure we could get to a bikeshop.
As we got off the trail to hop into town, it wasn’t obvious which way we needed to go right off the bat. We spent a bit of time faffing around because the bike/pedestrian path that is supposed to be the easiest way to get into town was closed for construction, so we were unsure what our options were. We connected with Patty Sag and made our way to Tiger road where he met us and we piled in the van. We were lucky that we made it when we did because sure enough, the thunderstorms moved in and the sky grew dark. We made the stops we needed for Aliza’s bike and to try to find me a handkerchief (failed attempt), and found a great spot for dinner, a couple of blocks off the main strip so it wasn’t as busy and we were able to immediately get a seat. As we were filling our bellies, the rain started to pour! I felt so glad to be inside and not shivering out there in the rain. Both Aliza and I knew, though, that from here on out we would be chasing storms for the rest of our trip, which we were not excited about!
It was getting late, so we picked up Aliza’s bike from the shop and Patty Sag took us over to the Peak’s Trailhead. He had suggested this way as the best way to get over to Miner’s trail where we would be camping. “It’ll be fun,” he said. “It’s not too climby,” he said… Half way through the up and downs of this “fun” trail, Aliza and I had cussed all the cuss words we could muster. Our legs, after spending a few hours at dinner, no longer felt the need to do what we needed them to. Plus the jump line we encountered on the trail wasn’t that spectacular on a hardtail 70lbs bike.
Either way, we finally made it to our camp just before dark. Tired, full, but warm, we set up camp quickly and fell asleep just our heads hit the pillow. The next day, we knew, would test our grit and stamina, so we needed to sleep well and get up early. As I was drifting off to la-la-land, I heard quiet voices and the sound of free-hubs next to our camp. Some of the racers who were traveling the opposite way as us were riding through the night. Glad to not be one of them, I drifted away and didn’t wake again until morning.
Day 5: Miners Crk to just below Searle Pass
Stats: 15 mi Elevation Gain: 4094ft, Moving Time: 4h32m Elapsed Time: 10hr05m
The weather had officially arrived. This day, we knew we needed to try to get over the pass and up 10-mile before the thunderstorms came in for the afternoon. We also knew that there would be much much hike-a-bike, but what we didn’t know is really how much hike-a-bike there would be. A lot of the 10-mile section is very technical and very steep. (See pictures below). At one point, there is a spot where the hill is literally straight up - I don’t even know the grade, but it was unrideable, shit it was un-hikeable unless you paperboy’d your way up.
So up we went, pushing and grunting, a tremendous heave with our loaded bikes. We saw one hiker through-hiker going the same way we were. Most of the hikers we had passed/run into along the way were generally good natured, easy to talk to and generally have a sense of the same passion that we have for being outdoors.
This one man, on the other hand, had a different countenance. From the onset, nothing but grumbles spilled out of his mouth. Grumble this, and grumble that. He was complaining about the steepness of the climb, and explained that whoever built this trail didn’t know what they were doing and that, “on the Appalachian trail, this never happened. There were always nicely cut switchbacks up the steep parts..” etc. etc. So, he didn’t appreciate the way that the trail followed basically the only way up this stretch of mountain, and he was letting everyone that passed knew about it, which at the time was only us, so we got an earful. We acknowledged that yes, it was steep, but just kept on going. Of course, we were saying all the cuss words in our minds as well and stopping to breathe every three minutes, but for me, trying to keep a positive mind about things is every bit as important as keeping my body fueled so it could push forward.
Ten-Mile section of the CT ascends 3,300 ft in 8.4 miles. It then descends 3,000 ft in 5 miles through 1.7 billion-year-old basement rocks that cover the crest as well as the valley below. As you travel along the CT on this portion of the trail, you cross under six or seven different passes and crest above the tree line for several miles of tundra riding with astounding views of the surrounding mountains below. You literally feel like you are on top of the world, surrounded by green and wildflowers and you can see for days. The riding through the tundra section wasn’t the worst, but was generally slow going at times with short technical, unrideable sections and some descent exposure (that I don’t deal well with).
Once you crest on 10-mile/Miners and head towards Wheeler, you start to descend down towards Copper Resort. We had staved off eating lunch until Copper because we wanted a proper place to sit, a cold coca-cola and any other fun munchems that the market might have. One part of the rocky descent just down from the crest got a little rowdy.
Aliza is a daredevil, and as I mentioned in a prior segment, likes to do anything she can as to not have to walk or push her bike - partly out of the condition of her knee, but I think also to do with a little with her pride. The trail was getting precariously steep and while I definitely would have ridden it with a not-fully loaded bike, with some suspension, with a dropper, I chose to get off my bike and take a look. It seemed a bit too risky to me, so I got off and started walking. But Aliza? Not to my surprise, Aliza started bumbling her way down the bumpy pathway, trying to navigate her way down without gaining too much speed and not hitting any of the human-head shaped rocks in our way. She got about a quarter of the way down when her front wheel got bumped off course and away she went like a lost cow, stampeding through the brush. I thought she was in for, but she managed to slow herself enough eventually to where she just tipped over into the brush. It was a sight to see! I had to stop hiking my bike because I was laughing so hard and was grateful that I didn’t have to pee, cause I surely would have wet myself. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with my decision to hike my bike and myself down the rest of that part of the trail.
Me, making smart decisions!
As the trail re-entered into the tree line, the descent became more rideable and more fun, flowing into a few switchbacks and more wildflowers. We were almost to the bottom when I managed to take myself out and landed on my tush off my bike. I got distracted by all the beautiful landscape and suddenly I was on the ground. I didn’t get hurt though and laughed about how ridiculous I felt for falling over on such a non-technical part of the trail.
You can see Copper Resort as you descend off the hill, but it seemed to take forever to get there. What I thought would take us just a bit of time ended up taking quite a bit longer because it was up and down and up and down. I was ready for lunch! Also, it was early afternoon and we could see the storm clouds rolling in like clock-work. It was here, on the roller coaster trail that we ran into a couple of other cyclists who were racing and going the opposite direction from us. One especially looked haggard and talked to Aliza for a bit while she waited for me to catch up. Little did I know that two years later, this guy, Mike, would become one of my good riding buddies and would ride the Kokopelli trail with me in 2023! It’s such a small world!
We arrived in Copper resort and made our way to the market just in time for it to start raining. We sat on a bench near the market and I warmed up my dehydrated refried beans for my bean burrito lunch (yay for hot lunch!) Aliza was also snacking on the smorgasbord of nom noms that she had in her pack as well as what we had picked up from the market. Our glorious lunch was brought to a halt as a raging storm blew through. Crazy hail and wind bombarded all the tourists and they scattered like sheep. We hunkered down along with a few other CT racers who had stopped for lunch and a recharge as well. They were contemplating whether and when to go back out on the trail, as they were starting to head up the mountain the other way towards 10-mile. I, personally, would not want to be up there during a thunderstorm, but some of the guys were saying they were going to risk it. All for the race, right?
Calm before the storm. CT racers had made a pitstop as well!
Aliza and I hunkered down trying to decide what to do and finally decided, after the clouds broke just a bit that we needed to make it as far as we could until the next storm system. So we bundled up in all of our warm gear, and our full tummies and started the climb up to Kokomo Pass. On our way out of the resort we ran into one other lady racer so we cheered her on with our words of awe and encouragement! The rain cleared just for a bit with only sprinkles and we were immediately too hot in all of our gear, so we had to stop and strip down. But, as nature would have it, not even 30 minutes later, it was pouring again.
We could tell that there were going to be a few storm systems rolling through, each bringing with it wind, more rain, and then ebbing just a bit before the next one, so our plan was to make it as far as we could get just below the tree line, and then call it for the day. We were wet and tired and ready to be done. On our way up, we kept looking for a site that was somewhat near water that one of our friends had mentioned on his CT trek. We even had a pin dropped where he had stayed, but when we got to that point (or what we thought was that point) there wasn’t really any where to camp, so we kept going. Finally, we found a little spot just off the trail that seemed to be a little covered by trees, which we thought might help keep things a little “dryer.” The only problem was that we weren’t near water, but we didn’t want to risk going any further up and not having a camp spot. So, we pitched the tent in the pissing rain. Aliza agreed to start some hot water if I would go on the hunt for water that was about a mile up the trail. So, I got most of the bladders so that we would have enough for the rest of the day and the next morning and went for a hike.
The hike was actually quite enjoyable. It was all uphill on the way up, but not too steep and it was absolutely beautiful in that area, overlooking meadows, a ton of trees, and even with the rain and setting sun was quite magical. I got to the water source, which was just right off the trail and easy to get to. I was just minding my own business passing the time in my own head, when guess who I would run into at the water source? Our Grumpy Curmudgeon friend from earlier that day. I said hello and at first didn’t recognize him with all his rain gear on, but as soon as he started talking, I knew his cynical voice instantly. He had a lot to say about the rain, and then asked if I knew if there was an open campsite ahead and that “there better be an open site because he’d walked all this way and wasn’t going to go over the *#$% pass tonight…” and other grumblings of the sort. If any of you have ever read Bill Bryson’s book, “A Walk in the Woods” about his Appalachian Trail experience, you could probably imagine that this person is similar to Bill’s friend that accompanied him on the majority of the trail. If you haven’t read it, you should - it’s a great read. Anyway, he trudged on and left me in peace and I hurried my way back to our camp and arrived just at dusk.
We huddled and cooked our food quickly…in fact, I’m not even sure if I ate a hot dinner that night because we had had lunch so late. Either way, our bed time could not come early enough. We planned to wake up before light the next morning and ride in the dark up the hill so that we could most assuredly get over the pass before the thunderstorms hit, which proved to be a very very smart move on our part.
PS: No matter how much I try to remember to get pictures of the grumpy/no good/rainy and cold parts of the trip, I always forget. So, pretty much we had no pictures of our trek after our rainy lunch at Copper Mt Resort. I’m sure you can use your imagination though.
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 2
Day 2: Buffalo Creek CG to Twin Eagle CG
Stats: 43.3 mi, Elevation Gain: 5033ft, Moving time: 5h41m, Elapsed Time: 8h38m
We woke early and knew we had a pretty warm day ahead of us. I don’t remember much about this day except that I felt pretty good and Aliza didn’t. At Rolling Creek TH, the Lost Creek wilderness detour began, which meant we were on mostly paved/dirt roads for the day. You might think that sounds wonderful compared to trails, but in this case it also means sandy, non-graded roads, open treeless passages (hot), and washboard.
For me, though, with my hardtail, compared to Aliza’s full suspension trail bike, it was quite plush. My energy pedaling helped propel me forward right up the hill, where Aliza’s bike sucked a lot of energy that she was putting in. That, plus her sensitivity to heat made for a long grueling day. We rode together quite a bit, but also we rode with the understanding that we each just go at our own pace up the long ascents and then meet at turns or occasionally on the hills, just to make sure we don’t get too far apart. Eventually I realized that Aliza really was struggling and she needed more of a rest than just a quick stretch and a snack.
We stopped in some of the only shade we could find on the dirt road in the middle of the day. Ants ate our legs alive in the first couple of spots we tried, but eventually, after naming the road Ant Hill, we found a place to stretch our legs. We stripped down, doused ourselves with water, ate some snack-ums and just rested for a while. At this point we were in the heat of the day and we knew we just needed to not be in a rush and take it easy or else we could possibly get too overheated.
The road climb to the campsite was beautiful and brutal at the same time. We were literally only a few miles from camp when Aliza had to just not pedal any more. We dismounted, clamored over to a shaded rock area and laid on the cool rocks for about thirty minutes or so. We had just a bit of climbing left, so after a pep talk and some grumbling, we were on our way. We pulled into the campsites near Tarryall Reservoir and it was a busy, crowded mess. It didn’t look like there were many, if any, open spots, so we looked at the map and saw there was a smaller camp ground that we could possibly find a spot at. This was a good call! I think we ended up at Twin Eagles CG, a small spot, with maybe eight camp sites. We plopped in the first one we came to and set up camp. We arrived at about 3:30pm so we had plenty of time to rinse off and cool down in the lazy river right next to our campsite. After living and bikepacking in AZ, I will NEVER take a stream/river for granted! It is such a luxury to be ale to have an after-ride “bath” and a “wash room” for our salty, dirt-filled clothes.
Day 3: Twin Eagle CG to Jefferson Creek CG
Stats: 35.09 miles, Elevation Gain: +3802, Moving Time: 4h 55m, Elapsed Time: 8h24m
We woke up, refreshed and thankful for a cool morning. We tried to get an early start and were on the road by 7am, which all things considered with having to pack up and make breakfast and all that stuff, was a pretty great feat. We would be leaving the wilderness detour and rejoining the CT proper, which we were pretty excited about. The morning was pretty uneventful, and I thought it was pleasant, as we motored up to high alpine through the aspens, enjoying the rideable singletrack. The only drawback of getting such an early start was that we tried to stop by the well-known Lodge but it was closed when we got there. They have variable hours and we knew it probably wouldn’t be open bevcause it was early. We stopped for a quick snack and were on our way.
After gravel and aspens and wildflowers, our lunch stop was at Johnson Gulch where there was a cute little stream, and I swear we had turned into Bilbo Baggins and Frodo and had been galavanting in the Shire. Though it was a little buggy, the creekside resting place was much needed and our lunch spot gave us the energy we needed to continue on. We ran into two guys on foot (I think?) that had stopped for lunch as well and had a wee chat before they went one way and we went the other. Lunch legs hit hard when we realized we had to climb out of the gulch we were in and the long afternoon slog proved mentally (and physically) challenging.
Lunch break and stretch at Johnson Gulch
The climb up to Kenosha Pass was a bit brutal. I have pretty much blocked it from my mind. The only thing that I do recall was that, except for the two hikers in the gulch, we hadn’t seen anyone for the entire day and were just mentioning how it was something special to be able to ride to a place in the middle of nowhere that was inaccessible by anyone unless they really put the effort in when two people on horseback and their pup rounded the corner. We chatted for a bit, reveling in the beauty of where we were at on that ridgeline with views for miles and the serenity of it all. We bade each other adieu and continued toward the top. The camp area near the summit had a pump water station, so we filled our bottles, doused our heads, cleaned off a bit with our handkerchiefs readied ourselves for the final roll to Jefferson Creek CG.
At one point, we heard some noises in the trees and stopped quickly, unsure of what we would find. Suddenly, a few large quail flew out in front of us and we jumped so high! We giggled afterwards, and saw a whole family of the birds, climbing onto one of the branches that lay on the ground. They gave us quite the scare, and we were glad it wasn’t anything bigger.
Towards the end of the day, clouds blew in and started spattering sprinkles on our tired legs, shortly before we reached camp. We got a little turned around, unsure of which way the trail led to the camp vs. going through on the trail, but eventually found our way to the camp site in the late evening. We hadn’t known exactly where we would meet Patty Sag, whether it be on the road or at the campsite, but eventually we saw the van pulling into the camp just in time for dinner and just in time to get warm for the night. Aliza got a comfy bed in the camp and Patty and I slept in the tent. We dove into our resupply boxes for special treats that we had sent ahead and slipped into our dry, fresh clothing.
Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 1
The Colorado Trail is a 468-567 mile through-trail that runs East-West from Denver to Durango. The CT was originally completed in 1987 after Gudy Gaskill founded the Colorado Trail Foundation in 1986 with the main mission of the organization was to compete and maintain the trail. The trail in its entirety is kept up by the continued work of the Colorado Trail foundation, which is volunteer led. Work on the trail is mostly done by the organization who work in cooperation with the US Forest Service. As you might imagine, keeping up over 400 miles of trail is a daunting task so the efforts of these volunteers is a fundamental part of the trail's continued existence and use. After experiencing the beauty and epicness of the CT, it is astounding to me that such a large stretch of trail has been kept in such great condition over so many years. Thank you to all those out there who provide their time and energy and money to help keep this trail in existence!
Aliza at Lenny’s Rest
Bikepacking the trail is quite a feat. People have been traveling the trail on foot for years, but only in recent years has bikepacking the trail as a through-ride become more popular. It has been said by many bikepackers that have attempted the CT that it is a hiking trail that you can ride your bike on. I can readily confirm that is the case. With a ratio of probably 60/40% ride time to hike-a-bike time (of course depending upon your fitness level and technical riding ability), the CT is no joke, especially if you ride self-supported with all your gear that you would need for anywhere from four days to a few weeks. The Colorado Trail Race is a bikepacking self-supported race that takes place every summer with a grand departure in late July, alternating years going East to West or West To East. The race’s inaugural year was 2007, starting in Denver and heading West towards Durango. The race, at the time, had only three rules:
Race from Durango to Denver, self-supported, under only your own power, along the entire CTR route
No pre-arranged support, with the exception of mail-drops to a post office and only a post office
Don’t break the law
There may be a few more rules at this point, but overall, you get the gist. There are no prizes, no finish line glory. Just the bragging rights to say that you completed the trail in the fastest time that year, and of course, peeps are always vying for the FKT. Though I commend these folks for racing the CT, I honestly don’t know how they do it. I felt like I was at my max most of the time and it took us 14 days to complete (most) of the trail. I am amazed, especially by the chicas, like Alexandera Houchin, who completed the course in 6 days, 2 hours, and 33 min in 2022! Yes girl!
Me. In a lot of pain from separated shoulder. Eating Icecream, cause why not?
When my bestie, Aliza, and I decided to ride (not race) the CT, we knew it would take probably about 2 weeks (at least), so we put it on the calendar…in 2020. Well, as we all know, COVID had other ideas. I also separated my shoulder during a fun ride up in Oregon a couple of months before our scheduled trip. A few weeks before our scheduled departure, we knew it wasn’t meant to be and we tabled the ride until 2021.
The next year rolled around and everything fell into place. The weather was looking good, snow levels were perfect, and we both got the time off of work. Better yet, my boyfriend Patrick (Patty, aka Patty Sag), offered to be a SAG wagon for us and drive Aliza’s van to meet us every few days, so that we didn’t have to ship anything or worry about resupply. This was great news, especially since Aliza deals with quite a few dairy restrictions, so it meant she would be comfortable the entire trip and not have to worry about resupply at small markets and things like that.
Aliza and I are both experienced adventurists. We have ridden significant portions of the Great Divide MTB Route, Baja Divide, completed the entire Oregon Timber Trail, Kokopelli Trail and other smaller multi-day Type-2- Fun adventures, so we felt like the CT was the next level up. This would be the first trip that we would have to plan away from each other because I had moved to Phoenix in 2019 and she was still in Portland, but after many FaceTime calls and emails, we managed to pull our trusty spreadsheet together. Our spreadsheets looks something like you see below. We each can edit it at leisure and it gives both of us a good opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the trail, what to expect, etc. We both had a copy of the Colorado Trail guidebook, which you can purchase here. We also include things like links to lodging, confirmation numbers, phone numbers, etc and make sure to share the document with our loved ones and close friends so they can keep tabs on us and make sure we are safe!
Our nifty little spreadsheet!
The plan was to meet each other in Durango; Patty and I drove up from Phoenix together and Aliza drove from Portland in her van. We were lucky enough to be hosted by a friend’s friend’s mom and step-dad in Durango. Joan and John were the best hosts! They whipped up some popcorn for our arrival, made sure we had plenty of snacks and beverages and had a garage in which we could store bikes and gear. Best yet, their place was even right next to a trail head so we could go spin our legs out!
Getting acclimated in Durango for a couple of days was helpful - even though it was a couple of days, it gave us both a chance to feel crappy on the bike before heading out on the CT. We loaded up our bikes with our gear to make sure everything was working correctly and went out for a spin. It was rough! I felt like I couldn’t ride my bike, couldn’t catch my breath, and wasn’t having a ton of fun. It made me rather nervous, considering I was going to have to do a lot more riding up crap-ton more elevation and with a lot more weight on my bike, but just tried to brush it off, knowing that the altitude had a lot to do with how I was feeling and that it would get better with time.
Our ride the second day took us from the house. I can’t remember which trails we rode, but it was basically, climb, climb, climb, and then descend down some pretty fun technical/switchback descents. In proper Colorado fashion, it started raining just as we finished our descent. By the time we got about two miles from the house, it was pouring rain, and we huddled under a large tree, contemplating whether it would pass quickly or if we should just dash home and get soaked. We chose the latter, and sprinted toward the house. We showed up looking like the three drowned mice. I figured we’d just need to get used to it because we’d definitely have to deal with the thunderstorms on the trail.
The morning of our departure, Joan whipped us up a delicious frittata and sent us on our way with coffees in hand. The drive to Denver seemed to take forever. We got to town just in time to swing by the REI and grab some last minute items/foods and then ate dinner. We were originally planning on camping somewhere near the trailhead, but since it had been raining that day, I contacted my friend Will and he graciously invited us over to stay with him and his girlfriend for the night. We’d be leaving early in the morning so this was perfect so we didn’t have to worry about taking down camp before we rolled out.
At Will’s house, we unpacked our crammed bikes and gear and outfitted everything up so we wouldn’t have to worry about it in the morning. I was glad we did because as I pulled out my bike, I noticed that the rear tire was completely flat. Ugh! There was a huge sidewall gash, which must have happened when we were stuffing all of our gear and three bikes into the back of Aliza’s van. Luckily, because it was way too late to try to hit up a bike shop, Will had a brand new tire that I bought from him and we got it squared away with not too much hassle. (Thanks Will)! Will was a peach and put up with us nervous chatty Kathy’s. He has completed the CT race a couple (few?) times prior to that year, so knew what we were in for. He regaled us with his stories of terror and awesomeness of his experiences - I don’t know if it helped or made us more nervous, but it was still exciting to hear about some of the places that we would soon see with our own eyes.
The next morning came all too quickly, and as I rose to pack up and roll out, I realized I was not quite ready to be missing the comfort of a shower and bed and my tummy was a little nervous. I couldn't eat breakfast, but figured I’d get something down once we started riding. The trail terminus was about a 30 minutes drive and it went fairly quickly, especially so early in the morning. We unloaded our bikes and made sure we had everything. Obligatory picture time was had, and away we went!
Day 1: Indian Creek TH (East Terminus) to Buffalo CG
Stats: 31.6 miles, +4695 ft, Moving Time: 5h49m, Elapsed: 9h03m
We arrived at the Indian Creek Trailhead at around 7:00 am on July 26, ready to ride. It was a clear, cool morning, which was perfect for the start of our radical adventure! Feeling some nerves and jitters, we double and triple checked that we had everything we needed. Picture time was had, and off Aliza and I went, leaving Patty Sag behind. We would see each other in a few days.
Rolling out on the CT!
The trail from Indian Creek TH was lush and somewhat overgrown but it was a short, fun descent. We quickly got our “trail eyes” on and then realized, but as soon as we reached the bottom, we realized we would have to climb out of the valley that we just descended into. We reached the famous bench at Lenny’s Rest by about 9:15am and took a brief reprieve. We were officially on the Colorado Trail.
The hike-a-bike began early in the day and it was no joke. Aliza was on her last leg (literally) with her knee. She has since had a total knee replacement, but at the time, the hiking with her bike was not kind to her. She had really been working hard with her physical therapist and on her own to get ready for the trip, plus her brace helped her stability, so she was doing the best she could, but we both knew that her knee, which she aptly named “Hermio-knee” would be the weakest link on this trip. I was still dealing with stability and strength issues from my previously separated shoulder, and hoped it would hold up. I only felt it give a couple of times up the hill, so figured I would be able to make it the rest of the way.
We made our way up the bush-lined trail, which seemed to never end. Through-hikers that we had passed earlier in the trail leap-frogged with us the rest of the way up, making me question why we were hoisting 70 lbs of bike up this trail, though once the descent began, it made me gloriously excited to be on two wheels!
I honestly can’t remember much about the trail between the hike-a-bike section and the exposed burn area toward the end of our day. I know it was hot, which Aliza really struggled with. My training in AZ helped me acclimate pretty well, which I was grateful for (cause it was still a difficult ride). After a flowy descent, we started climbing again into a vast clear cut area that is recovering from the Hayman Fire of 2002. The openness of the landscape was unreal to ride through and was a complete change from the lush greenery and towering trees that we had just exited. Here, we were exposed to the elements including the heat and the wind, which were relentless. On top of that, the dirt was quite loose, so any time it pitched, our tires would slip out, causing us to dismount and hike our bikes. Aliza killed it in this section and I suffered hardcore. Even though she suffered from the heat, her strength and mental determination to not have to hike her bike more than she absolutely had to helped her get up those steep pitches. We eventually got through the burn area and made our way up to the unmanned fire station where there was a water spigot. It was time for a break!
We hadn’t seen anyone else on the trail for quite a while. We began to record our daily trail report when lo and behold, a young man came out from behind the station to say hello. This through-hiker had been taking a siesta in the shade to avoid the heat of the day and was about to get on his way. It was fun to talk to someone about the trail for a bit. We had found a “trail angel” Coca-Cola on the bench near the station and we told him he should have it since we would probably be able to reach someone/somewhere with a cold Coke well before him, since we were on bikes. After snacking and chatting a bit, we were on our way since we had a ways to go until our stopping point for the night.
We arrived at Buffalo Creek CG early in the evening. I think there was water for us to rinse off, but I can’t quite remember. We set up camp early in the evening and laid down for an early night, as would be the case for pretty much the entire trip. This is one of my favorite things about backcountry adventuring. There is something fulfilling about the simplicity of working hard all day, being with yourself in nature, sleeping and waking with the sunrise and sunsets and only having to worry about moving forward, keeping your body fueled, and your mind strong.
Grand Staircase - Escalante Loop (aka The Loop of Doom) Day 4
3:30am came quickly, and the three of us woke up and hustled to get out of camp so we could climb the morning in the dark. Patty wasn’t feeling so hot because he had been overheated and couldn’t cool down enough to sleep very well. He had doused himself in the creek several times that night in an attempt to cool down, but he still wasn’t very comfortable. I had slept alright and was excited to get this final day of riding in the books.
The stream was, of course, in a small valley that we had to climb out of, so we started climbing the morning. I found it was actually mentally motivating to ride up the hills in the dark. You can’t really see how far you have yet to ride to get to the summit of a climb, and you only just focus on what is in front of you. Plus, though we were trying to hurry and get as far as we can before the heat came, the experience of riding into the sunrise and arriving at the top of the mesa in the morning sun was worth the early morning wake up call.
Ryan seemed to be a bit more motivated than Patty and I to get to the finish line, and so he rode ahead for quite a while. I knew we had to take our time or we’d be scorched and out of energy by the end of the day, especially with Patty’s lack of sleep. I was trying to keep up with Ryan when I noticed that Patty was having a hard time keeping up, which isn’t like him. Every time he’d catch up, he’d fall right back behind. FInally, I let Ryan go ahead and waited for Patty. He had been carrying the drone in the bottom of his back pack and the pressure on his low back had been pressing on a nerve and his leg had finally gone numb and he was in a severe amount of pain. So we unloaded his pack and he laid down for a while, trying to see if he could get the feeling back in his leg and stretch out his back. Ryan eventually came back and took the drone on his pack.
A much relieved Patty was able to get back on the saddle and away we went. At some point in the day, though we were hustling, Ryan kept gaining distance on us and we lost sight of him. We knew he wasn’t having a very good time and wanted to get back to the car as soon as possible, so we figured he just went ahead. We kept motoring, eventually getting closer to town. Finally, after riding the roller coaster generally up rollers that we had been all morning, we got to the top of Kelly grade. This is the notorious steep, winding descent down from the mesa into the valley. The views were out of this world and Patty and I took a few moments here and there to stop to appreciate the scenery. As excited as I was for a descent, this descent is not to be trifled with. I live for descents! I have a history as a road cyclist and my favorite thing to do would be to bomb down the west hills of Portland, OR at 45+ MPH when I could. I love cornering, I love pushing it. But! Here I was, loaded with a 60 lbs bike, hoping that my brakes wouldn’t overheat or stop working, trying not to slide out on the tight corners, catch a tire in the huge ruts running parallel with my wheels all over the road, and keep in control on the occasional rocky-ass goat-head sections. Our short stops for a quick pick were definitely necessary to wring out my fingers and shake out my forearms and give my brain a break!
Just as the sunlight was starting to shift towards evening vibes, Patty and I motored into town. It felt like it took forever to cross the final straights, but we were incredibly thankful that we didn’t have any horrible headwinds, because this part is notorious for taking forever if there’s brutal winds. With a little energy to spare, but glad to be done, we got back to our car. Ryan had already come and gone, mentioning that he may or may not have thrown up when he got done and went directly to the closest service station to get all the electrolytes and coca-colas to try to recuperate before heading home. To this day, I haven’t seen him back on the bike and heard a rumor that he made a purchase of a motobike three weeks later. That’s how much this route sucked the lives out of each of us!
Some of these adventures that I put myself through are bike-cations. And some are definitely Type-2-Fun, where I say - “You know, that was really hard, and I suffered, but I would do it again, or I would recommend it. Then there are those adventures that are Type-3/4-Fun where I would never feel the need to experience it again, nor would I put it on my list of recommendations for folks out there. So, take it or leave it for this one! I know many other people have done it and highly recommend, so I also firmly believe that in any other given season that isn’t right after horrible monsoons and storms, it might be a little more bearable.
Signing out!
Grand Staircase - Escalante Loop (aka The Loop of Doom) Day 3
We woke up good and rested in our Escalante Hotel, ready to tackle another day. Again, the goal was to get as far as we could before the heat of the sun, preferably ending by about 2:00 or so and setting up camp for the day. Our goal was to get as far as we could, hopefully making it to Last Chance Creek via Left Hand Collette Canyon. We got started as the sun was rising and were pleased to be greeted by five miles of paved road, followed by another five miles of generally downhill gravel/dirt (Hole in the Rock Road), which was in excellent condition.
Our speedy process halted when our Garmin told us to veer right onto an old decommissioned BLM road that looked more like a sand pit than a road. We ventured off, getting stuck in the deep silt, not able to ride to the side because of all the goat heads that surrounded the trail on either side. Eventually the “road” tapered off into some bushes and we hacked our way through, following our Garmin’s to the general direction of Left Collette road, which is where we were meant to end up. I haven’t looked back at the route map, but my guess is that in the process of routing, we managed to route the shortest way to Collette Canyon road, but definitely not the easiest. I would highly suggest taking the Hole in the Rock rd. all the way down to where it meets with Collette. The sand pit was a bust.
The trek through Left Hand Collette Canyon was a little rough going, but worth the ride. It was beautiful and cool down there and we even ran into some trickling water, which Ryan and Patty filtered. Not long after we filtered, as we started climbing out of the canyon, a Razr OHV came by and let me know that Patty was behind with a flat tire. This would be Patty’s second flat of the trip, this time in his front tire. We couldn’t tell where the flat was, or why it went flat, so we just put more sealant in it and pumped it up with our last CO2. Ryan was up ahead and had another, so we hoped nothing else happened along the way.
We stopped briefly for lunch at the top of the climb, once we found some shade. We tried to keep moving as much as possible because the day was getting hot and we wanted to get to Last Chance Creek. At the top of the summit before last chance, we ran into two adventure moto guys who looked like two tanned pieces of leather. They were making their way back to Yuma, AZ after an adventure ride up to Montana and then back down. Epic! They generously shared one of their water bottles with us, which we promptly guzzled. It wasn’t cold, but it was cooler than what we each had. Shortly thereafter, we found where we thought last chance creek would be. It was dry. Our moods deflated a bit and we decided to plop ourselves right there and then. We found a flat spot in a wash (there was no chance of rain), and laid there for a while, trying to recover a bit in the shade.
As we lounged in the covered wash area, I glanced down the hill and noticed there were some green Aspens. Knowing that aspens usually grow around water, I suspected that we may have plopped down just a bit early. Patty went on a scouting hike and sure enough, just down the road next to the aspens, was a small trickling stream, that even pooled enough at points to easily filter water and rinse ourselves off. Our little oasis was a god-send and our moods instantly lifted! We wouldn’t have to worry about conserving water for our final day of riding and we had all the water we needed to cool off and re-hydrate.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of water time and waiting for the sun to go down. We ate dinner at sunset and went to bed early so that we could make our 3:30am wake up call to try to get done by noon the following day.
Grand Staircase - Escalante Loop (aka the loop of doom) - Day 2
Grosvenor’s to Escalante: We woke up early in the dark (4:30), knowing that this day was going to be arduous. The notorious Death Ridge loomed before us and we were hoping to get there and through that section by the time the 100+ degrees set in. We were starting out with about 8L of water each, left from the day before, as we were unable to filter from the reservoir next to Grosvenor’s Arch. The scummy body of water was beautiful to look at, but rather nasty enough to not even consider filtering. We were on the road by about 5:30, just when the sun was rising. Little did we know, that wasn’t nearly early enough to get through Death Ridge is any formidable time to avoid the heat.
Ryan having breaky at 3:30am
As I crested the first steep hill, I thought to myself, oh that wasn’t half bad. I was able to ride the whole thing and it wasn’t too long. Once the guys got up there, we celebrated under false pretenses that it was one of the worst of the climbs of the route for the day. We took a brief reprieve and took in the view. Things deteriorated from there.
The portion of “road” between that first crest and getting to Death Ridge is quite the blur. I think it was a mix of rutted out, washed out roads to sand to steep kicker climbs that were unrideable. We kept trudging foward, though, trying to beat the heat. We finally got to the turn off for Death Ridge and I remember thinking, “Wait, that wasn’t death ridge that we were just riding?” And the realization that we were going to be stuck on Death Ridge right in the heat of the day made me cringe. Alas, when you are in it, you’re in it and we had to get to Escalante by the end of the day. The original plan was to continue on after a refuel in Escalante but as we continued on, we realized that we were far behind our initial schedule and may need to change our 3-day iternary to a 4-day.
Death Ridge was NO JOKE and took us much longer than expected. Because of such a treacherous monsoon season, many of the roads were deemed impassible, even by 4WD vehicles, and they were in crazy shape - even for bikes. It was much worse than expected and the hike-a-bike business was real, even for Patty and Ryan who are in tip-top-shape and are strong technical riders (which made me feel a bit better about how much I was walking). I managed to fall over a handful of times - all but one of the times was because I had to stop suddenly and I couldn’t get clipped out.
For some reason, my right pedal was insistent about holding on to my cleat, which made for pre-mature unclipping and multiple topples over. For the most part, I laughed it off, but inevitably became disheartened and distrusting of my pedals. The last “topple” came when I was careening down one of the steep rutted hills, following Patty’s lines. I’m a bit less skilled than he is and managed to get my wheel stuck in one of the ruts and came to a screeching halt and fell over. There I sat, hands in my head, with my bike lying in front of me, tears streaming out of my eyes. I just wanted to be done with the ride, and yet we still had about 15-20 miles left. Patty was a trooper and came to give me a pep talk, let me cry it out, and we were on our way. I swear, it’s not a bikepacking trip unless someone ends up in tears of frustration and helplessness. It’swhat you do after the tears, though, that is the most important. No one was going to come pick me up and carry me into town. I had to get there myself. So, we picked me up, got back on the bike and away we went.
Because of the haul and the task at hand, none of us really stopped for pictures or to enjoy the scenery, except for the one view above. This was the last time we saw Ryan until we got to Escalante. We didn’t realize, but Ryan was desperately needing to be off of his bike and was having a hard time of the heat. In general, he was a bit more speedy than us up the hill and by the time we reached the middle of death ridge, we were all looking a bit low on water. We had lunch at this spot and Ryan rode off and Patty and I played Leap Shade, stopping at each shade spot to avoid overheating up the long, steep, hike-a-bike climbs.
By the time we got off of Death Ridge, we were running very low on water (I had about 1/2 L) and stopped at every point that looked like it may have water. A few cattle troughs, a few ponds that were bubbling with polywogs, and a few dry wells proved dryer than a bone, and our mouths were getting dryer by the moment. I calculated that I could take a sip every two miles and I would be able to get home. In the mean time, we couldn’t really eat much because our mouths were so dry, we couldn’t really get any thing down our throats. Finally, we came across a cattle trough that had water. It was mostly covered with grass, but there were no cow pies nearbye and we didn’t see cows either and the actual water looked quite clear, so we decided it was our best bet. We filtered with both our steripen and our Sawyer filter and then went on our way. Shortly thereafter, about 6 miles from town, a Sheriff approached us in his pickup truck and mentioned that he had given all of his water to our buddy up ahead (Ryan), so he didn’t have any more water, but that he’d give us a ride into town if we wanted. Though normally, I am very much into the self-supportiveness and the purity of finishing yoru day no matter what , our water situation and the 106 degree heat called for a change of plans. We graciously hopped in his truck with our bikes loaded in the back and got the ride back into town.
When we arrive into town, we found Ryan at the gas station, sitting on the pavement, surrounded by almost every liquid possible, looking rather discouraged and ressembling a roasted chicken. He had finished just before we arrived and had run out of water and was suffering from heat exhaustion. He hadn’t been able to eat anything for the last few miles because of lack of water and was absolutely depleted. We decided, smartly, that we needed to call it a day and got a room at the Prospector Inn. After running to the mercantile riht efore closing and ordering some tasty food from Escalante Outfitters, we settled into our room to prepare for the next day, reevaluating where our stop would be for the next day and guzzling as much water and electrolytes as possible to try to recover from the effort at hand.
