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Passion X-Post - Monarch Crest Ride

1K views 15 replies 12 participants last post by  Jdub 
#1 ·
I thought the statement "The best Thursday I've had in a while" pretty much summed up our entire day. A MTBR.com heavy hitter Scrublover, a MTBR.com lurker Bells and myself took off very early yesterday morning from the Boulder area 3 hours SW to Poncha Springs for a ride often dubbed Monarch Crest, although Monarch Crest is just the beginning.

While technically a shuttle ride, its what is deemed a "Colorado Shuttle". You may drop 6-7k feet, but you earn it by pedaling up several thousand as well. We did the Monarch Crest Trail to Silver Creek (I think) to the Rainbow Trail. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 miles of pure singletrack bliss.

Enough pontification, on with the pics...

The mandatory "tourist" picture at the top of the pass.


Scrublover climbing away on the Crest Trail at 11,500 feet.


Bells heads towards the last few trees before we top out above treeline


Scrubby, Bells and another rider heading towards the ridge


Looking back at what we've just ridden



On top of the world, or at least the Crest


Scrublover don't need no stinking oxygen...


Scrubby & bells riding towards the first descent


This looked like a nice spot for some lunch


Bells checking out the descent that awaits us


Bells heading down


Scrubby is a sharp dressed biker, and he can ride a bit too


A token pic from the Rainbow Trail. There was a lot more incredible singletrack with great views that was just too fun to stop and take pics.
 
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#3 ·
canyoncreek said:
That ride is sooooooo crowded on weekends, so it is always nice when you can do it on a weekday as you did. Did you see alot of people anyways?
Yeah it was nice to be able to get away during the week, and the weather was perfect as well.

There was our group, two older gentlemen, a couple and then one or two other groups. We kept passing and being passed by the same people, but probably only saw 10 different people on the trail all day long.
 
#4 ·
You are welcome to take pictures on any of my rides any time you want...

Very nice pics. :thumbsup: Our day was overcast which led to less brilliant pics than yours. But a great ride regardless...

I want to do this ride again just for the wow factor!
 
#5 ·
kchri said:
You are welcome to take pictures on any of my rides any time you want...

Very nice pics. :thumbsup: Our day was overcast which led to less brilliant pics than yours. But a great ride regardless...

I want to do this ride again just for the wow factor!
Thanks for the kind words. I took my DSLR with a couple different lenses, which added at least 4-6 lbs of weight to my pack, but I am glad I did now.

We were having so much fun and moving along pretty quickly to avoid getting caught in afternoon T-Storms that we didn't get to take as many pics on the Crest Trail as I would have liked, but sometimes you just gotta ride and take pics next time. Now that I've ridden it once I've got a couple spots in my head that I should setup photos at next time.

My back is feeling the effects of having 30lbs on it all day yesterday though...
 
#11 ·
does anyone have an online map for this Ride?

I really would like to get this ride in before the end of this season, can someone point me to a map for this area?
Thanks
 
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