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<\/a><\/p>\nDay 1: I did a full day of driving to the San Rafael Swell in the eastern part of Utah where I setup camp in a area known as \u201cThe Wedge\u201d on the edge of The Little Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n
On Day 2, I did a dawn patrol ride along the Good Water Canyon Rim Trail where I enjoyed some great scenery and some high quality on the edge singletrack.\u00a0 Afterwards I broke camp and did another sizable drive to Winter Park, CO to met up with my old friends Kevin and JD and met Greg and Barb.\u00a0\u00a0 I would be crashing at Greg\u2019s house for the next two nights.<\/p>\n Greg owns a\u00a0trail design and construction business and\u00a0the next day I was treated to some of the local goods that he played a major part in bringing to life.\u00a0 This was also my welcome to high-country Colorado riding day and boy was the top elevation of around 11,000 feet a wake up call to my sea-level lungs.\u00a0 The aspens were awesome!<\/p>\n On Day Four we did a point to point ride from the Vail Pass Summit to Minturn on the Bowman Shortcut trail and the Two Elks trail.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh my what a great trail and with some good technical riding.\u00a0This\u00a0trail really made you use pretty much your entire\u00a0range of on-the-ground technical skillsets.\u00a0 I was blown away by the beauty of this ride.\u00a0\u00a0 We enjoyed some\u00a0tasty post-ride grub and beers in Minturn.<\/p>\n Afterwards we\u00a0heading back up to Vail Pass summit and then further up a\u00a0forest service roads to Shrine Pass where my and Kevin\u2019s truck were at. When we got there I noticed there was a fire ring already setup not far from my truck.\u00a0 The views were great so I did not even move the truck.\u00a0 I pulled up out the gear and setup camp for the evening at 11,100 feet.\u00a0 The rest of the trip would follow this same kind of short-tem decision making.<\/p>\n On Day Five, I traveled south and rode the trails around Twin Lakes.\u00a0Part of the loop I did was also the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail.\u00a0\u00a0 After the ride, and a review of the weather forecast,\u00a0\u00a0I continued south and\u00a0camped near Poncha Springs.<\/p>\n On Day Six, I grabbed a shuttle out of Poncha Springs and\u00a0 did the Monarch Crest Trail along with Silver Creek and the Rainbow trails.\u00a0\u00a0 An IMBA Epic, this ride was\u00a032.5 miles long with 2,200 feet of climbing and 6,600 feet of descent with the highest elevation\u00a0being above treeline flirting with\u00a012,000 feet.\u00a0\u00a0 The numbers are meaningless in comparison to the experience.<\/p>\n On Day Seven I took a rest day by fly-fishing in Salida on the Arkansas River.\u00a0\u00a0 It had been\u00a0about 14 years since I last fly-fished for trout.\u00a0 I should have checked my wading boots a little better before the trip because about 3\/4th of a mile down the river the soles disintegrated loose from the uppers and floated away down the river.\u00a0 This made\u00a0for both a comical and\u00a0gingerly return\u00a0back to my truck.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0am reminded that it is called fishing and not catching so their was\u00a0no trout dinner for me.\u00a0\u00a0It was still a great morning of standing in a river waving a stick.\u00a0\u00a0 That afternoon I enjoyed a beautiful drive to Crested Butte and setup camp.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n