Monarch Crest

Chris and Heather were kind enough to invite us along on a Monarch Crest Trail ride this fall. Abbey and Cindy decided to sit this one out since they hadn't been doing enough riding this year, and the Monarch Crest Trail is a pretty long haul. We had ridden the Monarch Crest Trail last year on Labor Day Weekend. Here's a link to that, in case you'd like to review.

We met the CH&C and Bobby on Friday, 18 September near Monarch, CO, where they'd rented a cabin. It was nice. The cabin was compact but worked well. Quinn and I shared a Murphy bed, which was sort of interesting. Then we got up Saturday morning, had a big breakfast, and then set up our shuttle. We left C&Hs truck down in Poncha Springs where we'd end up when the ride was done, and then used our Armada to haul the four of us and our bikes up to Monarch pass. Here's a link to our route.

It was a great ride again, as expected. The weather was perfect -- just try to find a cloud in these pictures. The rainbow trail was tough, as expected, but on the gnarly rocky downhills Quinn and his Heckler just floated down. And I had to try to keep up. That night we had pizza in Salida and the relaxed in the hot tub at the cabin before bed. I'm already looking forward to next time.