Monarch Crest Trail...

The Monarch Crest Trail, one of my favorite trails in the world! Noah and I took off for a quick one day blast. We left the night before, planning to run the shuttle before hand and camp up high.We got into Salida around midnight. We had already stashed our bikes and our camping gear at the top of Monarch Pass. I found the map I had pre-paid for under the steps of Absolute Bikes where the nice lady had hid it for me. We dropped off the truck at Poncha Springs and the pain began.Since we only had one car we brought my moto to run a self shuttle. It's a slick system for these high mountain rides requiring only one car. However, when we left GJ it was about 105 degrees. It didn't occur to us that it would be a fair bit colder up high. So there we are, two grown men in shorts, at 12:30 AM, on a small, blue, underpowered motorcycle climbing one of the highest passes in the USA. I was so cold that I was shaking violently causing the handlebars and the whole bike to swerve. Not to mention dodging the deer that seemed to be grazing on gravel on the sides of the road. At one point we both started laughing at the absurdity of our situation. The laughing seemed to warm me up, or maybe Noah was holding on too tight fearing for his life? I dunno?As we climbed toward 12,000 ft the rising yellow crescent moon came up to greet us as we rolled into camp. Chilled to the bone I was unable to get warm the whole night. A new sleeping bag is in order. Around 4 AM a large animal started snorting and kicking around. I was pretty sure I was going to be trampled to death in my sleeping bag by an Elk. This would be fitting as I am routinely attacked by animals when I vacation.

Well, the ride was amazing as the pictures show (All of Noah since he lost his memory card and thus, the pics of me) The ride was about 35 miles including the Rainbow Trail which I highly recommend. Its a slightly more strenuous way to get down, but well worth the effort. At least I thought so because I still had brakes, which was more than Noah had. He rides fast with no brakes!