Off to Colorado!

Kelly and I are on vacation in Colorado.  This is the third year in a row that we've traveled to this part of the country.  There is just something about this place that we can't help but want to see.  Our trip started at 4:15 am on Saturday, the 25th when we arrived at the airport to check in.  Thanks to Southwest, we packed our frames in big bags, and each brought a wheel box.  We arrived in Denver around 11:00 and loaded up the mini-van.  Our next stop was a little campground just outside Salida where Kelly set up shop and built both of our bikes.  With the bikes built and ready to go, we got back on the road and made the drive over Monarch pass to Crested Butte.  The view from town never gets old.  In total, we were up for 22 hours that day! 




We stopped at Big Al's to ask about trails and got some great suggestions.  The plan was to get up and ride the Canal loop on Sunday.  What a great decision!  Kelly had seen the trails the year before when he road in the Crested Butte Classic, but for me, it was my first time.  And it was just beautiful.  The trail cuts through the hills and aspens.  You can see the back side of Mt. Crested Butte for most of the ride. 

Crested Butte is the wildflower capital of Colorado and we were expecting to see a ton of them.  Believe it or not, we were early for the flowers--they have started blooming but are not at their peak.  This past winter was a big one for CB....record snowfall.  So much so, that many trails that are above 10,000 ft. are still snow-covered and unrideable. 

We headed back to the hostel and made lunch.  One of the great things about CB, is that you can ride to the trails from town.  Lower loop is one of those trails.  We had an easy spin and had a picnic.  We were going to head back to the hostel to take a break, but realized that if we pushed up to Mt. Crested Butte, we could ride Snodgrass too.  For those of you that know us very well, the Snodgrass loop was a suggestion for a second day of riding.......we did both rides in one day! 

We finished off the day by having our favorite pizza at The Stash.  And then on Monday, we were off to Gunnison to ride the Hartman trails.