Right. The idea is simple, but me bludgeoned brain convolutes things. However, I am greatly encouraged by the number of folks from this list I’ve been blessed to meet with and ride, so who knows what is possible! Grin. I’ve been puzzling this out and come up with the following invitation (because me bludgeoned brain is in charge, all plans are subject to change, hence the challenge!):
Option 1. I plan (ha!) on doing a bikepacking trip in July from Green Mountain Falls to Salida and then some combination of the Colorado Trail’s Collegiate Loop and the Colorado 14ers Loop, sans peak bagging (links below). Route uncertainty is due to the necessary ride arounds for wilderness areas, which prohibit bikes. My modis operandi is to pick a time I hope to go, and then if/when the brain is doing well, I go. Obviously, that makes joining a hit/miss thing unless your schedule is flexible. Knowing this, I would be delighted to share the trail with a few folks (too many would be a challenge, and I’ve no idea what too many is, so there’s that, but chances are this is self-limiting. Grin) for some or all of the trip I do, whatever it ends up being, however far I get. Ideally, it is an out and back to Green Mountain Falls, but the back from Salida has yet to be tested. If you are interested, you’re nuts. If you’re still interested, contact me off list and we can see what schedule options there are. Ideal meet-up would be in GMF or Salida, but options exist in other mountain towns, the timing just gets less predictable as they are more mid-trip with unpredictable distances. I camp at unimproved, wild spots I find along the way in National Forest, ideally as remote as feasible. In general, I am able to start a bikepacking trip within a week or two of planning to start. Thus, this nutty idea seems least nutty for folks who are 1. familiar (but not necessarily expert) with trail riding and bikepacking and 2. either folks in Colorado who what to join and have a flexible schedule, or if folks from farther away plan a trip they will do regardless, and if timing works with my brain, great! I don’t track milage or speed, but tend to ride 6-8 hours a day on riding day (at most a rest day a week), which averages 60-80 miles/day on roads, half that or less on trails (I plan for 6, but sometimes route requires more. Brain doesn’t do well with over 8, but that sometimes happens too). I am happy to match pace at or slower than mine. Grin. The route from Green Mountain Falls to Salida is nearly all back roads, mostly dirt, no trail. It takes back roads to near Eleven Mile Cañon, then to Hartsel where it joins the Great Divide Mountain Biking Route to Salida, with a night on a ridge above Salida on the way. I am most familiar with this section, with the alpine loop I am familiar with only specific sections. Other options of this route are a leg down and back on the CT south from Salida, and/or going to near Breckenridge and back to GMF via Boreas Pass and backroads from there. Colorado Trail (the Collegiate Loop, modified to start/end at Salida): http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/bikepacking-the-colorado-trail/ and https://coloradotrail.org/trail/guidebooks-and-maps/ Colorado 14ers Loop: http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/bikepacking-the-colorado-trail/ and https://www.bikepackingroots.org/colorado-14ers-loop.html Option 2: A night or two on the skirts of Pikes Peak, Ring the Peak Trail, in the spring, summer, or autumn. Pace is more laid back and I know these trails very well. Option 3: Someone, who isn’t me, organizes whatever they want to and if I can make it, great!, but chances are not, as I don’t tend to survive organized events well. The fact that nobody has yet done this in the flyover states says this option is unlikely, but one never knows. So we don’t clutter the list, my email is lamontglen [at} mac dot com. With abandon, Patrick www.MindYourHeadCoop.org www.CatholicHalos.org www.DeaconPatrick.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
