Epic!

Got another item on my Life List today - Mountain Bike Monarch Crest. Before today I was under the impression that this ride was 'beautiful, long, and mostly downhill'. While that is not wrong it is a bit misleading. The 'downhill' ride starts out with 4 miles of riding up to 12,000 feet. That is where this photo was taken - absolutely breathtaking up on the continental divide. Andy made lots of 'space' sounds because it felt like riding on the moon.

The ride included 3,000 feet of vertical gain, 7000 feet of drop, and 37 miles of amazing biking. About halfway through the ride, we added rain, hail, and MUD to the list. Luckily the rain showed up as we were almost finished descending this loose scree field. That could have been quite bad if the rocks were wet.

We pulled up next to another group at a fork in the trail and decided to wait out the hail - bike helmets offer only so much protection. The other group was frantically trying to get their rain gear on, and then they stood huddling, cold under the trees. After the hail quit, Andy said 'well, I'm off, you guys can catch up with me' and he rode off into the downpour. C and I looked at each other and also rode off. R was behind us and apparently two girls riding off into the rain completely demoralized the guys huddled under the trees. We rode through streams, were completely covered with mud, had to do some hike-a-bike where it was too steep and muddy to ride. At one point the water was rushing down the trail in a little 6 inch wide stream. Want to know the correct line to take? Just follow the water. Most of the water and mud pictures aren't very good because I had nothing that wasn't wet and muddy with which to wipe off the camera lens.

Eventually we rode ahead of the storm and finished up the ride. The ride, happily enough, ended at Elevation brewery. C and I enjoyed a tasty brew while the guys ran shuttle. The brewery also had a hose out front so we could rinse off the several pounds of mud we had accumulated.

Certainly an item worthy of the life list!