Just wanted to add a few more pics and most importantly the videos I shot on the Pole Creek trail. Yes I was one of those guys that heard the talk of single track and thought count me in.
My time in Ouray was short due to a stop off in Manitou Springs on the front end of the trip. This was added when my wife, who came with, mentioned 3 friends had the hair brained idea to run the Pikes Peak ascent... a half marathon all the way up the peak.
We rolled out of Austin on August 18 late afternoon with the intent of driving till Raton NM for a little nap.
Drive was uneventful and made it to Raton, found a dark quiet spot in the parking lot and managed a good 3 hour nap. Woke up with the sun starting to come up, pretty much how I always plan my drives into CO. Grabbed some coffee and hit the road.
We arrived in Manitou Springs just after 0800 and pulled into Pikes Peak RV park where we were greeted by a very nice gentleman (the owner I think) who told us check in wasn't till noon but he would check to see where they had us. He came out of the office and told me the spot they have me in is open and he would help me get backed into the spot... sweet. We got the trailer backed in and in no time we were set up ready to go find some breakfast.
We also brought the smallest of our 3 dogs, a blue healer mix. It was her first road / camping trip and I think shes hooked. The other two are Great Danes, at 150 lbs each they don't make very good travelers.
We wandered into town and found some breakfast and came back to the camp site to enjoy the weather and company of our neighbors, retired couple from Dallas on one side, and a retired gentleman from Oregon and his dog on the other side.
We made the short trip into Garden of the Gods park for the obligatory pics of balance rock.
Walked around some of the trails for a while but it was actually getting kind of warm so we set off back to the campground.
Friends that were there to run came by to chat and hang out for a bit, then we grilled up our dinner then off to bed early.
Up early to go see friends off to run up Pikes Peak, grabbed some breakfast then packed up to head out to Ouray.
We made our way to 50 to get across CO. I love this drive especially along the Arkansas river.
Got into Ouray early afternoon and set everything up at the 4J RV park.
Had a nice cool evening with a good campfire, grilled up some steaks then hit the bed for our first full day in the San Juans.
Sunday morning woke up and made some breakfast then set our itinerary for the day. Last year we drove the Alpine Loop in my H3 which was a blast but we opted for a low key easy day and chose to drive the Red Mountain Mining area, hit Silverton for lunch, then Ophir pass to Telluride.
So nice to see live vegetation.
Up pretty high here. Took a little break to just sit and take it all in.
The dog in this pic was wandering around up there and came up to us reluctantly and had a collar on with tag riveted to it that said Colorado Sheep Dog and a phone number. Since we saw some sheep just a few minutes before arriving we deduced she belonged there. I called the number just to be sure but it was hooked up to a fax.
We set off and not 2 minutes down the road we saw a rather permanent looking tent complete with a wood burning stove that had a plume of smoke bellowing form the chimney, and another dog sat down in the grass. We also noticed a cot inside with someone sleeping on it. There was no vehicle up there so not sure if this guy just watches over the dogs watching over the sheep?? Anyhow we felt better about that dog being up there.
We got into Silverton and walked around a bit till we found a restaurant with a dog friendly patio. Had a beer and a burger and just enjoyed being outside.
Walked around a little more then headed on over to Ophir.
Saw this on the way... I want one.
A few shots from the drive...
We ended our day with a little walk around Telluride. Went down to the ski base and walked along the stream there. Very nice relaxing day.
Drove back to Ouray and got back to our camp site only to see a compound set up two sites over with 3 DS bikes. Recognized a bike from the forums as smegheads. Walked over and started chatting to get the scoop on the riding plans for Monday. Gary hung out with us by the fire getting acquainted and talking about the days of riding ahead.
Off to bed with the excitement of the day to come.
Up early to the sound of 4 strokes. Made some coffee and breakfast then headed out to Timber Ridge. There was a small congregation of bikes, did some meet n greet and started trying to figure out the plans for the day. While the group that was there was getting there route / day planned Scott, Stan, Chad and Duane rolled up. I had met Chad and Duane last year in Big Bend so we talked for a few minutes and were invited to tag along with them. Not the exact conversation but the jist of it, "hey were doing blah blah blah blah a single track trail blah blah blah" I looked at Gary and we both nodded Yes we are in.
Scott laid out the general plan and said its going to be a long day. Perfect that's why I'm here.
Gary has already made mention of our initial trek off of 550 heading up to Engineer, getting mixed up with another very large group of riders thinking we were all together. We weren't... this is where we stopped to get a head count and sort out the groups.
We continued up to Engineer and enjoyed the view and saw a few more riders up there doing the same.
We went back down the way we came to connect with Cinnamon Pass to his some double track trail Scott knew of.
We hit the double track trail that ended up being loads of fun. Rolling smooth dirt through the forest. It was a blast.
I have some helmet cam video but still haven't uploaded it yet. Will try to get that done soon.
Some pics from Carson City too...
Ok now is where the party gets started. Scott had been cutting the "stop and chat" breaks shorter and shorter. Hmmm does he know something we dont?
Well he says we need to get moving we still have a lot of trail to ride. Cool lets roll. Here is the start of the trail. Quick apology for the downward camera angle. I wish I would have double checked it but you can still get an idea of the trail.
I had been shooting video intermittently all day not really knowing what to expect from this trail. I managed to get 3 clips from starting the trail.
I know nice dismount at the end there. We ended up there for a few minutes as everyone had a little trouble getting up it. None had any issues with the tree like I did though. Surprisingly my headlight was fine other than letting go of the rubber mount that straps to the fork tube. It was super hard to get it back onto the mount so a few zip ties and I'm good to go. We pushed on...
After this section is where some important questions began to surface, most importantly "so how long is this trail?" The only person that had ridden it was Chad and that was 13 years ago, and he rode it the other direction. So Chad says he seems to remember it was something like 21, 23, or 25 miles.
Oh my....Scott again pointed out we should get rolling. Well yes we should so we did.
At this stopping point you can see the trail does seem to ease up a bit. We stopped to get the group together and after a what seemed to be a bit too long to be waiting for Greg and Duane, Scott backtracked to check on their progress. Scott returned by himself and as Gary had posted up earlier he and Duane were getting beat up pretty bad and chose to turn around and deal with what was know rather than press on to the unknown. Scott filled us in on their decision and we all thought well there's 2 of them, Duane has a SPOT and GPS and Gary also had a GPS. We all felt ok with the decision so we pressed on.
I turned my camera on and found that the battery had died. I had two spares in my back pack but couldn't be asked to stop and change it out at the moment. Few photos from the trail.
Here we found ourselves having a tough time getting up this muddy root filled hill climb. Chad's method was the most entertaining. Gas it and jump off, see what happens.
Some trail markers with some discussion as to which direction to go. Maybe we should consult a map? Nah... lets go that way.
This is the last photo from the trail. You can see the clouds rolling in and the day was going by despite our slow progress. We really need to push on and get to the exit at Stony Pass.
I was getting pretty tired and the trail continued to get very technical with short sections where I could hit 2nd gear for a very short time. The fatigue was causing stupid mistakes so I slowed down a bit even though the speed was relatively slow already. I ended up being the 4th in line out of the 4 of us and was pretty happy to see sections of smooth trail. We were riding along a ridge with a small stream about 25 or so feel down to the left when I bounced off a rock and dropped the bike... again. Picked it up and watched Chad disappear around a curve. No worries we had a good system going of keeping everyone together. I get on the bike get moving and not even 20 feet down the tail I fell over again. This time would prove to be a bit more of a problem. The bike fell off the trail about 2 feet down the hill. When I stepped down to pick it up i noticed the dirt was very soft and loose and had trouble getting a good footing. I righted the bike, started it, and thought I would walk it up to the trail. Wrong... bike fell over again and slid down even farther. By the time I righted it again I was not about 6 feet down the hill off the trail. Again, started the bike and started to try to walk it out but the soft dirt just consumed the rear tire all the way to the swing arm. I let the bike go and there it stood on its own, nearly pointing straight up. I failed to get any photos mostly due to the exhaustion and the realization that there were only 3 people on the whole planet that knew my general location. I walked back up to the trail and sat on a rock to catch my breath and wait for someone to hopefully come back to help.
As I sat I did think about changing the video camera battery but again couldn't be asked to bother with it. I sat for what seemed a lot longer than I'm sure it was, then I heard a bike in the distance then Chad appeared coming up the trail.
He looked at me and my bike and asked if I was ok. Yes just tired and ready to get rolling again. He apologized for taking so long but he couldn't find a good spot to turn around. We talked about how to get the bike out and his fresh perspective on the situation proved to be beneficial. He suggested we push it over and drag it down toward the stream where there was a rideable line going back toward the way we came and then a very gradual incline back up to the trail. It worked just as planned and I back on my way follow close behind Chad. Thanks again mate, I still owe you.
We caught up to Scott and Stan and just about that time the rain started coming down. Everyone donned rain gear and we set off again.
Oh and just to make things more interesting I had just switched to reserve.
I let them know my fuel situation, I was carrying a 1 liter MSR bottle and both Scott and Stan had larger tanks and I was carrying a siphon hose so we were hopeful we could all make it out of here. I added the fuel I had and we set off.
As we rode I was trying to be mindful of being over zealous with the throttle and then it seems as if it came out of nowhere I could see a proper road down the mountain to our right. I know we were going to have to cross Pole Creek at the exit and sure enough I could see that too.
We finally crossed the creek and hopped onto Stony Pass and started riding toward Silverton.
All told the Pole Creek trail was about 21 miles for anyone planning on riding it in the future.
I would definitely do it again, especially knowing what I know now.
We rolled into Silverton ~ 1600 and I was on fumes. I sputtered to the fuel pumps and relaxed a bit. There was talk of getting some food in Silverton but I was pretty tired and really just wanted to get back to the camp site and sit down with a cold Shiner. After some discussion Chad and I hit 550 for the ride back into Ouray.
I rolled into our camp site, got out of my gear, hugged the wife and dog and had a nice relaxing evening.
Wow, that was day one on the bike. What a great day.....