Experiences. All these rides and places we go enrich life further. Today was a tough mountain bike ride and I loved the adventure. 16 miles with 1964′ climbing and topping out at our highest elevation yet this year I think – 10,145‘!
We rode up Aspen Trail until we found the spur singletrack down to West Mancos Trail. There was a pretty cold river crossing and then into the pine forest we went. I still haven’t gotten used to being afraid of bears. We saw another one today on the trail..a small brown bear that thankfully ran when he heard us. The trail in the deep forest still had snow in some sections that were tricky to plow through. Having lived in Bend for so many years we aren’t strangers to snowy conditions though. The riding is beautiful. Flowy, narrow singletrack across mountainsides, through forests, across streams…just dreamy. We dropped down some steep pure screefield switchbacks to Golconda, an old mine. From here the trail got exceedingly more technical. Some parts were pure rock gardens and rideable with extreme focus, and some we had to hike.
Climbing up out of the river bottom back to the start was a beast. The trail was washed out in places and very steep. Thankfully, there are plenty of rideable sections, always with great views. Number of people we saw on the trails today = ZERO. Number of pictures we took = A LOT!
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