Monarch Crest ride, Monarch Pass, Colorado, October 1, 2006
I did this same ride a couple of month's ago as part of the CrestCrank fundraiser (see webpage for that event). This time Dale and Terry rode this great trail with me - this is likely our last high mountain ride of the year - a week earlier the pass received 2 feet of snow! Luckily most of that had melted.
There was still some snow on the 2 track which climbs from the pass.
And a bit more snow further up.
That's Dale, we paused just below where the trail drops off the 2 track and becomes singletrack. The climbing is tough because of the altitude (11,000 to almost 12,000 ft). There were a few snowy patches, but most weren't too bad. This section was actually very grippy.
It is amazing that over 2 feet of snow melted down to this in just a week.
That's Dale and Terry - the views off the top were just amazing - notice the gold color in the background, that is Aspen trees, they were in full fall color.
Your's truly on a rock.
You can see most of the snow had melted off - this is a west facing slope.
You can see the trail was pretty muddy in places from the melt.
There was a section where there must have been quite a cornice - there still was a foot or two of snow, we had to hike over it.
Here is the cornice on the eastern face - there must have been quite a strong wind during the snow to make this formation.
One section of the trail was east facing and in the trees, it held snow more than the rest. We walked a bit of this section, but actually it was quite short as most of the trail was rideable.
This packed down snow was actually quite grippy. That's Terry working thru the trees.
An intersection along the trail before Marshall Pass.
That's Dale and Terry - you can see as we got further along the trail dried out more.
This is an interesting section where the trail crosses a scree field - the trailbuilders did a great job forming a rideable trail across the scree.
Less and less snow, just in the shadows.
That's Dale and Terry on Starvation Creek trail. This is a new section we found after Marshall Pass - this is a great alternative to the Silver Creek descent. Starvation Creek is a narrow winding trail thru woods and along a creek bottom. It is tricky in spots with some off camber narrow bits, and some truly amazing stuff thru the woods. It is a blast for an accomplished rider.
This section runs along the bottom of a scree field along the creek. It was tricky in places with some loose, sharp stones, so we walked that bit. The scenary was just amazing.
More scree to negotiate.
More scree. From the pictures you might think there was a lot of scree, but actually it was just 3 spots. I didn't stop to take pictures of the beautiful forest, the creek and the cool technical bits over roots and around trees - I was having too much fun riding those bits.
This is one of 2 or 3 stream crossings we did. The Aspen tree leaves were at their height of color, and sections of the trail were blanked in gold leaves as here. The forest was amazingly beautiful.
Starvation Creek provides us with an awesome finish to an amazing trail - Monarch Crest. As Dale said, Starvation Creek is such a contrast to the Crest - the Crest is high, exposed and rocky with amazing views from the continental divide to the surrounding mountains. Starvation Creek is a blast thru lush woods and along the creek where the trail is twisty, narrow and very entertaining. Taken together this is an amazing ride.