That’s it, that’s all. Thanks for following along

It’s been a trip to remember for sure!

1148kms of predominantly single track and just a hair under 18,000 meters of climbing over 18 days of riding. This trip challenged us all physically, mentally and emotionally. It was a lot harder than we imagined it could be but came with some stunning views and some periodically fun simgletrack. We finished our CT adventure in lake city, leaving unriden sections19-24. We will be back one day to finish up but perhaps on foot instead of bike. 

All up the Colorado trail was a fantastic experience but I believe it’s best experienced as the hiking trail it was intended to be. While there are some great flowing sections it still has the flavour of a hiking trail and is more about riding in the woods and pushing your bike up hill than mountain biking. They say that 10% of the trail is unrideable which is probably accurate. It doesn’t sound like much until you remember it’s nearly 800kms long and that 10% is equal to pushing your bike along the 47km long Juan de Fuca Trail... twice. We got ourselves into some pretty hairy situations (many of which could have been avoided if we tried harder) and had some downright unpleasant days but we also had some amazing days and good bonding opportunities and we are all the better for the experience. Steve professed repetitively along the trip that he was retiring but after a few days of first class train travel is hinting at a trip in Oregon one day... so we will see 😉

Thank you for following along on our journey, I hope you enjoyed some armchair travel and you were inspired to get out there and experience some of these places for yourself. Comment below with a link to your next adventure, we would love to follow along on some of your adventures until our next trip.

Before I sign off I have a few people to thank, first up is my mom, this trip would not have been possible without you!! Secondly is my dad who hopped back into a car days after getting back from 7000kms of driving to come get us from Seattle. Last but certainly not least are my traveling companions who followed along with my hairbrain idea. 

Thanks y’all and happy adventures!

How to train for the Colorado trail

So you want to ride the Colorado trail... here are 10 tips to help you get ready... some sarcasm involved.

1) Buy a bike, don’t bother getting anything too fancy, your going to beat it up anyway. Every 2 days intentionally break something... fix it yourself without proper tools.

2) Spend a small fortune on camping gear so that you can feel good about “saving money” avoiding hotels. When asked about your travels be sure to remind people your way of travel is cheaper and better and more environmentally friendly... leave out that your whole camping set up put you back over $3000 and that your ultra lite tent is stupid and you hate it. 

3) Visit your local mountain, find the steepest, rockiest, most exposed hiking trailyou can find. Carry your loaded bike up and down the hill until you have accumulated 1600meters of elevation. If the trail is unrideable in both directions it will give you the best idea of the CT. Do this for three days in a row, then ride your favourite trail... then go back to riding or pushing up the other trail. This will keep you hooked on riding just enough to keep going. If by chance it’s less than 20 degrees celsius wear a down jacket while you do this. If you live at sea level breath through a straw too.

4) Be sure to carry 3-4 litres of water on you at all times to simulate not knowing where the next water stop is. Ensure all water you drink is warm and tastes vaguely of plastic. 

5) Camp in your back yard for a week, make you choose a slightly off kilter spot and throw some sticks down before you set up, know you have a nice bed and shower available but under no circumstance use either one of them. You may wash off with the hose though, but only while it’s already cold out. 

6) Before you go to bed each night make sure everything is damp... use a spray bottle if necessary... if you can’t sleep your not tired enough...do twice as much elevation tomorrow.

7) Ask your neighbor to periodically let their dog into your yard in the middle of the night, lay awake wondering what that sound is anyway. If you can’t sleep, your not tired enough. Do twice as much elevation as yesterday.

8) On weekend days go down to the local RV park and set your tent up between the two biggest RV’s you can find. If it’s on rock or gravel that’s ideal. Ask the RV owners if they can run their generator until after midnight.

9) Fantisize about real food while you eat your 57th granola bar. 

10) Have sausage at that mildly sketchy dinner in the middle of nowhere...regret that decision for the next two days... it’s best if you have to ration toilet paper. You may not use indoor plumbing.

Is this how the 1% live ?

As a treat after all our hard work we splurged on a sleeper room from grand junction to Seattle, it was hardly expensive in comparison to a first class plane ticket and it promised to be a good experience. It didn’t disappoint. We arrived at the train station a half hour before the train and unloaded the bikes. We were called up first to check in then handed over our bikes and were greated by name by our sleeper room attendant who showed us to our room that was clean, made up and had two bottles of cold water waiting for us. Once the train started up the attendant came by to explain the ins and out of train travel and to inform us that all of our meals were included and that the showers were down stairs and included towels. He then told us how to call him and left us to watch the scenery roll by. Wow what a fantastic way to watch the world go by. After leaving grand junction we are treated to a lovely view of red rock canyons and the Colorado river (complete with a plethora of white river rafter asses as we go by, as this is apparently a thing)

I had intended to read a book and edit go pro videos but am totally mesmerized by the constant live View outside the window and do nothing but watch the scenery until dinner. At dinner we are seated with David from Palm Springs who is a flamboyant retired lawyer with some pretty great stories. Dinner is off the menu so we all decide to get the full value out of our trip and go for the $39 surf and turf and New York cheese cake.  We roll into bed feeling pretty damn privledged, but have to admit it’s a nice experience. 

I’ve got a ticket for the long way round, the one with the prettiest of views.

On go the bikes

I could get used to this type of travel



Sacramento train station

Canyon lands

Early start

Feeling refreshed after a night in a hotel we get an early start to the day, it doesn’t matter much as it’s still over 30 degrees by 11. The ride is made much more enjoyable by the stunning scenery and more interesting with our mile by mile history tour. The 25kms to Urivan campsite is easy enough and it turns out there was plenty of space left but apon reading the history of the area we decide that skipping on the extra radiation was probably a good choice regardless. The information board tells us there used to be a town of over 400 that worked in the uranium mines but due to reclamation and environmental clean up the residents were evicted and the town shredded and buried underground, there are still signs up warning of radioactive materials....

The former uranium mines behind us we carry on to the hanging flume, the regents of a 13mile wodden flume that was designed to produce the water pressure needed to mine gold. The flume is in disrepair but it’s stil possible to see sections cloning to the cliff face hundreds of feet above the river. The whole project was extremely expensive and never turned a profit in the end. 

By noon sits over 37 degrees and there is very little to no shade until mile marker 91 where we are thrilled to roll into a little oasis surrounding the spring. The guidebook says it’s been a focal point of travelers for years and I can see why. we loiter a while, take naps and enjoy a good lunch before loading up and carrying on in the hot sun to Gateway. Gateway is a really odd place in that it’s almost entirely owned by one rich television producer. Every person we see in town has a name tag from the resort... it’s a little odd but everyone is lovely and the general store allows us to hang out for hours in the shade. After a while another bikepacking group shows up who are riding the San Juan hut system. They are complaining about heat and lack of showers and seriously considering the $700 per night price tag for the resort... we give them exactly zero sympathy and they eventually head off to their fully stocked hut and we head off into the dry wash to 

Don’t need to warn me to stay out

Fantastic lunch in the desert oasis 
Stunningly good beer selection in a tiny town, the manager is obviously a beer guy !

Beer in the wash

Out of the freezer and into the blast furnace

Early wake up gets us up and out of camp by 0735, a new record. We don’t get very far before we find a nice bench by a pond and eat our oatmeal then roll into town to the Buther Baker for coffee, it’s obviously the place to be because it’s packed!

The 5miles out of town are on a lovely bike path that just happens to drop us off beside the Galloping Goose trail. It’s hard to tell by the map but it looks like it might be a decent option to get around a busy section of road so we hop on it. So happy we did because it’s a fun fast single track decent for a few miles and only adds a a mile or so to our overall mileage. Back on the road the fun just continues as we effortlessly keep a 30kms/hr pace for an hour or so, following the river downwards towards Norwood. As we near town the road take a sudden and sever turn upwards out of the canyon. A few hot kilometres later we are in town and enjoying some delicious palisade peaches from a roadside vendor. Before we leave town we stick our head in the bike shop, the owner comes out and instantly recognizes Steve’s bike because he was the one who built it up 4 years ago in Moab.

The 20miles from Norwood to Naturita seems to just get progressively hotter and hotter, so that the air no longer has any coolness to it. The sign in town tells me it’s 93 fahrenheit, I don’t know the conversion off hand but it sure is hot ! 

As it turns out our RV park is no longer in business, the lady manning the info center gleefully includes us in the gossip about him being in forclousure and directs us to theRimtock hotel, when the price per night ends up being more than we want to spend she sends us up the hill to the motel with a warning that’s it’s not fancy. When she said that I assumed it was an ordinary mom and pop type please, what she ment was that it was mostly occupied by long term residents. The room looked cleanish but very very well loved with sagging beds and peeling wallpaper.. we decide $90Us for the other hotel is more than fair and go their instead. The eve is mellow, it’s just too hot to do much more than shuffle between air conditioned buildings.

One thing I do have plenty of time to do is research the history of the area, and wow do I find an Americana gem. The nearby town of Nucla was started as a socialist utopia, a meeting point for the farmers and miners of the area to share the wealth and work... in 2012 is was the first town in Colorado for gun ownership to be mandatory... how do you get so far off course ?

The standard position for peters bike these days

In case you forgot what meat is there are stuffed heads to remind you

A sudden change in scenery

Black bear pass 12,840ft

Thankfully we are not in a rush to get out of here because exactly none of our freshly washed clothes are dry and we have to head to town to find a laundromat. We do find it and the type of vaugly crazy person who enjoys hanging out there. He corners us and rambles on about conspiracies, communism, the damn brits and the Chinese until our clothing dries and we can make our escape. By 11 we are peddling up and out of Silverton on the 550 Hwy up red mountain pass were we will gain 2200 of our 3500 ft of elevation. The ride is pleasant apart from the narrow shoulder and long unprotected drops, but the traffic is light and we make it to the top of red mountain pass and the base of black bear pass without incident. 

While we were climbing the thunderstorms began to roll in, sliding up over the mountains and threatening violence. Since we seem to be set on become a statistic we ignore this loud and obvious warning signs and start up towards black bear pass regardless, riding then pushing our bikes when the work gets too much for the altitude. It’s actually pretty amazing how much you notice the work of breathing and your heart rate as you get over about 12,000ft. 

Thankfully Colorado didn't feel like making us crispy critters and we are able to climb up to the saddle and into one of the most awe inspiring environments on earth. This scenery up above the tree line is stunning, made even more so by the moody skies and lack of other traffic (technically the pass is still shut)

We would have loved to stay a while up high above the tree line but good sense and driving sleet helps us make a better choice and we start the decent towards the “staircase” and Telluride. The road on the telluride side is insanely technical, loose rocks, tight corners, really really long drops and frighteningly narrow roads. It’s no wonder people die on this road every year, I was concerned enough on a bike let alone a Jeep.  We don’t die, or even suffer any real damage to bikes or humans and are down off black bear pass and below the house on the cliff and bridal veil falls by about 4, from there it’s an easy glide into town on the bike path. We make the campground a first stop but it’s completely full... that’s not ideal. After much searching we do find a spot that should be problem free and then head into town. Town is crazy expensive, we visit the brewery on principal but the beer are $7 US a glass so we keep the sampling to a minimum. We are all super tired and wandering around looking for a reasonably priced meal has us all annoyed and on edge, we do eventually find a decent spot at telluride Bakes and eat quickly before retreating to the tents for an early night. Who knew that 30kms could be so hard!

Can you see the tiny riders ?



Final push

Top of the staircase, a very steep switchback area of the road



House on the cliff, hope to be able to fill in the history when I have wifi next.

Zero day

After a few long days we are all feeling the need for a rest before we tackle the next pass. Silverton is a cute little town of 500 permanent residents but due to some fantastic tourism efforts manages to sustain a dozen hotel/motels twice as many restaurants and at least 20 stores. Seeing how well they have revitalized what was a defunct mining town gives me at least little hope for Lake Cowichan.

We spend the day kicking around drinking coffee on the rooftop patio at Coffee Bear, visiting the two breweries and getting some bike repairs done.

We visit the Avon hotel bar and get some local insite in black bear pass and learn that it was closed again today because someone flipped their Toyota off the edge, they say it should be open by tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed that is true.