Monarch Crest

Probably the crowning achievement of my short biking career. This trail goes from the 11,300 ft Monarch Pass, and rides as high as 12,000 st along the continental divide. Total climbing is about 4000 ft and descent is about 7000 ft over 37 miles... which took about 6 hrs with stops. We (about 11 of us) couldn't have picked a better day to go. No wind, t-shirt weather, and fall colors. Amazing day!

Mount of the Holy Cross

This was the goal... MT of the Holy Cross. The kids' 14er for 2010, and 2nd one overall. Teri and I are up to about 13.

Incidentally, this 14er routinely results in more dispatched search and rescue missions than any other in Colorado. Not really technically difficult... but people seem to get lost in this huge wilderness all the time. We were very careful to study our maps and routes before taking this one on.

It was LONG... we had to take a few rests in the endless boulder field:

In the end... we did conquer! And even made it home without a search and rescue!

Until next year...