Copper Mountain, CO

The following was originally posted (see page 5) as part of a mega stoke thread on mtbr called "Do you like to get HIGH, man? (post your high country riding photos)"

To get HIGH, you gotta start low. A bit out of Copper with some 3000 feet to climb:



Action shot during OJ-STYLE HIGH SPEED CHASE (approx 4 mph) of Klucks up Guller Creek:



Some REALLY, REALLY HIGH cairns on this route:



No trees allowed beyond this HIGH LINE:



Pure HIGH VISCOSITY Rocky Mountain H2O flows effortlessly downstream:



Difficulty level of final stretch of rocks was JUST TOO HIGH, so we walked:



Our first 12,000 ft HIGH POINT of the day, Searle Pass, inexplicably rated no commemorative signage:



Streams punctuated the primitive HIGH TRAVERSE of almost 4 glorious miles knocking around 12k:



We occasionally dropped below 12k, always knowing we'd just have to go up again, and again, and again, but it was still awesome:



Breathtaking green color made for a HIGH LEVEL of visual enjoyment:



Breathtaking lack of oxygen also made for HIGH HEART RATES and frequent short pushes too:



Truly up among the HIGH CLOUDS:



Klucks conquered the last set of HIGH PITCHED SWITCHBACKS to reach 12,250 feet with aplomb:



Mandatory look back at whence we'd come. So HIGH! So cool!



Our second 12,000 ft HIGH POINT of the day, Kokomo Pass, rated a very nice sign:



Finally the HIGHLY ANTICIPATED downhill began:



The super-narrow singletrack was a bit trenched and demanded our HIGHEST ATTENTION LEVELS:



Tons of HIGHLY VOLATILE rubble and roots, and HIGHLY COLORFUL wildflowers, zipped by unphotographed during the HIGHLY RAUCOUS STEEP PLUNGE, save for one lone photo:



Stumbled upon a beautiful HIGH VOLUME waterfall lurking just off the trail near the bottom:



A fine benchcut through the Aspens, which almost reminded one of Doctor Park, led us down to Camp Hale:



In a stroke of HIGH INSPIRATION, we'd arranged a cheater shuttle ride (thanks Ms FoldsInHalf!) from Camp Hale up past Tennessee Pass to Wurts Ditch Rd, where we hopped on CT Segment 9 just inside the Wilderness boundary and got to close out this great day with a bonus 1000 feet or so of net downhill:



In the middle of much descending, and just enough ascending to keep us honest, a cruise through a beautiful HIGH MEADOW was a smooth respite:


Eventually arrived HIGHLY SATISFIED back at Camp Hale a second time, having completed all of CT Segments 8 and the bike-legal part of 9.

Another outstanding day in the HIGH COUNTRY!

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Below are some pics of me in action, received from Klucks after my initial write-up.  Click to enlarge the panoramas!

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Just the stats, man...

*Left Copper's Alpine lot at 0730.
*Arrived Searle 1035, showing 9.44 miles and 2:22 rolling time.
*Arrived Kokomo 1145, showing 12.60 miles and 3:02 rolling time.
*Arrived Camp Hale 1235, showing 18.50 miles and 3:34 rolling time.
*Shuttled to Wurts Ditch and restarted rolling at 1315 after a bit of lunch.
*Re-arrived Camp Hale 1435, showing 28.16 miles and 4:40 rolling time
*Estimate about 3800 ft of climbing and 5200 of descending.

For anybody else planning a similar route, keep in mind that this is probably about as slow as anyone who can do such a ride, could do it.  Between my weird bike and minimalist musculature, I generally clock in around 10-25% slower than most decent bikers for actual moving speeds... not even counting photo ops or flat tires... but I do get there eventually!

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