Salida, CO

The following was originally posted (see page 7) as part of a mega stoke thread on mtbr called "Do you like to get HIGH, man? (post your high country riding photos)"

Had a verrrry interesting day on the Crest this Sunday...

Several truckloads at the 11,312 ft start point kept me company during the climb:


Got so high, we were literally riding in the clouds:


The world-famous Monarch Crest 12k ft view was a tad underwhelming this day, but still epic in its own way:


Onwards into the fog:


A few puddles around but overall, surprisingly fine riding conditions prevailed:


The moors?


By Marshall Pass, the rain was coming down steady, but no thunder or lighting, so no big problem:


Does this emergency poncho make me look fat?


Hmmmm, I bet that blocked off trail goes somewhere HIGHLY interesting. Nobody else around now, so I'll just explore alone from here, thanks:


Sure enough, it eventually led to a HIGHLY official-looking sign post:


A verrrry nice narrow ribbon led downward into the Stygian mist:


Oh yeah, I gotta follow that:


HIGH drama:


After several miles of super tight singletrack, the trail dissolved for a while into a jumble of debris and overgrowth that harshed my flow a bit:


Ah, 'tis not the river Styx after all:


More hand-wide singletrack carried me downstream, into ever-clearing skies:


Back up to Marshall Pass to do it again? So tempting, but not for me today... gotta get down and move on to da Butte to get high some more!