One Big Ride To Town

What a weekend! Over 11,000 feet of climbing and 80 miles later, I'm happy to report success on the Molass Pass to Durango, CO super duper epic ride! If you haven't been near Molass Pass or Durango, CO, please keep on reading. I'm going to try to cover the entire ride - start to finish...

We woke Saturday morning to perfect weather and, most importantly, no clouds. Could it be the first half of our ride be without moisture? The thought was on our minds as we took off for the initial 2000 foot climb to one of the highpoints near Molass pass. Our mission was to cover about 80 miles of singletrack on the Colorado Trail.

This trail ride is one of the local favorites and one of the hardest. The ride itself is brutal. I remember telling my friend, "Colorado has no descending". It felt like that as we climbed to 11,600 feet. Our lungs burned our legs felt crippled and this was just the first 15 miles. We pressed on and the Colorado Trail kept getting more incredible. We finally reached the headwaters of Cascade creek and stopped to take in the ice-white waterfalls. It was beautiful! Another 2000 feet lay in store for us before finishing the day. "Would my legs fall off before we reached Bolamm pass", I thought to myself. Well, they didn't and we made it and we crashed...

We hammered this first section and for good reason. There is a secret
bouldering spot near the top of Bolamm pass, but you won't get the
details from me. We hit several v3 - v6's. At 11,400 feet bouldering
feels magical. After a few hours of bouldering, we took in large
portions of dinner and wine only to crash at 9:00.

Day 1 - 4000 feet of climbing and about 25 miles.

The next morning, the clouds started to build, but being locals we could tell the sky would clear. Our mission would be to ride roughly 60 miles to Durango, CO. There are no roads. We would encounter no aid stations. The Colorado Trail is desolate and very backcountry, but doesn't it sound fun!

The three of rode to the top of Blackhawk pass like it was a quick jog. Our pace was steady and strong. The descent down from Blackhawk is one of the best in the west. Twisty, fast and full of jumps we hammered the downhill, but then we had a mechanical. My friend blew a sidewall. The blow ended up costing him the ride. The blow to his tire kept getting worse and considering the terrain ahead of us, no patches would do. At the Hotel Draw intersection, we said goodbye to our fellow adventurer.

The many miles before Indian Ridge were pleasant. Some climbing, but mostly rolling beautiful singletrack. Indian Ridge, however, is a pain in the ass. The ridge lasts about six miles, but feels like 20. One must hike-a-bike up two peaks. Yes, you have to hike two 12,000 foot peaks with your bike on your back. Finally, we reached the end of Indian Ridge which is Kennebec pass.

Now, here is where things got political. I wanted to take the quick way out. The clouds were looming, but not threatening. I didn't want to turn the forty miles we had just finished into another 25 of epic nastiness. My friend wanted to go all the way. We decided to vote on it when we reached the next intersection. At the intersection, where we could bail out of the ride, we looked up at the sky. We heard what we thought was thunder. I looked at my friend and he back at me. Finally, without much debate we decided to ride the rest of the Colorado trail. The main concern would be energy supplies. We had another 2000 foot climb to finish and boy is it hard.

We pulled of the Colorado trail at 5:45 pm on Sunday and with one big high-five we rode back to town.

Day 2 - 6900 feet of climbing and about 65 miles.