In celebration of my birthday, Jen and I rode the Monarch Crest this past Friday.  Well, I think we rode the Monarch Crest.  For the entire time we were above or at tree line we were in the clouds.  Engulfed by this thick whitish gray fog we saw none of the purportedly majestic views from the Crest and barely the Crest itself.

The trail was still fantastic, though.   And the fog made it special in its own way.

I was curious to see how much snow we would find on the Crest.  It was a big snow year and early reports from the Crest had talked about several weeks delay before the Crest would be rideable.   That said, we saw no snow on the trail, only some banks off to the sides, barely visible in the fog.

I kept hoping that the clouds would dissipate, but no such luck, and before we knew it we were coming off the Crest, descending down below the clouds and into the trees.

It was moist being in the midst of the clouds, and while it wasn’t raining per se, water was condensating on us and on the trees.

We continued along the Monarch Crest Trail which right here happens to also be the Continental Divide Trail and the Colorado Trail.

We didn’t stay on the CDT or the CT, though.  We had other plans:  The Silver Creek Trail!

Silver Creek is one fundown hill section.  It goes without saying that we don’t really have any pictures of that, but we did snap a couple as the trail flattened out in the bottom of the valley.

We continue a little further on the trail next to Silver Creek before we found a good place to stop for a bite to eat.

Lunch was good!  We kept looking up to catch a glimpse of the mountain peaks that we knew were surrounding us, but no luck.  They were still encapsulated in clouds.

The riding after lunch continued to be a blast; especially as we got on the Rainbow Trail.

The Rainbow Trail was one special trail.  Jen and I were grinning from ear to ear as we pedaled up and down and around the terrain following this magical trail.

And so ends our first ride of the Monarch Crest, but it will not be the last time we ride it.  We still need to experience the views!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Mountain Biking. You can skip to the end and leave a response.