Days 8-10, Buena Vista to Cathedral Cabins

Day 8. With our faffing in Buena Vista, we committed to an early start to make up for lost time and set an ambitious goal of making it to Monarch Pass, almost 90 km and 3,000m of climbing away. We enjoyed a mediocre but filling breakfast at the Super 8 and hit the road, pedalling off as the sunrise illuminated the snow-capped mountains ahead of us.

We got back on the Colorado Trail for the unremarkable Mount Princeton segment. It was mostly and finished with a long and fast road descent past Princeton Hot Springs resort and rode up an easy paved climb to the start of the Tabeguache Peak segment of the CT.

If I were to do the CT again, I would skip this section. Beginning with a steep hike-a-bike, it was 32 km of rocky, rooty, undulating terrain. For my Revelstoke readers, picture Tantrum, but six times longer. There were some fun bits where the trail flowed through twisting columns of white and green aspens, but mostly it was an interminable slog that took almost six hours By the time we exited to Highway 50, the thought of climbing another 700m to Monarch Pass had long been extinguished. Instead, we found a campsite by Foose Creek a few kilometres up the trail.

Day 9. I was somewhat dreading today, because I knew we were approaching Sargent’s Mesa. Every report I’ve read about this section makes it sound awful. It’s supposedly a long stretch of dirt bike trail with lots of rocks, punchy climbs, countless cattle, and little water. I proposed skipping it and following a road detour along a section of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but I was outvoted. As Russ put it, we were there to ride the CT, and we couldn’t just skip sections because they were hard. My counterargument was that I wanted to skip it because it sounded boring, not fun, and lacking scenery. I was also pretty exhausted after yesterday and reaching that point where I wondered how many big days of riding I had left in me. I tried to get into the right headspace for a few days of suffering.

From Foose Creek, the Colorado Trail goes steeply uphill to Monarch Crest. The route guide on Bikepacking.com recommends taking the highway to Monarch Pass so you can avoid the hike-a-bike and enjoy more alpine singletrack along the crest. That seemed like the much better option, so we doubled back to the highway and began the 700m climb to the pass. It wasn’t my favourite climb, with a narrow shoulder and moderate traffic buzzing by.

As usual in the morning, I brought up the rear. I stopped briefly to pump up my tires for the highway, then tried my best to catch up. I rounded a bend and found Dru and Russ sitting on the ground outside a small store. It didn’t look good. What happened? I asked.

Dru had been snacking on some pitted dates, and, well, one of them had a pit. He had cracked a tooth on a pit! He wasn’t in pain, but it wasn’t something he wanted to ignore. Who knows how it would react over the next few days? Fortunately, there was a hotel just down the road, so we coasted there and asked to use their internet. They gratefully allowed us to hang out in the lobby, while Dru made some calls–first to his dentist in in Revelstoke, then to one in Gunnison, where he got an appointment to deal with his tooth the next morning.

We decided to make our way up to Monarch Pass, where there’s a visitor centre with a small restaurant. The plan was Dru would try to hitchhike to Gunnison and Russ and I would continue onwards. We would try to reconnect further down the trail, but were unsure where.

By the time we got going again, Russ and I decided to forego Sargent’s Mesa and take the detour. Dru’s pain was my gain. We enjoyed some splendid singletrack along Monarch Crest. We were treated to expansive views while dramatic clouds threatened rain but mostly failed to deliver. We then turned off the CT and made the long descent to Marshall Pass to the town of Sargent’s. We found a perfect campsite behind at Tomichi Creek Trading Post, which serves as a gas station/general store/bar/restaurant/campground, and settled in. We picked up a couple of beers and a bag of chips, and took advantage of free showers and cheap laundry, all for the low price of $12.

Day 10.

The exact details are foggy, but at some point I managed to connect with my brother, who was in Moab and on his way to visit a friend in Durango, where I’d meet him at the end of the ride and then drive back to his place in Tahoe. I asked if he could pick up Dru in Gunnison, then meet us at Cathedral Cabins, deep in the middle of nowhere along the next wilderness detour. Fortunately, he agreed. If all went well, the gang would be back together that night.

Russ and I woke up with frost on the tent and waited for the sun to brighten the campground before setting out. Our day began with a 20 km stretch of highway, before we turned off onto a pleasant dirt road through arid, rolling ranch lands. Along the way, we met a bikepacker in his 70s who was riding part of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route to New Mexico. I can only hope to be doing the same at his age.

The day’s ride was pretty straightforward, but mostly uninteresting. We spun along dirt roads, steadily gaining elevation until we hit Los Pinos Pass. We passed by a historic ranch and fields of cattle, but mostly, this segment was the least interesting of the trip, with no singletrack and no dramatic scenery to make up for it. The only challenge was finding water, and I came close to running out before we found a fast-running creak to top up in.

Cathedral Cabins is an oasis along the detour. Set in front of a backdrop of towering cliffs, it consists of a set of cozy cabins available for a reasonable price. Best of all, the friendly owners cater to bikepackers and have it stocked with all sorts of great food for camping, as well as some spare bike parts. It’s an ideal spot to take a break and stock up on the long stretch between Buena Vista and Silverton. Amazingly, Russ and I reached only a few minutes before my brother showed up with Dru. We enjoyed a cozy fire inside the main cabin before retiring for the night. The next day, we hoped to reach the high point of the CT.

To be continued…