44: Me and the Marmots
The 15-mile Searle Pass segment is almost certainly the best thing I’ve ridden since Canada. The climb up is very rideable, pleasant, and scenic, providing relatively quick and easy access into the alpine (reminiscent of the gentle climbs up the broad glacial valleys of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula). The alpine section offered epic views in every direction and had lots of friendly marmots. The downhill consisted of long sections of fast, smooth single track, punctuated with lovely aspen groves and the occasional spicy rock garden. It’s sunny and warm, and the trail is just a bit tacky still from the recent rains. Overall 10/10 mountain biking!
I passed a crew of AmeriCorps volunteers on the way down, who were pruning back trees and fixing eroded sections of the trail. It both breaks my heart (as an AmeriCorps alum) and greatly worries me (as a trail user who appreciates tree-free, not-eroded trails) that the current federal administration has chosen to defund much of AmeriCorps. It seems, increasingly, that if, as users of public lands, if we want well maintained trails, it’s going to be almost entirely on us to maintain them.
I’ll admit: being on the Colorado Trail (CoT), it feels nice as a bikepacker to be a primary user. It’s somehow nice to see other tire tracks on the trail, and for hikers on the trail to have some conception of what I’m doing with by bike loaded with bags. It’s also quite nice being on trails that get ridden a fair bit—not just that the trails have more flow, but also all the visual indicators of the optimal line for bikes. Aside from the gnarly Gold Mine trail over the Tenmile range, the CoT has been very well maintained, ridable, and fun—in keeping with my expectations!
While stopped off at the top of Searle Pass, a marmot, lazily lounging in the sun, partly raised itself, looked around, yawned (yup, I saw a marmot yawn today) and flopped back down. Cutest thing I’ve seen all trip!
