Fun in Salida!!!

Over last weekend, Dave Bednarski, Kirby Neely, Pat Neely and myself headed out for 2 days of total sweetness! We went dirt biking near Salida, specifically around the Monarch Crest area. In my opinion, there's absolutely nothing more enjoyable one can do than dirt biking. (Well maybe there's one, but we're not going to talk about that...)

We arrived at the start of Greens Trail at 5:15pm on Friday evening. From there we suited up and then hit it. We rode Greens trail to Aggot Creek, down to Sargents for gas, then up Marshall Pass to Monarch Crest trail, and then back down Greens trail to where we were camping. By the time we got back to Greens trail to head back to camp, it was 11:45pm and we haven't had anything to eat except ClifBars and water. And here's the kicker, Greens trail is the toughest trail in the area. Sooo, being very tired and hungry, I decide to just ride the trail at a decent clip so as to get it over as quickly as possible and to get back to camp and help Dave start on the steaks. Well, being exhausted and trying to push it a bit, I crashed pretty good with no one around to help me. (see pic) Dave was up ahead of me, Pat & Kirby were taking it super slow in the dark and I was stuck, with my bike partly down a steep incline and no hope of getting it out by myself. So eventually Pat & Kirby rescued me and we all ended up getting back to camp at 12:30am.

     

So the next day was even more fun. Again, we did Greens trail, down to Aggot, but then we hit Canyon Creek Trail which has to be my personal all time favorite trail. This trail has the perfect mixture of turns, jumps, no rocks, and short blasts of full throttle to make it the best all-around trail that I've found. Below are some pictures from Canyon Creek trail.

     

So then it was finally time to head back to the truck and head home. Not all of us are street legal, thus, we went over Old Monarch Pass which is a dirt road. When we got on the dirt road, we immediately all turned it on. We raced from corner to corner (semi-being careful looking for traffic coming the other way). It was so stinkin' fun!! Heading into a corner, we'd all be hard on the brakes, with the rear of the bike hanging out due to the rear tire locking up. As we're braking, we're dropping 1 or 2 gears getting ready for the blast out. Then, when we could tell no cars were coming, we'd all jump on the throttle and power slide out of the corner as fast as we could, just to do it all over again at the next corner.

So now I have a good taste of what it must be like to do the Pikes Peak Hill Climb on a dirt bike. All I have to say is those are some lucky guys. Its way too much fun.

Until my next dirt bike adventure...
Hasta,

Timmay