Monthly Archives: March 2019

Winter in Leadville

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Fresh tracks on the trails at Colorado Mountain College. Built and maintained by the local bike club, the Cloud City Wheelers, these trails are groomed a couple times a week – especially after new snow. I beat the groomer this time, but because it was 8 degrees the ride was still pretty firm. I can almost feel my toes now…

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If u need to ask why live in Leadville…. view of the Sawatch Range from Long and Derry Hill.

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The local snowmobile club grooms county and forest roads on the East side of town. Here Jack the dog and ski our way up CR3A on some fresh cord. There’s often nobody out there…

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Cold, also dead. The Evergreen cemetery is a few blocks for the house… there are some ornate tombs and headstones from the late 1800’s. The cemetery informally peters out into some pine forest with snowmobile and snowshoe tracks … you’ll often find random headstones with the markings worn off next to a tree deep in the forest. 

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Harpo – mane skiing down the pipeline. Lots of terrain to explore on the east side of town…

Borders & Reflections

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Done & done – 2900 miles border to border, triple crown, and 11,000 trail miles down. What’s next?

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The southern terminus is a Crazy Cook, a nowhere place in on the NM/Mexico border, just a little bump on the panhandle 85 miles away from any roads.

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Life is harsh out in the desert. Everything is sharp, the sun intense, and the bones bleached dry.

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I was skeptical about the southern terminus, expecting another anticlimax. I’m happy we were there at sunset, where the light turned spectral over the western mountains. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but as the sun descended behind the hills there was intense pink and blue banding fading into a perfect butter yellow sky.

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We waited for hours at the road after walking the 85 miles back – no luck hitching, only a couple of cars. Finally we got a ride from border patrol – we didn’t bother telling him Huck was a Danish national on a dubious visa.

 

New Mexico

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Frosted flakes outside Chama, NM. And I thought it was going to be warm in the desert…

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After a morning of 100 or more river crossings, Huck and I decided to seek out higher ground. We spend the majority of the day wandering around the Gila Wilderness far from any trail, thru tall grass and wide open pine forest.

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Ghost bike for a cyclist killed by an automobile outside Silver City, NM.

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Those desert skies tho – I’ve never seen any sunsets so chromatic, and it got better the further south we headed.