Enter the clouds

Hello Everyone, Funny story to start: I was walking Arthur around the edge of a park in town today when I noticed a statue of a deer. That's neat, I thought. They put deer statues in the park. Looks nice, and they are very realistic. Then I noticed another deer statue, only this one was squatting down peeing. That's hilarious, I thought. They have a peeing deer statue. Then I noticed that they weren't statues at all, but actual deer and that I hadn't looked at them long enough to see them move. Urban deer are a thing, it seems. I'm camped outside of the town of Salida (pronounced saLIEda, not saLEEda as I found out at a bike shop). It's not far from Crested Butte, and is also known for biking. I had not planned to spend much time here, as it's a little more arid than the former. But there is an IMBA epic trail nearby, so it seemed a shame to be close and not ride it. The trail is called the Monarch Pass and winds along the ridge that forms the continental divide between the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds. It's also at a high altitude, with the highest point we reached today being 12,000 feet. There were no serious climbs involved and there were no cows chasing us this time, so I was never out of breath, but you can still tell that the air is thinner. The ride affords incredible views along both sides of the ridge. Normally. Today was cloudy,  and with the elevation it meant you were biking through the clouds. It made for a pretty cool ride, and the weather cleared up after a couple of hours, so we did get to see the sweeping vistas. Or at least I did. Arthur just rolled around in the grass when we stopped. It was also fairly cold and windy. I had to wear my jacket and a liner under my helmet the whole time. While I do pretty well in the cold, it was prime time for Arthur. We also hadn't ridden in a couple of days, so he was rested up and ready to roll. It was such a great trail that I went a bit further than originally planned and we ended up doing 13 miles at high elevation. Even when we neared the end Arthur had enough energy to go tearing after squirrels at the side of the trail. He's snoring next to me now but will be good to go by the morning. Wes 

Photos 

The first is from the parking lot at the top of the pass. Notice the sweet rig in the background. The next three are in chronological order, showing the clouds gradually clearing up. They are show my companion being a goofball.