Monarch Crest to Little Rainbow

Not much bloggy time tonight. Pictures will have to tell the story. In short, today's ride was the longest I went without picking up water along the ride. I carried 100oz Camelbak and 28oz bottle with me, and that was enough for over 6.5hrs total time out on the trail. Cooler temps helped. There was constant threat of rain with intermitent sprinkles all day. No thunder, fortunately. I cleared the entire crest trail without encountering another trail user. Just some campers at Marshall Pass.  Supreme solitude! Rode nearly 48mi, almost all singletrack with almost 5000ft climbing and >9000ft descending in 6hrs moving time. Not a typical Hill Junkie ride.  Not sure what's on deck for Tuesday. Body is pretty cooked.

On the Divide at 12,000ft with sprinkles. Carried full winter gear
in my backpack. Temp was about 50F. Pack probably weighed
over 15 lbs.

Looking back north along the divide

The new Little Rainbow Trail just above Salida.
Non-stop flow with bermed turns and gravity cavities. This
with Race Track trail that drops back to town was an awesome
way to finish a 6hr ride.

Rainbow Trail west of 285. All benchcut, all buff. It sure was nice
to ride this with fresher legs after not having to ride all the way
up US-50. Clean almost all of it.

More Rainbow west of 285.

Rainbow east of 285. Super chunk major hike-a-bike.
Many hundreds of feet of unrideable vertical at 20-30% grade
like this. At first I couldn't figure out why I didn't see
any bicycle tracks. Only moto tracks. Now I know why. Don't
need to do this trail again.

Top of Rainbow Trail east of 285. A miniscule bit was actually
nice to ride.

Silver Creek trail, which is initial descent from the divide. Not
all of it is this nice. Several talus fields are traversed.