The Monarch Crest

Perhaps one of the most dangerously overrated trails(besides Zippety Do Dah in Fuita) in the Country has to be the Monarch Crest. I'm saying this as a discouragement to all of you reading this, so that when I come back with the Big Ring in September, we can have it all to our merry selves.

As the Locals, Jerry and his wife told me as I was sitting in their "shuttle vehicle" making our way up to Monarch Pass, "its a touring trail but the hammerheads can go fast and they and the tourist, don't really get along. Its a good thing I was in touring mode but our group really didn't get passed by any hammers either. I think everyone who was above treeline just enjoyed the scenery, the buddies who were along, and the great singletrack that made it all possible.

Lubes crushed it all day as usual on his singlespeed



The Mad Scientist, Bad Andy and Jerry, along with some tourists behind getting their taste of, "above treeline"



100 percent ridable above treeline singletrack. It awe inspiring and fantastic!



The Mad Scientist is getting strong these days!



Jerry, our local tour guide for the day. Being the guy who usually is route finder and leader, I'll have to admit, it was kinda nice to sit back and let someone else play Pre K Teacher for the day



Who says Goats don't have style?



Just before we hit tree line again, we saw the ominous presence of dark grey clouds looming in the near distance



But looking back north, the skies still held strong and blue



Thunderstorms are always a constant threat at this elevation and the area has been hit hard the past few days. Keen Woo shows the art of riding through chocolate milk, not around it



a few miles later and we cross Marshall Pass and continue on the "Crest", a few miles south of Marshall Pass and we see lightening, hear thunder and the rain starts to fall, is he Yoda or Yogurt?



It was here that we bared witness to a hunched backed bigfoot



Mike the Giant goes boom with a mighty splash, so big that I wished I would've had a surfboard to ride the waves he made



A very wet Silver Creek



That had some very tasty bits of technical goodness



and it ended with a trail that wanted to be a creek that wanted to be a trail



at the end of the day, we ate at the Silver Horse's Ass as Jerry calls, and good eats it was!