Thursday, July 15

My fortune cookie at dinner the previous night said something like, “Your intuition will lead you down the right path.” My intuition told me to let John ride Monarch Crest without me; turns out, my intuition was correct once again! More on that later. I drove John and his bike to the High Valley Center in Poncha Springs in time for him to catch the 10:00 shuttle that would drop him off at Monarch Crest Trail. After signing a waiver and paying the $20 fee, John helped a guy by reinstalling his hydraulic brake pads that had fallen off. Turns out, the shop mechanic was off that day, so lucky for someone, John was there “to the rescue!”

With John off on his adventure, I headed into Salida to walk around historic downtown. Brunch for me was a yummy California Scramble at a place called “The Simmering Cup.” If you are ever in town, it’s a nice place to go and hang out; they even have free wi-fi. There are a lot of boutique-type shops with many cute clothes in downtown Salida, but I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without. I revisited Absolute Bikes to purchase some much-needed electrolyte supplies and then headed down to the river access where the kayakers and rafters were practicing. There was a raft of what looked like boy scouts that were getting coached on rafting skills. They managed to lose a guy overboard, but quickly pulled him back into the boat. A few minutes later they managed to completely tip over the boat. It was good entertainment. (No boy scouts were harmed in the incident.)

Later in the afternoon, I retrieved John from the High Valley Center. He was whooped. I believe his exact words were, “That was a beating.” Coming from him, that is pretty bad. Of course, he was riding his Salsa Dos Niner that is hardly a full-suspension, and the trail is very rocky. About this time I was feeling pretty cocky about my decision to stay behind on this ride. The ride was about 38 miles, not all downhill-even with the shuttle. About the time the trail dumped him out on Hwy 285, John’s chain broke. Lucky for him, it was all downhill on the road, so he coasted about three or four miles back to the shop.