If you’re unfamiliar with the Rocky Mountains, you should always keep this in mind, the weather can change drastically and rapidly. The higher in elevation the exponentially worse things can get. I was already over 10,500’ and it was nothing but up on some choice 12 inch singletrack. Only a half hour in to my ride I started noticing increasing cloud movement. After an hour things were rapidly deteriorating and big nasty purple clouds had started rolling over the peaks. Undeterred, I pressed on with optimistic hopes and a strong desire to breach the treeline. The trail got steeper and I had to push, at this point looking over my shoulder I could see my impending doom. An ominous storm front was rapidly heading my way, and I would have to ride through it to get back.

Without having reached the Colorado Trail or even treeline, I made the call to turn around and pointed my wheels back down from where I had come. Not making a goal is one thing, not getting to have another try is a whole other story that I’m not ready to write. I raced at maximum warp speed to get back to my van underneath the booming thunder, lightning, then sleet, and eventually snow.

This serene picture of a high mountain meadow had now become a minefield of death littered with lighting bolts and snow covered rocks. Things were going from worse to really bad and I was most certainly in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was no time for stopping or waiting and hiding. I kept my head down and put every last fiber of every muscle into every pedal stroke as if my life depended on it, because well at this point it did.

Whew! I made it across the death field and into the false safety of the woods. I kept the pedal to the metal all the way back to my van, cold, wet, and muddy, but alive. Even after I finished loading up and changing, there was still no time to waste. I was in a vehicle with near bald tires, a nasty snow storm biting at my heels, and still many miles of solitary dirt roads to drive before I was even close to civilization. I made it out safe and sound that day, but I will return, and I will bag that epic ride that has eluded me for so many years. Stay tuned!