Day 19 - Brush Mountain Lodge, CO to Clark, CO

Today was a relatively short day in distance, and not terribly long in terms of saddle time, but far from easy! After a fabulous stay at Brush Mountain with super-hostess Kirsten
, we set off at about 8:00am for Sand Mountain Pass, a climb from roughly 7700' elevation to the summit at 9870' over about 16 miles.
This was the first pass over 9000' either Mike or I had attempted, and I at least was wondering just how well I'd manage at that altitude on a 55lb loaded mountain bike.  We'd also heard that the trail got pretty technical for the last 2-3 miles on the climb, and that the descent was not as steep, but still quite rough and technical for 6-8 miles.  

The climb turned out to be quite manageable up to the point where it suddenly tilted up from 8-9% to about 20% grade, and filled with rocks and loose gravel.  So... The last 1.5-2 miles was all hike-a-bike. 
I managed to get up the climb in a little over 3 hours, and really enjoyed the view from the continental divide... Not sure how many times we've crossed it now, but it's always a milestone worth savoring! Needless to say, the view was spectacular :-)

The descent, while pretty rocky and technical, was still a lot of fun. Whenever I can go downhill for 14 miles, I'm a happy camper! I pulled into the Clark, CO general store at about 1:00pm, and refueled on Gatorade and ice cream, and Mike and Wibke rolled in shortly after with word that our Warm Showers host would come pick us up from the store at 2:30.

We ended the day with a fantastic lasagna dinner prepared for us on the deck overlooking a spectacular Colorado vista. 
Definitely a day to remember on the GDMBR,! 
Cheers :-)

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