Stage 5

We woke up and saw Barry was already gone.  We packed up and started riding.  I forgot to put sunscreen on so 15 minutes into riding I stopped to put some one to realize the bag I had my sunscreen, chainlube, & camp soap in was gone.  I thought it must have fallen off a few sections back where it was rocky so I hiked back and ended up walking a full mile back to camp never to find it.  It must have fallen off the bike the night before on the pedal up cottonwood after I had lubed my chain near the base since it was loud.  Kyle had turned around when I didn't show up for 20 minutes.  Right passed where he had been waiting for me we found some more trail magic.  After awhile we got onto a dirt road that was surprisingly outrageous fun which transitioned into asphalt and we knew we were getting close to Princeton Hot Springs which was good as we saw rain clouds.  We got to the store where we ate and waited out the rain.  We considered stopping to shower but figured we may get to Fooses early enough to do that at the camp ground near there.
We started up the road towards the chalk cliffs.  There's some really cool houses along the way.  We knew we were in for a few rough pushes.  The first was steep and un-rideable for us.  We figured it would get better but it was either rocky or steep the whole way.  There was also a lot of confusing signs along the way and we stuck to the book.  There was a surprising amount of trails around here given how remote it was.  It took a long time but we finally got on top of the hill and Kyle recognized where we were and he knew we were close to U.S. 50.  Crossing a river on a bridge 2 pieces of timber spread apart a bit and my wheel dropped in, fork caught, and I went OTB hard.  My bikes stayed on the bridge sitting upside down.  I got lucky my bike was undamaged and all I had was some scratched knees but I was definitely mad at myself for not being more careful.
We got down the final descent which I was overly cautious about.  We crossed the highway and started up the dirt road, Kyle said this is his favorite area in Colorado and he had been coming here every year for the past 7 years so he was excited.  It was getting dark as we pedaled up the road.  All of the sudden a creature ran from the woods straight towards Kyle as he yelled at it to get away.  He unclipped, it hit his bike and ran off into the woods on the other side of the road.  I'm glad I was behind him as I would not have believed that happened without seeing it.  The created looked like a big black marmot but we decided it had to be a honey badger cause it didn't give a shit.  We kept going trying to keep an eye on both sides of the road while staying in the middle.  We decided to get to go a few more miles to the top of the camping area to stay out of the badgers territory.  We found a pretty good spot in an open area near a creek.  We decided to start a fire first to let the honey badger know were claiming the area for the night, to mark our territory.  Then we filled up water, cooked/ate, and went to sleep worried we may get honey badgered.


Mileage: 39.8 mi
Climbing: 6,652 ft
Moving Time: 7:45
Camping Elevation: 9,587 ft