Colorado Trail - July 10, 2025
Segment 8. This day took me from Copper Mountain to Camp Hale, Tennessee Pass, Leadville and the Mt. Massive Trailhead, and included the Holy Cross and Mt. Massive Wilderness detour.
My friend Rich joined me for the section from Copper Mountain to Camp Hale. I woke up to a flat tire and this delayed our departure. This was the only flat I had on the entire trail.
We made it about one mile before a rain storm hit and we were still in the Copper Mountain village, so we decided to take shelter in a building and wait out the rain.
About 30 or 40 minutes later, the weather cleared and we hit the trail again. Shortly after getting on the trail, we had to traverse a few wooden bridges. I’d love to blame it on the wet wooden bridge, but I think I just over turned on one of the bridges and ended up riding off the bridge into a dry creek bed. In the middle of the crash, I was concerned it might turn out poorly for me, but I only ended up with a sore hip and handlebars that had to be straightened. The hip soreness was gone by the next day.
Segment 8 was one of my favorites. The three miles between Searle and Kokomo pass were incredible. The climb to Searle pass had vibrant wildflowers and colors I have rarely seen, and the downhill off of Kokomo pass was a blast.
By the time we hit Camp Hale, another rain and wind storm came in. I made a quick goodbye to Rich and road hard to get back into the trees for cover as I headed to Tennessee pass.
From Tennessee pass, I started the wilderness detour which took me through Leadville. I stopped at Cycles of Life, https://www.colbikes.com to have them turn my rear tire back into a tubeless setup and check my rear brake pads, which they replaced. I told them I was riding the Colorado Trail, and they were super gracious to do the repairs swiftly and get me back on the trail within an hour.
I had also ripped my backup and broke a zipper on the pack and wanted to get a new pack. I ended up at Community Threads and was able to replace my backpack with one that had the gear capacity that I needed. https://www.leadvilletwinlakes.com/listing/community-threads/
I ended up at a campground right by the MT Elbert trailhead. Mark found another great spot near a creek. I was able to soak and clean off in the creek
52 miles and 7100 feet of gain.
