Biking in Crestone and the Baca

In travelling though Colorado, I chanced to see one of the Biking events where all these colorful riders trekked up the side of the highway, huffing and puffing up the mountain. My first reaction was to silently scoff at them with the thought of how jock they must be, but secretly I must have been impressed. Anyway, the thought came to me last year that the distance from the cabin to the eateries of Crestone was really quite optimal for a bike, even if there was a bit of a climb on the way back. Being from Houston, climbs at 8500 feet altitude were a bit intimidating. But I figured I could walk the hard parts. Anyway, on impulse I looked at the classifieds in the local Crestone Eagle paper, and there was a bike advertised.

It turned out to be an first generation Cannondale mountain bike of 19 in., in rideable condition so I bought it for $125. I took it to the Absolute Bikes in Salida, an hour away, and they tuned it and put some new tires with a tread for tarmac and gravel roads.

There was a lot of huffing and puffing, and walking, and eventually a new Super granny gear, but I was sold on biking Crestone. I bought a Raleigh Competition GS for Houston, to build up my stamina, and that worked, so this year, 2012, I can really bike about the Baca.

Upon reflection, I am impressed with how much I depended upon others for learning about biking, especially Grant Peterson, and his thinking, which in his new book, Just Ride, revolves around the concept of being an Unracer. More on this later, perhaps. Anyway, I feel I should give back, at least a little bit, so I put together this blog on biking in Crestone. My intention is to provide the kind of information that you might find useful if you find yourself going to Crestone for a spiritual retreat and you are a bike rider. You might not know how congenial Crestone is for unracer bikers or for racing bikers for that matter. That is, going to Crestone, bring your bike.