Three years, three weeks, and a day or so after the ride on Searle Pass that inspired this very thread on MTBR I found myself back again. A good friend Hirsch was in town visiting from Tulsa, so we rounded up a couple more friends and set out to get some high country riding in. The forecast called for cool temps and overcast, cloudy skies but no rain until late in the afternoon, which would be perfect weather for our excursion.

Here we find the Bobby the Enduroist in his natural habitat, making his way along the Colorado Trail just shy of Guller Creek.

Guller Creek never disappoints, and even though we had overcast skies the wildflowers were more than making up for it. Near the top we endured a 10 degree temperature drop in 5 seconds accompanied a little spittle of rain, but otherwise the weather gods tolerated our presence in the High Country.

The hearty crew taking a break at Searle Pass. We did not venture over to Kokomo Pass on this outing, as this was as much a social gathering as a mountain bike ride we found ourselves pressed to get back to other obligations in Denver. L-R Hirsch, Drog, Bobby.

That’s a big ass cairn!

Another picture from Searle Pass, taken by Hirsch. I dig the moody clouds and framing in this shot, even though the ‘heaviness’ of the image doesn’t necessarily match the elation of riding bikes with your friends in the High Country.

These assholes…

Getting this picture…

…which pretty much sums up the experience of the ride. Hirsch had to move to Tulsa from Colorado just under a year ago for work, and has been jonesing to get back here. This trip was a bit of a vision quest for him, and he left it all in Colorado before driving back east.

And I’ve been #funemployed all summer, riding as much as I can to clear my head. Last week my Dad landed in the hospital from a motorcycle crash, and I drove to Iowa and back to retrieve him. This ride was my first ride in a week, and it was good to get my head back on straight after the stress of that incident.

The descent off Searle back towards Copper is a good one. Not necessarily the rockiest or most technical, but exactly what we were looking for on the day. It’s tough to make the time to take pictures when you’re grinning on a good mountain bike descent, but we managed a couple. Here we seethe high alpine wildflowers doing their thing, exploding in a breathtaking multi-colored blanket of awesome.

I still contend there is nothing like riding your bike in the High Country to clear the head and give you the giggles. If you have the means, I highly recommend it. It’s so choice.