‘Merica Day

Having been upon the Monarch Crest a time or two, the opportunity to ride a potentially massive ride with ‘ol Michael Rasmusofawn of yore was not to be ignored. A couple Triderz committed and Jimmy and I rolled up the old Monarch Pass road at about 11 on the 3rd. We figured the 4:20 am rollout of singlespeederz and the sort from Salida would be upon us in 9 hours and we’d have bacon cooking for them. So it was and we were graced with a visit from Don of Backyard Bikes Fame. Many of the hammers who had come through were riding the rigid truss fork single speed steel niners that he has been building in his Salida shop for some time and at a fairly advanced age he was rocking his way up the ride in flats sans helmet. Deeply in the groove he tapped out a few strokes past our bacon station before he determined that, yes, bacon was a good idea, and stopped by. From there our kindly group stomped along for 8 out of ten hours or so enjoying some of the sweetest singletrack imaginable. Michael R Hayes should be commended for stashing a cooler at the lunch spot before the sweet, (mostly rideable) hike-a-bike, and cracking somewhere up there, rallying and showing us the whole damn thing.  Next year, Stomprz atop the pass, Camp STRONG!