Colorado Springs to Salida

Scheduling a 2 day off-road ride from COS to Salida with Ranger Ron, prep for Leadville 100.
Leaving Colorado Springs Friday morning 6/18 with camp over in the tiny mountain town of Guffy. Julie will meet us in guffey with camping gear so we can go fairly light. We only need to carry fuel to get us to Guffey.
Our course route will take us up over the old Gold Camp railroad grade to Victor and on to Cripple Creek. We may stop in one of these famous mining town for lunch and reload on snacks and fresh water.
Then a short climb over Mt. Pisgah and down to route 1 turning south to route 9 and on into Guffey. After a good night's sleep we begin day 2.
Day 2 will be a remote and longer section of our trip. Leaving Guffey we head north on route 9 and make our westerly turn on to FR2.
Nothing but Colorado back country from here. All forest service dirt roads and the wilds of Colorado with a few options to bail off and head down to Hwy 50.
We will pass through many old abandoned mining sites and the re-populated mining ghost town of Turret. After Turret we make our descent on 175 down into out destination of Salida.
I still need to chart the full route to get mileage and altitude data and post it here.
Bike choice is always a challenge for me. Since this is a training ride for Ron and his Leadville challenge I will ride a geared 29er.
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