Logging traffic woke me.
Drove down better logging road, traveled thru large house development dumped out onto rt 40. No FS road sign to indicate it was Forest access for me to choose. Ah, no map exploration. I dread the day that I push something & have to back out.
Arrived in Winter Park before 9:00: stores still buttoned down. Walked rt 40 till bike shop opened. Picked up the free glossy artist depiction of trails around area. Needed to be down mtn to Fraser for rides written up in Singletrack.com.
hanging from the lamp posts were pennants stating Mountain Bike capital of America:
Trails well marked, map was a puzzlement long road distance to get to uphill. 20 mile day & 1900′
System many old logging roads. Lots to choose from.
Mass Lodgepole Pine die off from pine beetle. Cause appears to be 8th year of drought meaning pines don’t produce the sap to pitch out the beetle when it attempts to burrow into the tree. other info might be bunk: the tree has to be so large to sustain the larva stage, the active feeding stage of the beetle. 2 events kill the tree: The mass beetle galleries feeding on the what, phloem, shutting off the sap … forgot that botany, ah, disrupting the flow of nutrients necessary to sustain the tree, and the fungus that hitch hikes on the beetle when it pierces the tree bark during egg laying. Mountain sides brown from dead Lodgepole.
The town of Fraser is logging the dead & burning the slash. Lots of slash left over. If domebody could reclaim the slash into pellet stove fuel, wow.
learned of shower @ Hostel for $3.00, negotiated for $2. because I used my own towel. Chatted with young woman hostel manager about dirtbag camping.
Drove back over pass & finished up my I-70 driving stopping in Evergreen, a place where sister Lise lived for a few years, years ago. I passed The Whippletree restaurant where she worked. Had dinner upon her suggestion.
Dirtbag parking lot camping tonight to drive in daylight to Pine for an IMBA epic ride.