Vapor Trail 125

 

Within the past several years, I had this race pop up on my radar. It was far from here, in Colorado. It was much higher than here, coursing through and above the high alpines of the Rocky Mountains. It sounded really hard. And it just seemed a bit out of reach. It was the Vapor Trail 125. And now I know it was just what I was looking for!

The Vapor Trail, in Salida, CO, is put on by a seemingly awesome human named Mike Franco. It's 125 miles of largely single-track riding with a mix of easily ridable railroad-grade dirt roads and blown out rocky roadbeds rich with gold and silver mining history in the late 1800's, as well as several steep, technical hike-a-bike sections. And the climbing is served up on a giant-sized platter as the elevation gain totals a little over 17,000'. The course takes you through sections of the Colorado and Continental Divide Trails, over Hancock, Tomichi, Monarch, and Marshall Passes, and up and over Canyon Creek Trail with a 45-minute hike-a-bike which tops out at 12,600' and precedes a massive, exhilarating single track descent dropping 3500' over a 10-mile stretch. Boom!!

As I had never been out west during the summer months and had never ridden at elevation, I gave myself a few days to bathe my lungs with the thin air. I arrived in Salida on a Wednesday and immediately assembled my bike and headed up to Monarch Crest Trail at over 11,000' to pedal around and see how I felt. Overall, I only had some mild shortness of breath with exertion which is to be expected when coming from about 700' above sea level. I spent the next couple of days hiking and riding and just generally enjoying the beautiful town and surrounding mountains.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting for the race, the 10:00pm start time on Saturday night was  finally near. But first, we had our racers meeting at Absolute Bikes/High Side Bar & Grill with the pre-race sermon delivered by race director Mike Franco.

After the racers meeting, and another two hours until race time, we gathered on the F street bridge under moody skies with some distant flashes of lightning and the occasional rain drop. At 10 on the dot, we were off! We had about 7 miles of pavement which was a neutral start with a lead vehicle. I thought it was cool that there was a group pee break to help regroup everyone before we crossed a major highway.

After 7 miles, the pavement turned to dirt. And after 7 miles of dirt, we finally hit the Colorado Trail for our first section of single track. And for whatever reason, I didn't feel all that great. I was pedaling very easy, knowing that as a "flatlander", relatively speaking, I had to really hold back and keep the heart rate low. I was closer to the back of the pack than the front. And looking back at the elevation profile of the 14 miles to singletrack, we actually gained nearly 3000'. Sheesh. It was all uphill!

With it being dark and still having quite a few people around me, as well as having an unhappy stomach with some stupid nausea, I didn't take any pictures for the first 7 hours of the race. 

For the first section of singletrack, we traversed about 12 miles of the Colorado Trail before reaching the first aid station at mile 26, in the Chalk Creek/Mt. Princeton area. The trail was fun at times but also slow-going and demanding with at least one steep section of hike-a-bike and little to no flow with lots of rocks to navigate. And then, at the end, just before reaching the aid station, I found some steep, loose switchbacks that just may have been the gnarliest that I have ever seen. 

At the aid station, I realized that it was 2:00am. It had taken me 4 hours to go 26 miles! I was not used to this! But the volunteers were absolutely incredible. My bottles and hydration pack were filled for me. I was handed a breakfast burrito. I grabbed some gels and a banana. And I was off for an 18 mile climb with 3,969' feet of gain (per my ride file), landing me on top of Hancock Pass.

Luckily, I was feeling quite a bit better by the time I started this vision quest. It was a nice, easy railroad grade climb along Chalk Creek, until it wasn't. The gradient was perfect for me to just stand and turn the pedals over without a lot of effort but with good speed. Enough so that I caught and passed 4-5 people on this climb. The temps continued to fall as I climbed. I think 32 degrees was probably the lowest that I saw. It was enough that I stopped and changed into my winter gloves and added a wind jacket. 

I climbed past the historic mining town of Saint Elmo, Hancock Ghost Town, and the Alpine Tunnel Trail before turning left onto a section of the Continental Divide Trail. This section of singletrack was a new addition for 2024 and it was AWESOME! It snaked it's way up the mountainside on lots of exposed, off-camber trails providing ample opportunities to test the balance and handling skills to navigate small water crossings, switchbacks, rocks, and slick roots.

The two lights seen are headlamps ahead of me

This section of the CDT popped back out on to the old mining road which now looked like a creek bed and so began the hike with my bike up to Hancock Pass at 12,140'.

Several of us descended the other side of Hancock Pass together but I opted to stop at the bottom, before heading up to Tomichi Pass, to force myself to eat half of that breakfast burrito I had acquired about 4 hours prior. I had been carrying it in my back pocket in a failed attempt at keeping it somewhat warm. From my breakfast spot, I did have a cool view of all the headlamps hiking up to Tomichi. 

As I began my ascent of Tomichi Pass, which was mostly walking, first light was beginning to show the beautiful landscapes that surrounded me! 

This was absolutely magical! I had never been in the high alpine landscapes outside of winter snow pack. Once we were on Tomichi Pass, there was a direct view of the Canyon Creek Trail hike-a-bike section that would take us to the high point of the course.

To the right in the pic, headlamps coming over and descending Hancock Pass

Tomichi Pass with Canyon Creek high point in the background

After a rather short descent, I made a right turn on to Canyon Creek Trail. I said hello to the moto guys that were hanging out there, then began the strenuous 45 minute hike to the top.

Zoom to see the guy at the very top

Andrew Poland and Johnny

Once we made it to the top at 12,600', around 7:15am, it was time for that 10 mile singletrack descent that I mentioned earlier. However, there was one mandatory dismount near the top, where the trail was actually falling off the mountain with a 120' drop to the left. 

The descent was bone-rattling for the first half and smooth and flowy with a few scattered technical sections in the second half. The end of this long descent landed me at AID #2 at the Snowblind Campground around 8:30am where I had two fresh pancakes, a cup of ramen noodles, two bananas, and two mini-cokes as well as a chain clean/lube BY THE RACE DIRECTOR HIMSELF! What a guy! But, Mike, don't ever talk about how heavy my bike is again, punk. 

Leaving out of AID #2, I was with Andrew Poland who was in the yellow jacket in earlier pictures. I had previously learned that this was his FIRST BIKE RACE. However, he was an ultra runner with eleven 100-mile races under his belt. He had earned his black belt in suffering.

There was a nice gravel road descent through a beautiful, sprawling valley only to deliver us to CR 237 which was a 9 mile dirt road climb, gaining 2500', to Old Monarch Pass. After this, it was only a few minutes and short ribbon of singletrack and I arrived at AID #3 at Monarch Pass at 11:00am, which was mile 72, where I dropped my small seat bag, lights, and winter gear as the sun was out in full effect and felt amazing! I was once again treated like a king by the volunteers. I was provided with a chair to sit in, a bag to put all my belongings in since I opted not to have a drop bag, my hydration pack was filled, and food was handed to me. It was next-level!

Leaving Monarch Pass, it was a short ascent to the Monarch Crest Trail, a pinnacle of mountain biking in the US. I had been feeling pretty rough since the climb up to Monarch but I just took my time and tried my best to enjoy the mostly-flowy alpine singletrack. It was about 12 miles and another soul-jarring descent to AID#4 at Marshall Pass.

Once at AID #4, I was just barely surviving but the laughter and smiles there gave me some life. Or maybe it was the delicious turkey sandwich and garlic butter new potatoes? From here, there was a 10-mile loop to do, called Starvation Creek, which descended about 2000' feet of singletrack then climbed right back up a rocky, steep service road to the same aid station, now called AID #5 (the last one). On this climb, I ran into Jeremy Wofford at the bottom and we would end up riding the rest of the race together.

Leaving AID #5, it was 4:00pm. I was at mile 95. There were 20 miles of singletrack and 10 miles of downhill pavement to the finish line. I was told it would probably take 3.5-4 hours. I caught up to Jeremy and we ripped all the descents as fast as we safely could. Ten miles of Silver Creek Trail and then 10 miles of Rainbow Trail, which was super fast and mostly flowy, save for all the short, steep uphill punches that we had to walk. We caught up to Andrew near the end and all three rode the 10 miles of pavement back to Salida together. We hit the finish line in the Absolute Bikes parking lot just a few minutes before 7:00pm, 3 hours after leaving AID #5, and almost 21 hours after starting. 

At the finish, there was a kick-ass party going on with beers, burgers on the grill, music, a bike wash station, and lots of supportive racers, volunteers, and fans giving out all the high-fives and congratulations. 

This was a top 5 all-time event for me and one that I will never forget. It may have taken me much longer than I had anticipated but, the overall goal was to get it done. I rode smart and never once pushed hard as I had deemed this a ride rather than a race, for me. 

The biggest thank you goes out to my wonderful wife who continues to allow me to do these silly events. 

Thanks to Kyle Quinn, who was a friend of a friend living in Salida and graciously answered all of my questions and showed me the local trails. He also decided to take someone up on a transfer of their race entry the day before the race and crushed it on a single speed, finishing first out of all single speeds in around 17 hours. Beast!

Thank you to Handup Gloves and Owen Cyclery for the incredible support.

Thank you Mike and all others, including volunteers, who made this such a special event!

And thank you to my support pup who is helping me with this write-up. Until next time!