9.8.09 Ride the 401 all the way to...

Up the next morning and enjoying some complimentary breakfast. We figured we'd ride and then set up camp at the Gothic Campground near our chosen ride. We happened to notice that someone's car in the parking lot appeared to have been broken in to. During breakfast, however, we overheard the woman say that it was in fact a bear that had busted out the rear window. Apparently, they were somewhat lax the night before and left a window open in the car and had some food open inside at their campsite. They scared the bear off and found a room late night at our hotel.

Mike: "Excuse me, I couldn't help but hear your car fell victim to a bear"
Woman: "Yeah"
Mike: "I'm so sorry to hear"
Woman: "Yeah we've been so careful and we were just so tired we made a careless mistake and left the window open and food inside the car"
Mike: "So what campground were you at?"
Woman: "The Gothic Campground"
Mike: "Interesting"

Also at breakfast, we 'got to talking' with two employees of the hotel who were interested about where we were from, etc. We happened to mention our struggles with the elevation while mountain biking.

Employee #1: "Oh yeah. You should always drink tons of water. People tend to get altitude sickness around here"
Employee #2: "Yeah I just heard (now leaning into #1) that a guy died 3 days ago from that. He was ignoring all the signs and his lungs were just full of fluid"
Mike: "Interesting"

We then took their advice and headed to the health store for some Acli-Mate, a high altitude powder drink mix developed by some doctor in Gunnison full of vitamins and minerals that help your body absorb oxygen. Mike walks into the store:

Mike: "Hello. I heard you have a magical mountain elixer that helps people breath"
Owner of shop stares in wonderment.
Mike: "I mean do you have some drink mix that helps people acclimate to the elevation.
Owner: "Oh, of course, you mean Acli-Mate"
Mike: "Yes, thank you"

Time for Trail 401. Starting at 8000ft we climb the fire road to just over 10,000ft. Some beautiful scenery on the way up, in particular a huge turquoise blue lake reflecting the image of the mountains. After the fire road the trail continues on to steep winding singletrack where many a rider was huffing and puffing from lake of oxygen. Got to the top and were amazed with the view. Met up with three other riders who took our picture. They had a dog named 'wiskers the wonder dog' who was wearing doggy boots. Started to blast down the trail on the mountain edge. We did some Scorsese story boarding and set up some tripod picture action. We stopped a lot on this ride for pics and to just take in the view. It was pretty dry and some areas got a little loose but for the most part the trail was packed tight. A few areas got a little dicey and had to ride the breaks down. Some sweet long downhill areas of high speed with a few switchbacks thrown in. At the bottom we find cows chilling by the vans. We politely asked them to move so we could get our bikes loaded up.

Hit up the Gothic campground with some scenic viewage, a fire, some hot dog appetizers and cards. It was at this moment Chad determined in a matter of 2 minutes that magnetic playing cards would be the best and worst idea ever. They would not blow away which was pissing us off, however, shuffling would be a bitch. Met up with Tony a few hours later at his hotel for showers and then off to downtown Crested Butte for steaks. Then settled in back at the campsite where after about 45 minutes and near deep sleep, large hoof sounds heard scampering around the tents! We yelled to scare off the prey and heard them run all over the place. We never actually confirmed the culprits but after the episode, Mike spent the remainder of the night in the van...