Princeton Peak to Cottonwood on the CT

Today's ride was again on the Colorado Trail, from the Princeton Peak trailhead to Cottonwood and back. It started with a mile up a dirt road, climbing 500 feet, nothing at PA elevation but a bit of a struggle for at least me right out of the shoot at 9000 feet. We hit the single track and climbed some more with intermittent breaks of flat and a little downhill here and there. The trail surface reminded both of us of Lake Tahoe, a nicely packed decomposed granite base. Again there was no dust or mud anywhere. The surface does tend to get pretty loose on the steep sections requiring some extra attention and managed to wipe both of us out on a switchback, no blood no foul. After about 7 miles of up and down, through pine forest, aspen groves and exposed views, we headed down a rather technical section for a mile and half, steep in sections and quite rocky by western standards. It was a lot of fun but that was tempered by the fact that we knew we had to turn around and ride / hike-a-bike back up through it. While that section wasn't much fun on the return, we both agreed that we have had to do ALOT worse in the past. The sketchiest part of the ride was heading back down the dirt road as it had a fine layer of that decomposed granite that made it quite "slippery" in places.
We headed into town for a few supplies and to check out the local bike shop. There is one small grocery store and it seems to always be packed. The bike shop was a little disappointing, not having the type of lube we wanted and the guy working in it had just moved out there from Ohio so was pretty useless when it came to local beta. Howie did manage to find a guide book he didn't have along with a couple of patches and sticker for the back of the RV to commemorate our time in the Buena Vista area.
Back at camp Howie had issues with dinner preparation, since he could not find minced garlic at the grocery he bought whole cloves and quickly realized the pain that it was going to be to mince enough for potatoes as well as salad and the burgers. You have to realize we go through multiple quart jars of minced garlic on these trips. Anyways, potatoes were given up and extra salad was made, and no garlic in the burgers.