It was cold and the leaves were changing by the hour. For the past three days I had been charged with outfitting Hermosa Tour’s final Telluride to Durango trip of the 2015 season. Joining me was a hard charging group of twelve, long distance mountain bikers from California who had spent the past twenty-four hours pedaling and pushing over the route’s crux. With the most difficult sections of trail behind us, we settled into our final high camp to relish our expedition’s success.

“We always meet the craziest characters at this spot” I said as my clients cracked the first of many celebratory beverages. And right on cue, 36-year-old Jamey Mossengren unicycled into our camp.

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Originally from Minnesota, Mossengren was about to become the first person to unicycle the entire length of the Colorado Trail. After twenty days in the backcountry, it took little to convince Jamey to join our group for dinner and drinks. A street performer who now calls Boulder, Colorado home, Mossengren spent the evening entertaining our group with stories of CT challenge and misadventure.

On Monday, September 14th, Jamey completed the final 38 miles of singletrack into Durango in just under twelve hours, a new one day best and a fitting ending to his one wheeled, five hundred mile adventure which commenced on August 25th.

Mossengren’s CT kit
Mossengren’s CT kit

The Durango Herald reported on Mossengren’s “predicament” with choosing to ride the CT’s wilderness sections vs. traveling via the trail’s established bike detours.

“All of Colorado’s wilderness areas are closed to bicycles” Mossengren explains. “But a unicycle is not a bicycle.” He continues, “in Colorado, unicycles are forbidden on any road with a center dividing line.” (i.e.-pavement) The tension between federal and state law confounded Mossengren at every designated boundary he encountered. “I took a chance and chose to hike and push my unicycle through the wilderness segments.”

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To be sure, Mossengren’s “pure” CT is sure to rankle the non-mechanized crowd, but the scope of this unipacker’s historic achievement is beyond reproach.

Mossengren is trying to raise money for ALS. His grandpa and uncle both recently died due to this terrible illness. To donate or for more information including a blog about each day of his epic solo adventure you can visit his website: www.uniproshow.com.

On the eve of completing this historic thru-ride, Mossengren shared his thoughts with Bikepackers Magazine in an exclusive interview for Bikepacker Radio below.

Jamey Mossengren

Congratulations Jamey, we look forward to seeing you complete more long distance, unipacking trips in the future!   

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