Tuesday, 18th Sept I don’t normally use an alarm clock to wake up, so when I woke to the blaring noise, rolled over and saw the red 4:00, in the morning darkness, I was not amused. A few hours later my buddy picked me up at DIA, a quick detour of sorts to Boulder to build up my bike and leave the travel case behind and we were on our way. 10 hours after waking and starting the descent of the Uncle Natzy trail in the hills above Salida, CO the early morning alarm was so worth it! A quick 10 mile ride on the trails of Tenderfoot Mtn was a good gauge of whether or not the increased riding I had been doing was enough to prepare for the thin mountain air-it was gonna be tough the next several days. Our destination for the day was Crested Butte, so it was back in the Dodge Dakota rental, dinner at the Gunnisack, and eventually to our campsite up Cement Creek Road. Some more friends arrived late that evening and after some beers and cinnamon whiskey (yeah, some dangerous stuff) I was out as soon as my head hit the pile of clothes that passed as a pillow.
Wednesday, 19th Sept The view from camp in the morning wasn’t too bad.
The day’s ride was Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadmans. The initial climb up Reno Divide was boring fire road with nice views.
The Flag descent was fast and flowy, and after a short climb we took a rest before dropping in on Bear.
I find that there is an inverse correlation between how fun a trail is to ride and the number of photos I take. As such, sorry, no pics of the Bear descent-it was a great mix of buff and flowy with some rocky bits in the trees towards the bottom. Another beautiful climb on buff ST.
The Deadman’s descent was also a ton of fun. Just one pic of three of us, all smiles, at a regroup/rest on the way down. After 15+ miles all over 9000ft it was hard work trying to go as fast as you wanted on this section of trail. In the shade and with a carpet of aspen leaves you had to trust your suspension on the straights as it was hard to see the terrain, the brake bumps let you know a switchback was coming. Later in town talking to the girl manning the front of Big Al’s Bicycle Heaven she said there are 32 of them.
Thursday, 20th Sept Paddington was on dish duty in the morning.
Doctor’s Park is a fun trail. If you’re ever in CB, ride it! It’s gotta be good if there are warnings even before you’re on the trail.
We shuttled up to the high water ford right off Spring Creek Road and pedaled up the 554 trail/road. After a few miles the ST began and a mile or so later the downhill began. The views were pretty nice but the riding was better.
At the bottom, we all wanted to do another run. Mike and Dan were the only ones with enough energy to do so though. I totally over-estimated my fitness and the altitude was killing me so I played shuttle driver, seriously violated the rental agreement, which clearly stated not to take our 4x4 pickup on non-paved surfaces (I wonder if that includes 2 foot deep water crossings?), and drove them up to the top bypassing the 3 miles of climbing. And then it was on, who’d get to the bottom first? It really wasn’t a contest. I poked my way down to Spring Creek, taking pics and drinking a beer at an awesome overlook.
Once down to Spring Creek I pinned it down the nicely graded road and beat ‘em by like two minutes.
Friday, 21st Sept Yay, another shuttle, 401. It’s not the best riding to be had in the CB area but damn is it photogenic. At the top of the initial climb from Schofield Pass we decided to leap frog one another and just take a stupid number of pics. Enjoy.
Near the top.
Some early switchbacks.
Did I say this ride was mostly for the view.
Mer slicing through the aspen.
Me.
Mike, just before the end of the ST.
Mike and I went up to grab the shuttle vehicle and on the way down Mike’s van got a flat. He made it down to Gothic where Mike ran up the road and asked one of the employees at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory if they had the means to repair the tire. The guy came down in his truck, plugged the hole and used his compressor to get the tire pumped back up in exchange for a beer. That done, Dan and I headed on towards Fruita while Mike and Mer got a new tire. Earlier, I mentioned, if you’re ever in CB you need to ride Doctor’s Park. Now, if you’re ever in CB in late September you have to drive/ride up to the west side of Kebler Pass for some absolutely ridiculous leaf peeping.
Our trusty rental. Absolute crap on the highway but damn capable offroad.
Tourism is big in CO and so is mining.
A beer fueled midnight ride down Kessel Run was fun in the, “ wow that was a really dumb idea and I’m glad nothing too bad happened” kind of way. Mike washed out and slid across a cactus (he wasn’t too happy when I started ripping spines out of his leg…) and I was thankful I wore my helmet. Mer was sweeping for a women’s mtb clinic on Saturday afternoon, so we rode the new Pumps, Berms and Rollers (PBR, too bad nobody had some tight jeans to rock on the hipster themed trail) and Joe’s Ridge in the morning. Dan and I headed back to Boulder to hang out with some non-mtbing friends while Mike and Mer stayed in Fruita for another day of riding. Sadly it was all over too soon.
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