I was in the Denver area for work this week and took advantage of some free time by going for a ride. After doing some research, I decided on renting a bike from Golden Bike shop in Golden and riding Buffalo Creek trail system. Buffalo Creek trail system is about an hour southwest of Denver and is rated by IMBA as an epic ride, they got this one right.
This was my first time riding a 29er. Golden Bike shop hooked me up with this carbon Santa Cruz Tallboy and also helped me plan my route. If you are in the Denver area and need to rent a bike, I highly recommend GBS.
My ride started at the Buffalo Creek trailhead down a fireroad. A quick dip onto Sandy Wash trail provided some fun singletrack through the pines and led back onto the fireroad down to Shinglemill trail. The whole trail system is mostly DG and if you like riding San Juan you will like the dirt here.
The climb up Shinglemill trail had me changing gears a lot with fun, flowy ups and downs. The landscape here is wild. This area was completely burnt in a fire in 1996 and the trees never grew back, but burnt stumps and fallen trees are everywhere.
Shinglemill trail tops out at the Colorado Trail. Here you dive right back into the pine forest for a real roller coaster ride that goes on for many miles.
This part of the Colorado Trail was the beginning of one of the fastest and most fun descents I have ever been on. I didn't think it was possible to do the things I was doing with a 29er, but with the kind of speed I had and the kind of flow the trail offered, the possibilities were endless.
I took Redskin Creek trail from the Colorado Trail and linked it up to Gashouse Gultch trail heading north. This part of the ride was the least fun, but still provided clean, tight singletrack through cool pine forest.
The final part of the ride was down Charlie's Cutoff back to Sandy Wash. This part was fast and downhill with lots of areas where the trail went directly over rock outcrops and boulders, or had diversions that allowed you to play around on the rock before getting back on the trail.
Looking back near the end of Sandy Wash. After about 27 miles and 3 hours of riding, my face hurt more from smiling than my legs did from riding.
After returning the bike to GBS I stopped at a must visit destination while in Golden; Golden City Brewery. With the Coors brewery right down the road, GCB has an awesome slogan to match their awesome beers, "Second Largest Brewery in Golden".
Did turning seem sliggish on that bike?