Okay finally finished up the rest of the Colorado Trip pages with the inclusion of the
Doctor Park Trail and the “Table of Contents” for the trip.
Category: General MTB
The Crested Butte 401 Trail
Wow, I have been away from the BLOG for way too long. Between work being….well…WORK and a ton of other life things I have been away from the keyboard. The 401 trail is thoroughly covered in snow right now but I finally finishing off my pictures and notes from the fall Colorado trip.
I spent a few days in Crested Butte and got in a couple of great rides. One of those was the 401 Trail.
Here is the webpage with all my pictures and some blabbage from the ride.
The Monarch Crest Epic
I have spent the last month working out of the country and pretty much had no-time and less mental energy to finish up my pictures and thoughts from my Colorado trip. The Monarch Crest trail was my day six excursion and it did not disappoint. Much of the route is part of the both Continental Divide and Colorado Trails. This is certainly a bucket list quality trail that I’m super stoked to have ridden.
View from along the trail
Nudging up close to 12,000 feet of elevation.
Looking down into the Silver Creek drainage that I would soon be riding through.
Near the bottom of the Silver Creek Trail.
Check out the rest of the pictures and ride description here.
Twin Lakes south of Leadville
Day Five of my fall vacation through Colorado was riding around Twin Lakes between Leadville and Buena Vista. There was plenty of nice trail and killer views. Find all the pictures, maps and blabbage here.
Riding Commando
Riding “The Commando Run” that is, you Dirty Minded Bastards! On day four of my Chasing Aspens vacation was a ride that goes from Vail Pass Summit down into the town of Minturn. The route we rode was used by the Army’s 10th Mountain Division during WWII as training for alpine skiing combat and commando raids for the war effort. We rode a series of forest roads to the Bowman Shortcut trail to the Two Elk trail. We did a total of 17.7 miles with 1,870 feet of climbing and 5,200 feet of descent. This was one fantastic trail that pretty much kept all of your trail riding skills on their toes. Check out the write up, pictures, map and GPS files I have added to the site.
Winter Park, Colorado
Day 3 of my Chasing Aspens Tour through Colorado was in Winter Park where I could to make some new friends as well as spend some quality trail time with old friends. It was an outstanding introduction to riding at elevation and pretty fall colors. I can find a few more words and a few dozen photos of that outing here.
The Good Water Rim Trail
Man, I got back from vacation and found a mountain of work had piled up while I was gone so it has been a bit slow getting my pictures and thoughts together on that last trip. But I have managed to get a page put together on the first stop on my most excellent jaunt through Utah and Colorado.
The Good Water Rim Trail in “The Wedge” area of the San Rafael Swell was an awesome opener.
A couple of weekends in Idyllwild
On Labor Day, I got in some quality Father-Son time with my oldest son on The Hub Trails in Idyllwild. The trail system has really expanded over the years since I first started riding up here. I’m way overdue for update on this area on the site so I decided I would be going back the following weekend.
Here is Will riding on the Hard Sun trail. We had a great time and we rode quite a few trails I had not been on before.
I started the next weekend off by finally catching the Hub Cyclery Saturday Shop Ride.
The shop ride focused on some of the trails over on South Ridge. Here is Emily working on some tasty singletrack.
This gaggle is best described as some of the usual local suspects. They guys were kicking my ass up every climb.
A killer spot for snacks and nips whiskey.
Dee styling up the hill
Emily cruising up a climb
While on the shop ride the trail went by a killer looking campsite so I dropped a marker in my GPS.
After post-ride tasty beverages, yummy tacos and plenty of MTB chattage back at the bike shop, I drove back up into the woods and found my way back to the campsite we went by earlier in the day. This was Casa Del Bill for the evening.
The post-sunset view from camp with the lights of Hemet below in the distance.
After a leisurely wake up the following morning, coffee, breakfast and camp breakdown I headed over to The Hub trails. The route I had planned for the day was not what I would consider a “Good” series of loops as my goal was to cover as many of the trails I had not been on before vice just doing a killer ride. I knew I would be doing some of this trails in the non-preferred direction.
The opening set of trails included Uprising, Silver Crag, Onion and Mystic Creek that worked up the mountain to Toptimator and Project X. I first rode Project X back when folks did not want you talking about it…Now its on the map, but I was not riding it today.
Toptimator is just forested singletrack awesomeness with killer views to boot. I took Toptimator to Portal, Dreamtwister and Sleepwalker. At this point I was seriously considering dropping down into the lower trails and heading back to the trailhead as I was starting to wane. I managed to convince myself to close off the Sleepwalker loop back to Topimator. A check of my water bladder put me to water rationing mode as I made my way back over to Mystic Dubbings for a cool descent back towards the trailhead.
I took a wrong turn at the bottom of Mystic Dubbings and found myself climbing up Bear Trap. I had gone far enough up the trail that I decided to gut it out and take it back to its upper junction of the Mystic Dubbings trail. At that junction I turned around, polished off my last sips of water and then descended Bear Trap and then retraced my way back to the trailhead. I rolled into the trailhead completely out of energy and all full of smiles. The water in my ice chest never tasted so GOOD! I did 21.8 miles with 2,700 feet of climbing but man did that ride seem harder than the number convey. I will be updating my page on this area in the next couple weeks but it will still be missing a few of the otherwise “published” trails. To get the best and most up-to-date map you will need to swing by Hub Cyclery and pick one up.
Laguna Mountains Funtime
This weekend I joined Chip, and crew out in the Laguna Mountains for some good times in the dirt. We started at the top of Redtail Roost and dropped the singletrack down to near the meadow. We then climbed up Aqua Dulce to the top of Los Gatos. After taking Los Gatos down to the meadow we looped back up to the top of Los Gatos via Chico Ravine. After descending Los Gatos a second time, we took a lap around the meadows before climbing back up to the Redtail Roost. Good times!
Here a few pictures of the dirt hulligans on this outing.
Chip and Roger
Jorge
The crew at the top of the Meadow. (Photo by Chip)
Jason
Jason and Amy
Chip playing with his new bike
At the top of Los Gatos with Jason, Jason and Tony
Me with Mr Gopher Snake (Photo by Chip)
Mammoth Mountain Playtime
So last week I got in a couple of days or lift-assisted MTBing at Mammoth Mountain. Eight of us went in together on a Condo rental which made for some comfy living arrangements.
Mandatory photo at the top. Over the course of the two days I hit most of the trails with the exception of some of the red triangle “pro” lines. Some of those are freaking gnarly and I felt under traveled and under protected. There are plenty of trails for all skill levels and genres here. Good times indeed.
Steve on Twilight Zone
James
LeAnn rolling
Megan cruising
Dayle and Michael
Michael on Skid Marks. I love taking the Gondola all the way to the top for the last run of the day and taking Skid Marks to Juniper to roll all the way back down into town. The trail dumps out less than a quarter mile from our house and it is a fun and scenery descent. Highly recommended.
Michael rolling on Juniper