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View Full Version : Colorado Trail Goodness...

SkaredShtles
08-31-2006, 11:02 PM
So my buddy asked if I was up for a ride and suggested heading up to Mt. Falcon to do an extended Falcon-LotB loop. He hadn't done it yet this year, but I had. So after feeling out the hall pass situation, I suggested we might head up and do something bigger in the High Country.

He was quick to agree and we got a crew together to hit up the Colorado Trail between Georgia Pass and Gold Hill. We met at 07:00 on Aug. 20th and headed to Frisco for breakfast. Everybody threw some greasy chow down the hatch (I had a big burrito smothered in spicy green chili :drool:) and we headed to the Gold Hill parking lot to get started. Here's my buddy threatening to moon me for some unknown reason:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct01.jpg

The start of the ride wanders through a subdivision and then we picked up Tiger Run road for the climb to the pass. The pre-ride hydration became apparent quite soon into the dirt road work:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct02.jpg

My buddy taking exception to the fact that I'd taken a pic of him whizzing in the woods:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct03.jpg

And here's the Token Bloke - one of our mates from Yorkshire in the good ol' UK:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct04.jpg

The climb was fast and easy for awhile.......... then got steep and grunty. Here's the Moonie climbing the jeep road about 2/3 of the way up:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct05.jpg

The forest was *CARPETED* with fungus. The whole ride was 'shrooms. Some were BIG:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct06.jpg

Finally - the pass. The boys were glad to be near the end of the first climb:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct07.jpg

And it was a pretty good climb:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct08.jpg

We climbed a tiny bit more to connect with the Colorado Trail proper and started down the singetrack. And it didn't suck. Neither did the views. My bike in its Happy Place:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct09.jpg

My mate in *his* happy place:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct10.jpg

More gratuitious singletrack. You can see the boys in the distance:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct11.jpg

The descent goes along around treeline for a bit, then drops into the woods and then descends along the spine of a ridge. It's FAST. Then it drops off the ridge into some more woods:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct12.jpg

The trail then turns into one monstrous rock garden. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this section is down to the Middle Fork of the Swan. It's stellar. The rocks are big, plentiful, and literally go on for MILES. It's really, really good. Really good.

So good my buddy's chain decided to commit suicide at the bottom - it must've known that the rock garden festival was over:

http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/ColTrail06/ct13.jpg

After this unbelievable fun descent there is some fast rolling to the next fork of the river, and then a brutal climb. The pitch is just such that it's reasonably difficult and it goes on forever. It definitely put me in the crapper. We all made it to the top, though and grabbed some lunch.

The next section goes along West Ridge. Fast singletrack that's fairly flat at ~11K feet. And then it pitches over. No rock gardens on this downhill. Just steep, narrow trail cut into the mountain. We all hauled BALLS down this part, being careful not to catch a pedal on the uphill side of the trail - it was that steep.

The finish was a series of small ups & traverses along a ridgeline that ended up right above Highway 9 - the drop off the ridge again was fast and gooooooooooooooooood. We quickly dropped into Tiger Run mobile home park, wound our way through, and dropped our tired a$$es back at the cars.

Damage: 32+ miles and 5+K feet of climbing. And just as much DH goodness. :happydance:

This is a trail that everone should check out before they die. :D
oats
09-01-2006, 09:02 AM
great write and and pix. thanks!
nathan
Smelly
09-01-2006, 06:42 PM
I just did that ride (or a similar one, at least) a month ago! The fireroad is HELL, but the downhill makes it very worthwhile. I think we took a slightly different route back down, but we hit the same pass.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f314/chaznielsen/breck016.jpg
SkaredShtles
09-01-2006, 09:54 PM
I just did that ride (or a similar one, at least) a month ago! The fireroad is HELL, but the downhill makes it very worthwhile. I think we took a slightly different route back down, but we hit the same pass.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f314/chaznielsen/breck016.jpg
The big version of this ride is to combine it with French Pass. That's a BRUTAL day. :D
narlus
09-01-2006, 10:07 PM
looks like an awesome ride.

what are those funny things on the end of yr bars?
SkaredShtles
09-01-2006, 10:19 PM
looks like an awesome ride.

what are those funny things on the end of yr bars?

Uhhhh......... commuter bars? :D

Loco promised to send me some shorties, 'cause I don't use the bends much, but I haven't seen them yet. :mad:
Quo Fan
09-02-2006, 02:04 PM
Nice report, sweet looking riding.
Skookum
09-02-2006, 07:31 PM
Cool i wanna ride that before i die. Although at 11k does anyone sell any oxygen up there?
Toshi
09-02-2006, 07:36 PM
32 miles! good lawd
Skookum
09-02-2006, 07:46 PM
32 miles! good lawd
More mileage can be easier to get to the top versus taking a shorter steeper route sometimes. The path of least resistance is my motto.:)
Skookum
09-02-2006, 07:53 PM
ewww. and starting a big ride by grubbing on a fat burrito first thing, firstly that's like throwing crude oil in an RC car, and second of all i would never ride behind you on that ride....
Smelly
09-03-2006, 12:34 AM
32 miles! good lawd

I did two rides while I was in Breckenridge, one was probably 10-13 miles, the other over 30. 30 miles + 10,000 feet = serious hurt

Probably the hardest ride I did all summer was 40 miles in Bend. I can't even imagine what it's like to do 100 miles in the saddle :bonk:
SuperKat
09-03-2006, 05:22 PM
Love the pics and write up.
Was that a plumber's crack I saw in the first batch of photos? :)
SkaredShtles
09-05-2006, 09:50 AM
Love the pics and write up.
Was that a plumber's crack I saw in the first batch of photos? :)
My buddy had just mooned me and was in the process of pulling up. :D
SkaredShtles
09-05-2006, 09:51 AM
Cool i wanna ride that before i die. Although at 11k does anyone sell any oxygen up there?
Would've been nice. I was still nursing the remains of a chest cold and hacking up lung nuggets quite frequently. :(
SkaredShtles
09-05-2006, 09:52 AM
32 miles! good lawd
Dude - I've got a ~50 miler coming up in the Crested Butte area. I had to at least *see* if there was a snowball's chance in Hell I was gonna make it. :dead:
SkaredShtles
09-05-2006, 09:54 AM
More mileage can be easier to get to the top versus taking a shorter steeper route sometimes. The path of least resistance is my motto.:)
Yeah - would've been nice if that had been the case here. :mad: The approach mileage was almost all slightly inclined jeep road except the ~2 miles to the pass wiich gained about 1500 feet. :dead:

Nice part was that almost 20 miles of the 32 was sweet singletrack. :D
FBTMILF
09-07-2006, 04:34 PM
I did a ride with some other team mates once from kenosha to georgia then to tiger run road to the road that takes you in breck. Wish we has started on tiger run cause the downhill went by fast. Looks like a lot of fun.
SkaredShtles
09-07-2006, 10:04 PM
I did a ride with some other team mates once from kenosha to georgia then to tiger run road to the road that takes you in breck. Wish we has started on tiger run cause the downhill went by fast. Looks like a lot of fun.
Some time I'd like to do the big one - Kenosha -> Georgia -> Breck -> French Pass -> Kenosha. That'd be a right nice day. :D