Crested Butte, Colorado Trail 401

We recently took a trip to Denver for my brother-in-law’s wedding. Our original plan was to drive straight there in one day, but I convinced my wife that, if we spent a night in Crested Butte, she could spend a few hours shopping in Crested Butte, while I did a little mountain biking. Weakness for shopping… Yes!!!

As we neared Crested Butte, it was raining and lightning, but I was holding out hope that it would clear out and I’d get a ride, even if it was muddy. The wife was very supportive and said that if I’d prefer to ride the next day we could just keep driving, and then ride a different trail closer to Denver. But after seeing the beautiful pictures of Trail 401, I had to take the chance. I geared up, purposefully ignoring the fact that I hadn’t replaced the broken spoke in my rear wheel, and set off.

I started on Gothic Rd, where the pavement ends, right on the north end of Mt. Crested Butte, a ski resort town just a mile or two north of Crested Butte proper. I was around 9500 ft at the start and hit the lowest point of 9400 in the (almost ghost) town of Gothic.

Gothic Rd is a well maintained dirt road that would take me to Schofield Pass, where the singletrack (and the real fun) begins. Shortly after starting I could hear the crackling of thunder moving from the south in my direction. Keeping my fingers crossed that I would somehow not get rained on, I continued.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out and it began to rain… no, wait, it began to poor. I was soaked before I had time to get my emergency rain poncho (new in the bag, by the way, and 4 years old) out and on. Once on I didn’t get as wet, but the spray from my rear tire was getting my shorts and shoes wet. I stopped under a Forest Service latrine awning for about 20 minutes and eventually the storm passed, then continued on up the wet, but not soaked, road.

Let me interject at this point, since I haven’t mentioned it… my surroundings from the start were lusciously green, absolutely beautiful, and I wasn’t even on a trail, just a dirt road. Having lived in Phoenix for the past two years, my retinas were delighted.

I continued working my way up Gothic Rd passing gorgeous Emerald Lake as I neared the top of my climb.

Finally, after about 1300 ft. of climbing I crested arrived Schofield Pass

and the trailhead for Trail 401.

Let the fun begin…

I still had to climb another 700 ft or so before the descent began and I was worried that the rain would make the trail so slippery and muddy that I would be walking my bike up most of that 700. Surprising the soil composition was such that the “mud” was more like a broth than a stew, and my tires hooked up on all of the 20% (or more) grade climbs. I really like climbs (yeah, not as much as descents, but still like them) and enjoyed this climb, even if I was reaching the 11,000 ft elevation and the oxygen was quite thin for my 1000 ft. blood. For some reason I could feel the effects of altitude 2000 ft higher here than on Mt. Eldon in Flagstaff, AZ. Then again, I wasn’t racing, so maybe I was just going slow…

It started sprinkling again, so I threw a jacket and the poncho back on, just in time for it to start raining again. Did I mention my shoes were soaked and toes numb? Still worth it…

The picture above were taken at about 11,200 ft. I should mention that after it started raining again the lightning started striking again… and I was at 11,200 ft… alone… quite exposed… But luckily none struck me, and the storm passed for good this time.

Above, looking northward from the highpoint of about 11,300 ft. The descent cuts across the slope of the mountain on the east side of the valley that Gothic Rd. follows. This provides some incredible views and scenery.

I was torn between taking pictures so that I could remember the beauty and share it, and just bombing the tight, downhill singletrack, with flowers as high as my handlebars at times. (Note: I recommend full finger gloves on this trail. There are times at which you will be going 20 to 25 mph and the flowers lightly whipping your hands and legs. In my case, they were like little wet towels occasionally smacking my legs.)

Riding on the slope of this mountain provided for some extraordinary views, and I probably should have taken more photos, but I was having so much fun, it was hard to stop.

In fact I didn’t stop to take a picture from the one above, around 11,000 ft to the one below, near the bottom of the valley. The mountain in the top right corner of picture below is where I took the self-portrait picture above!

The incredible ride continued, meandering in and out of forest groves, over streams, with a few climbs, but generally descending.

Eventually the trail spits you back out onto Gothic Rd, and I continued from there back towards Mt. Crested Butte. My wife met me at the town hall, where I found a garden hose to wash me and my bike off.

She had found a nice little pizza place back in Crested Butte, Brick Oven Pizza, for dinner, and I ate most of the delicious pizza. As we headed back to the truck to leave Crested Butte, we were left with a rainbow to finish off a great day.

Ride stats:

25 miles, ~2800 ft of ascent, ~2800 ft of descent, 31.3 mph max speed. Garmin details: Main ride (I messed up part of the ride on Gothic Rd, so here are the inconsequential parts of the ride: Beginning on Gothic Rd and Ending on Gothic Rd.)

National Shots

It's 4:53 AM. The sun is just cresting over the horizon.

Time for the wake-up call.

But this isn't your run-of-the-mill wake up call.

It's not your regular cup of Joe.

And it isn't even a gym membership.

It's a little more intense.

Welcome to South Mountain.

A place with groomed trails, rolling hills and water stops?

Anything but.

We're going to get photos of a lot of our favorite places all over South Mountain.

Here are some shots decending National. This is the first of a series of posts to come.

Here's the same decent at a different angle.

Very often photos don't really do justice to what the actual trail looks like. The camera might add weight to a person; it also smooths out the trail. This next series gives a little more perspective of what Cody sees as he rides down. To give depth perspective, notice how close he is to the camera in the first shot compared to the last.

This last section is usually ridden fast. Coming off of south mountain, there are several straight sections with hairpin turns. The first is a shot of Cody coming off of a straight. The "stairs" are steep enought that if you go off them wrong, you'll grind your chain ring on the rocks.

Notice Cody's going down fast enough to have to lock up his front tire so as to not run over the cameraman (last picture).

That's why he's the MBAA Series Champion for 2009.

Dad at South Mountain

Dad and I did a mix of the West and East Loop rides today. I thought it would be hot, but it ended up being partly cloudy and perfect weather. Dad did great on the ride, trying and making many sections that are rougher than the Page Rim Trail. Nice ride...

My boy rides!

My older son (3 months short of 4 years old) can ride a bike on his own! He's been riding his bike with training wheels for a while now and had gotten pretty good on his scooter. But when it came to his bike without training wheels he would do fine if I pushed him in the grass, but didn't feel balanced when I walked with him holding onto his seat.

Finally, on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009, I decided to just push him into the street and let him go. And go he did!

Sycamore

On our way to La Jolla we went through Riverside. I was able to get a couple of rides in at what used to be my location-of-choice, before moving to Phoenix, Sycamore Canyon. Sycamore is great: it has a bit of everything and there's never more than a few people riding it, despite being in the middle of Riverside/Moreno Valley. And during this time of year it is extremely green.

Although I think I love the technical challenge and thrill of National (South Mountain, Phoenix) more, it would be fun to have Sycamore as a nearby alternative. It was fun to get back to the area that helped get me back into mountain biking.

Corona de Loma

Ty took this pretty cool shot of me on Corona de Loma, a pretty technical trail that decends down the south side of South Mountain.

MTB Trail at UCSD

On the second morning of my conference in La Jolla I was able to eat a little dirt for breakfast. It was an "ok" little trail, right on the UCSD campus.