For the first time I decide to buy a plane ticket and fly into Colorado. With gas prices around $3.00 a gallon it was actually cheaper to fly than to make the 13 hour drive in my SUV. I flew in on Friday night and stayed with Lisa Friday night. Eddy and Shanda flew into Denver also, they got in at around 1pm on Saturday and rented a Durango. Mike, Mark, JJ and John drove from Chicago and we all met for lunch in Denver at 2:30pm. After lunch it was a quick 4 hour drive to Crested Butte.After many years of camping, we decided to ditch that and go with a luxurious townhome this time. Eddy got a sweet deal on a 4br 4ba townhome rental for the week. We had plenty of room and even a 2 car garage to store all the bikes and the cars!
July 2
Unfortunately the forecast for the entire week was rain. It was 30-40% everyday, but it was forecasted for late afternoons. Our first trail for the trip was the 401. In our past years, the 401 was considered a hard trail for us, even when we parked halfway up and shuttled, but now we actually think that its an easy trail. As usual we woke up late so we didn’t start riding until about 1pm. The think the dark clouds and lightning should have told us that we didn’t have alot of time to finish the trail. At least we knew to bring our cold weather clothes this time.
The 401 uphill has been slightly changed since the last time we rode it. The singletrack climb is not as steep as it was before. When we got to the top the clouds really rolled in. After about 5 minutes into our descent it started to rain and hail hard. Unfortunately, we were at the being stages of the downhill which is an exposed slope on the mountain. There were not many trees for cover. Eddy, Shanda and I stopped on the trail hoping to wait out the hail. The video below is just a quick clip of the hail right as we stopped for a second. The rest of the guys went further down the trail. After about 5 minutes it didn’t look as if the hail was going to subside so we got on our bikes and began to ride downhill again.
Further down the trail we found JJ and John huddled under a big pine tree so we got off our bikes and jumped under it also. As we were under the tree two hikers who we had past at the top were coming down the hill. They did not have any cold weather gear with them. They only had they biking jersey and shorts. Actually these girls were on bikes when we past them at the top. They had ditched their bikes at the top and were running down the trail. The stopped for a little while under the tree too. We gave them our arm warmers and a fleece vest. The rain was definitely not going to stop and we weren’t getting any warmer so we made the decision to ride the trail down to the end.
The trail was unexpectedly easy and very fun when wet. The ground was not soaked as the trail was hard packed. Portions of the trail were like riding downstream in a small river as the water channeled from the slopes down the trail. When we got to the bottom of the trail there were some campers who had started a campfire. They said that they had been warming up hikers and bikers all afternoon. They also had 2 cars with the heater running at full blast.
July 3
40% rain forecasted again today! Our original plan was to wake up early and try to ride Teocalli Ridge before it started raining. Of course, we never wake up early and after getting to the trailhead late we made the decision to ride Strand Hill instead. Strand Hill is a short trail which has a decent climb to the top and then a great downhill. This is a very short trail which some of the guys had done a few years ago so we knew there was little chance of us getting rained on. We rode Strand Hill and got back to the townhome around 1pm. The clouds rolled in and there was a minor rain shower. Around 5pm the sun began to peek out again and we put on our cold weather gear and headed out to ride Snodgrass. Wow, two whole trails in one day. We’re hardcore now.
July 4
Again, more rain forecasted so that means no long trail today. The Upper upper loop trailhead happens to begin about 300 feet from our townhome. The plan today was to ride this trail and then do Strand Hill and then ride back to town and back to the townhome. I think this is a first for us. We’ve never rode from our place and actually connected two trails together! We’re almost like locals… except we only can only connect short wussy trails! After completing Strand Hill for the second day in a row we rode back to town on the main road. Since it was the 4th of July, the town of Crested Butte had a big party on the main street. It was like a very mini Taste of Chicago. We stopped by and had lunch, listened to the music and people watched. In all the years that we’ve been coming here, we’ve never been in town on the 4th. I think that’s because we’re always out on the trails. I think the population in town tripled just for the day.
July 5
Ok rain for 4 days in a row is just too much. We decided to make the 3 hour drive to Fruita. It was unexpectedly cool for mid-summer and there was only a 20% chance of rain. When we got to Fruita, we drove to the last main parking lot at the Bookcliffs section. The first trail we rode was Kessel Run. This is a twisting, turning, slightly downhill trail which is really fun and tiring.
I didn’t have my helmet camera for this trip, but you can see a video from 2003 that includes all the trails I’m about to mention. After completing Kessel Run we proceeded to Chutes & Ladders. I did this trail with Paul in 2003. This trail had alot of steep climbs and steep drops, hence why it’s called Chutes & Ladders. The pictures we got from this trail were great. Once we got out of the hilly portion of the trail, we came to a Y-intersection. The reason I mention this is because the nice sign said “Chutes & Ladders” going right and “Vegetarian Trail” going left. I knew that when I did this trail in 2003 that we went left.But how could this brand new sign be wrong? So we went right and went down Vegetarian which in my opinion was not as good. What’s odd is that according to the sign at the parking lot we did ride Chutes. After getting home I checked my trail book and many internet trail maps and they all said we rode Vegetarian.
Anyway, it was sort of an disappointment based on my memories. It was getting late since we still had to drive back to Crested Butte so we had time for one more trail. I suggested Joe’s Ridge, cause who comes to Fruita and then doesn’t ride Joe’s Ridge. Someone, I won’t say who, was afraid of it because of its drop offs on either side. But worse case is that you roll down the hill doing somersaults! So, some of us rode Joe’s Ridge and connected up with the end of Kessel Run. This completed our Fruita experience for this trip. I know we’ll definitely be back!
July 6
On the final day of riding we decided to try the Green Lake Trail. This is a short trail that goes up to Green Lake. It was suppose to be a tough climb and a fun downhill. We decided to shorted the climb by driving up to a portion of it. We found out that the road leading up there is a private road and that we couldn’t park our car there. So we ended up riding downhill from that point as Eddy drove the car back into town. Turns out that the switchbacks on the lower half of the trail were so tight that we had to get off and walk every one. Not a fun downhill. Since we were in town, we decided to ride Lower Loop as an easy relaxing cap for our trip.
The fifth annual Crested Butte Trip was the most complicated trip to plan so far. With eight people coming from three different states and some driving and some flying, timing and coordination was the key.
From LA, Eddy & Shanda make the 5 hour drive to Phoenix. In Phoenix, we take my 4Runner and gear and begin our journey. Unfortunately, a late Friday meeting for Eddy led us to a late start. We left Phoenix at 12am and drove north towards Flagstaff. On the way we could see the Northern Arizona brush fires all along I-17. At 3am, we arrived at Winslow, AZ and stay at a hotel.
From Chicago, Mike, Rex, John and Mark head west towards Colorado. This year the Chicago crew had a series of mishaps on their drive to and from Colorado. Within a few hours of leaving Chicago they were all fast asleep! The 4Runner decided that it’d like to drive on the shoulder and hit a mile marker. That led to a nice dent on the side of Mark’s 4Runner and bent rear rim on Rex’s bike.
July 2
Somewhere in Nebraska, Mark’s 4Runner decided that it didn’t want to go anymore. Apparently, the fuel gauge decided to fail and stay at 1/4 tank full so after hours of driving, the 4Runner ran out of gas. Luckily, the next exit was only one mile away. They pushed the car about 1/2 mile and then sent John to the gas station to get a can and some gas. Meanwhile, in Arizona, we were waking up and beginning our drive to Colorado. At the same time, Kevin was hopping on a plane from Chicago to Denver, where the Chicago crew would pick him up at around 4pm. Around 5pm, we arrived in Ouray, Colorado. Called, Switzerland of America, I had wanted to stop by here ever since I passed by it last year. We had dinner, took some pictures and headed for Crested Butte. In the meantime, the Chicago crew had picked up Kevin and were headed towards Crested Butte also. At about 8pm we all arrived in Gunnison at the same time and caravaned to CB. We got to the condo around 9pm in Mt. Crested Butte and had dinner. No camping tonight, as all the campsites were booked for July 4th weekend.
Town of Ouray
July 3
Sunday morning we ventured into town. We were suppose to meet a realtor to see some real estate in CB, CB south and Mt. CB. Our realtor was a no show, so we just walked into another realtor office. Prices in CB were really high, there were a couple new construction condos, condo conversions and lots available. After coming here for five straight years, we should have bought a property the first year we got here. There was a lottery for the Mountaineer condos, which started at $310,000 for a 445 square foot studio! Another possibility was buying a lot in CB south for around $225,000 and building a home on it. The Grand Lodge had condo conversions priced from $139,000 to $389,000. Those looked promising, but as a condotel, we weren’t sure what the cashflow would be like.
View from the condo
After lunch, we got ready for our first ride. It was Snodgrass, which is a relatively short ride from the condo. The ride was a nice acclimatization ride for us sea level people. Near the end of the ride, the clouds came and it began to rain and hail briefly. Some of us learned our lesson about rain and hail from 2002 so we immediately stopped and put on our arm and leg warmers and rain jackets. Those who weren’t present during 2002 continued to ride in the ride for a while without putting on more clothing and someone even didn’t bring a rain jacket!
Our group got split in the rush to get back to the condo. I was last with John and Eddy coming down the road, and unfortunately I had the keys to the condo! I believe it was Mike, Rex, Mark and Kevin who got to the condo first and had to wait outside. Eddy went ahead to catch up to Shanda and me and John were last. I’m not sure how long they waited in the rain until I got there, but Eddy had gone to the Resort Quest office to get another key to the condo by the time I got there.
July 4
This year our favorite trails were closed due to summer coming late. There was no 401, Dyke, 403 or even Teocalli. So we looked for some alternative trails and Hartman Rocks was suggested as a nice, but different type of riding. Hartman Rocks is located in Gunnison, CO which is a 30 minute drive from CB. The trails here were more like Moab and Fruita, but not as hot in summer.
As you can see, Hartman is alot different than the green mountains of Crested Butte. We didn’t have a good map of the trails so we just rode around and took trails as we came to them. After a few hours of riding we were sort of lost. Luckily, Mark had taken a picture of the trail map in the parking lot so we used the LCD screen on his camera as a map most of the way.
July 5
Today we decided to ride Monarch Crest. Some of us rode this trail last year but we never finished the complete trail. This time we were going to finish the whole trail, even if it was 25 miles. We reached the parking lot at 9:30 and dropped off the bikes and gear. Eddy and I took the 4runners to Salida to park them at our destination. We took the shuttle bus back to the parking lot. Monarch was certainly more enjoyable this time, riding in the summer, the warmth was better than snow.
In the early part of the trail, we came to a few large patches of snow. It was a very interesting descent, sliding down part of it. We took our time riding this trail which changed from above the tree line to forest to creek crossings. We had a couple flat tires, we stopped for lunch and before we knew it, it was 5:30pm and we came to a sign. It said we had 9 miles to go if we took the trail, or we could ride the road back to where our cars were parked. We figured we could easily do the 9 miles before it became dark since it should be mostly downhill. Of course, the trail wasn’t mostly downhill, it was a climb then a downhill then a climb.
At about 7pm the skies got dark and it got really windy. We got worried because we didn’t want to be on the mountain in the rain and the sun was beginning to set. Somehow, we got split into two groups, me, Kevin, Mike and Mark were first. Eddy, Shanda, Rex and John were behind us a few minutes. Some of our talkabouts were running low on batteries, we were low on water and I had the only flashlight.
This had the makings of a really bad night. Our main concern was just getting to the road before dark. We could not navigate the trails at night on bikes but we could walk them if we had to using the flashlight. Mike and I were going to go ahead and try to get to the car before dark, the plan was to get the car (which had another flashlight) and come back up the trail if we had to. So we lightened our packs, gave Mark the food and flashlight and headed off. Mark was going to wait for the second group to catch up. Fortunately, they were only 10 minutes behind.
Me and Mike came to a fork in the trail and according to my odometer we had gone 7 miles. That meant we had 2 to go! But the sign at the fork said 3 more miles! We broke out our trail book and it said that after the sign was a lung busting climb! Damn the sign, 1 mile is alot when you’re racing against the sun. Ok time to reset the odometer and start pedalling again. Ok, that book officially sucks, there was no lung busting climb, it was downhill. When we came to a hill, it wasn’t that bad, I don’t know who wrote that book but it was way off on this trail. Hmm, at the 3 mile point I still didn’t see any road, those signs are really off. At 8pm we got to the end of the trail. I check the odometer and we had gone another 4.5 miles! Mike, Kevin and I were finally at the road. I had the keys to my 4runner, but Mark had the keys to the other one.
At this point we were on a major road but still 5 miles from the cars. The good thing is that it was all downhill to the car so I took the road down, actually passing some cars on the road at 40 mph. I grabbed the car and came back to the trailhead. By that time Eddy, Shanda and Mark had reached the road. It was 8:30pm and pretty dark (look at the pics!). So this was our longest ever ride, 10 hours and 31 miles (36 if you include the downhill road ride). So the reward for a long ride? Pizza Hut of course!
July 6
After our long ride, we decided to rest on the next day. So on our rest day we actually set up camp at Lake Irwin cause we had already paid for and reserved a campsite. We also spent some time at a couple realtor offices looking at some potential home building land in CB South and around town. The properties in this small town have been appreciating so fast. In fact, one subdivision had a price increase of $50,000 on lots over the July 4th holiday weekend. The total amount of time we spend there was probably 12 hours. We actually took time and did some fishing and camping. Unfortunately, the one night we decided to sleep in the tents was really cold and Rex forgot his sleeping bag in the back of my SUV which Eddy had taken back to the condo. So Rex put on some warm clothes and slept in Mark’s SUV. Later in the morning after a cold cold night he found out that one of Mark’s windows was slightly open all night.
July 7
Time for some easy downhill riding on Mt. Crested Butte. We bought some lift tickets to take us up the mountain. There were plenty of trails to choose from. Trails were marked like ski trails, beginner green circle, medium blue square and difficult black diamond. After a few hours of downhilling we went to the lower loop trails for a leisure ride.
July 8
So ends our 2005 CB trip with a quick breakfast and we parted to drive our separate ways home. The Chicago crew decided to go west towards Lake Irwin and then up towards I-70. However, I-70 was closed for at least an hour and they had to get to the Denver airport to drop Kevin off. So looking at the map they chose to take some local roads instead of waiting. As you can see from the pictures below, the local roads weren’t the best choice. Kevin missed his flight but did catch a later one on standby.
September 3rd
Could it be? More biking trips this year? And to all our favorite places. Moab, Fruita, Sun Valley and now, back to Crested Butte again! Now we’re getting even more complicated in the trip planning, in the past it was one start, one destination and one return point. But now, we have people coming from all parts of the country. The trip was possible because I’m now living in Phoenix, AZ and my SUV can hold alot of bikes. Nine, if I get that four bike hitch rack. So here is the plan, I go to California and pick up Eddy and Shanda’s bikes and bring them back to Phoenix. Eddy and Shanda fly to Denver from California on Friday night. Mike and Kevin fly to Denver from Chicago. They would rent a car and drive to Salida, CO on Friday night. I drive from Phoenix to Salida, CO on Friday morning meeting them there at 11pm. For the most part, this part of the trip went as planned. I got to the hotel at 11pm, the Denver riders arrived at 12am.
September 4th
Leaving Salida at 10am, we arrive in Crested Butte at 11:30am. We try to get our rental bikes from the Alpineer, but although we had reservations, they had already rented out our reserved bikes. Fortunately, they had other models that will be ready in an hour. So we leave and try to check in early into our condo. No luck there either so it’s off to town where they have a little street festival. We sit down for lunch and it starts to rain and rain alot. Did I mention it’s only 45 degrees outside? At 2pm we pick up our bikes and check into the condo. The forecast isn’t good, it’s suppose to rain all night. So there goes day one of riding.
September 5th 7am, we wake up and there’s snow on the roofs of the cars. It’s 37 degrees outside and we’re at 8,800 feet. Our plan was to ride Monarch Crest which is at 11,000+ feet. So we get on all our winter gear, the layers, arm & leg warmers, fleece, windbreakers and head up to Monarch Crest. There were at least twenty other bikers in the lot ready to ride. We shuttled one SUV to the end of the ride in Poncha Springs and left the other at the start.
The trail starts with a short climb on doubletrack, then there is a sign in book, a sign and a narrow singletrack signalling the beginning or the Monarch Crest Trail. This trail goes along the Continental Divide and climbs as high as 12,000 feet. The trees are all covered with snow and the ground with frost. This is our first ride in this type of weather. We can see the clouds as they are so low that we’ll eventually be riding in them. At the top all we saw was a big cloud!
We think that due to the weather, we didn’t get the great great views of the mountains. But nevertheless, the views were great, but different that what we expected. The trail was about 10 miles and consisted of mainly easy climbing and a short downhill on single track. The last two miles was downhill doubletrack with alot of jumps. We ended at the Marshall Pass and decided which way to get back to our car at Poncha Springs. We took the easy way back, 8 miles on a dirt road going downhill and then 5 miles by highway. The total ride was 30 miles.
More helmet camera video captures. Monarch Crest Trail
September 6th
Back to the 401 trail again. This will be the third time I’ve ridden it and the third time I’ve videotaped it. How can you go wrong riding this trail? So far, it’s the best trail I’ve ever ridden. We check out of the condo (It’s a short trip) and head for Gothic. We park the rented 4runner at the bottom of the trail and take my 4runner to the top. Today, it’s sunny and about 55 degrees. Certainly a huge change from yesterday. This is the latest in the year I’ve ridden this trail and the for the first time, there was no snow blocking the road. I guess we could have drove all the way to the trailhead. Each year, the trail seems to get shorter. The climb didn’t take long at all and soon we were at the top taking pictures and ready for the downhill. The trail was slightly modified at the top this time. Instead of a long straight climb, there were a series of switchbacks making the climb longer, but less steep.
So here are allot more pictures of the 401 trail. Almost any picture you take on this trail will look good. I made sure I got alot of video capture pictures because I noticed that in the past years we never had any pictures of the downhill. That’s because we usually just blast through it without stopping. This picture is my favorite.
More helmet camera video captures of 401 trail
One slight problem in this ride though. When we finished the trail, *someone* left the keys for our shuttle ride in the car at the top of the 401, so instead of driving back to the top to get our car, *someone* had to ride to the top and drive the car back. After that little mishap we headed back to town, did a little shopping, ate at Teocalli Tamale and left Crested Butte.
I headed west towards Durango while the others headed to Denver. The drive west on US-50 to Montrose, CO was beautiful. However, going through Ouray towards Silverton was a bit scary. The scenic drive on US-550 is not so scenic at night with no shoulders or guardrails. I got to Durango at about 9:30pm and the others got to Denver at 11pm.
September 7th
I left Durango at 9am and made it back to Phoenix by 4pm for my softball game. The others caught their early planes and were back home or back to work by noon.
