July 1

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.

March 25th

This trip was the smallest so far as it was just me and Paul going. It’s alot easier to plan with such a small group (if you can call it a group). In fact, we didn’t have any plans, we just knew we were leaving on Thursday night at around 9pm and heading to Denver. I had traded in the Forester for a 99′ 4-Runner this year.

A week before the trip, our beloved Illini actually made it to the Sweet Sixteen and was facing Duke Friday night. We thought it would be nice if we could meet up with Lisa, an Illini alum also, in Denver and watch the game. That meant driving alot faster than we had planned, so we left Chicago around 8pm on Thursday.  At around 1am, we stopped at a rest stop about an hour east of Dubuque, Iowa. There were a handful of other cars and a dozen 18-wheelers parked along the side of the rest stop road also. It was raining, but the weather was quite warm. We cracked the windows open and those little window deflectors worked perfectly to keep the rain out and let the air in.

March 26th

7am, we woke up and noticed that we were the only vehicle left from the night before. Everyone else must have got an early start. This was going to be a long driving day, so we were on our way by 7:30. After a long, uneventful drive through Iowa, Nebraska and NE Colorado, we finally arrived in Denver around 5pm. Denver rush hour was mild and we found Lisa’s apartment by 6pm. With an hour to spare, we arrived at the ESPN Zone in downtown Denver and waited for a seat in the big screen room. After watching Xavier upset Texas, our name was called and we were seated. But when Deron missed his first shot badly wide left, I knew it wasn’t going to be their game. As you all know, our beloved Illini lost to the Dukies. Disheartened, we went home and got a good night’s sleep.

March 27th

We decided to stay in Denver for the day. We took a stroll through downtown Denver and visited the Red Rocks theater, did a little hiking and took pictures. As Saturday came to a close, Paul and I were trying to decide where to go next, Fruita or Moab. We decided to try to hit Moab early before the Jeep Jamboree week arrivals started to come in. So on Sunday morning, we headed out to Moab.

March 28th

We arrived at Moab around 3:10pm. Well, not acutally Moab but at an interection of 128 and Entrada Bluffs road. This road led to an off-road trail called ‘Top of the World’. This trail is rated a 3 on most 4×4 sites, meaning that four-wheel drive and a little drive daring was required. Having never driven this before, being a single vehicle, we weren’t quite sure if the 4runner was up to the task.

The dirt road was fairly smooth and we quickly covered its 5 miles to the Top of the World sign. From there, we slowly began to drive the trail. After about 1/2 mile in, we decided to park it and continue up the trail with our bikes. We were racing with sunset, which we figured was 6:00pm. There’s nothing worse than riding downhill in twilight with no lights. So, it was 4pm and we had about 5 miles with 2500 ft of climbing. So 5 miles in 1.5 hours and half hour to ride down, no problem right? Well, doing a long steep climb against time was not the best idea as a first ride on a vacation. At 5pm, we had gone alittle over a mile, so we decided to turn around and head back to the car. We reached town around 6pm and got a room at the Aarchway Inn and then headed to Pasta Joe’s for dinner.

March 29th

8am, time to get the gear and head out to the trails. Today it was Two Tortoise (again) and Day Canyon. Last year, we tried to do this ride and ended up doing Bull Canyon, only to find the trail on the way back. This time we would ride it the correct way and then head to Day Canyon and maybe to Dry Fork depending on how we felt. After passing the Gooney bird we made a left towards the Gold Bar Rim trail and parked. We could see Two Tortoise in the distance and we headed out towards it. A minute later we found ourselves lost in a small canyon that had no exits. After searching for a possible trail we decided to head back towards the car. There we found the problem, I guess we misread the sign that pointed our way. Instead of saying “Gold Rim”, it said “dead end”. We encountered a few off-roading Jeeps and watched them attempt to climb large boulders. Two tortoise was as we remembered it from last year, alot of ledges, decently marked trail and downhill to start. Once we arrived before the Two Tortoise rock, it was uphill back to the road. Of course, we did lose the trail a few times, as usual.

After exiting the Two Tortoise trail, we headed for Day Canyon. We encountered the dreaded sand, rocky trails and sandy hills. At some point everything looked too familiar, we realized that we went the wrong way. We were in Bull Canyon again!! That’s the second time we rode this trail on accident. After finding our way back, we made it to the Day Canyon overlook and had lunch. After lunch, we had a quick ride back the way we came to our car.

March 30th

We drove to Arches National Park and found out that the campground was full. So it was back to Aarchway Inn. We had to go get a campsite before we rode today. By 11am we had a site in Arches National Park, had our tent set up and ate breakfast. The trail today was Amasa Back. It was a 10 mile out and back so we figured it would be a fairly quick ride. The first drop at Amasa back is a left turn with exposure on the right. It was also rocky and sandy. After that, it was a fairly ridable, uphill climb. The Amasa back trail doesn’t really get you onto Amasa back which is a sandstone pennisula surrounded by the Colorado river on three sides. The trail takes you to the southwestern edge of it where the trail ends and becomes a large area of slickrock. We could not find any cairns to mark the way to the western edge. So we freerode and walked westward.

Eventually, when we couldn’t go west anymore, we ended up at the cliff edge and had lunch. Luckily, I had my Garmin GPS and had marked a waypoint when the singletrack ended. We used the GPS alot to find our way back to the trail and rode back to the car.

March 31st

Our plan was to head to Fruita today. Since we were at Arches National Park, we decided to go see some arches, and we saw many in our one hour short hike.

Fruita was about a 2 hour drive. Our first stop was the Colorado welcome center to find a place to stay. We camped at the Colorado River National Park. This is a fairly new park with all new amenities. It is also very close to town, in fact you could see the McDonald’s sign from the campsite. The next stop was the Over the Edge bike shop to get a map of the trails. After getting a map we decided to do the Book Cliffs area which consisted of Chutes n Ladders, Joe’s Ridge, Kessel Run and other various loops. The next day we would hit the Loma area which had Horsethief Bench, Mary’s Loop and Rustler’s.

April 1st

The Bookcliffs area is about 10 miles north of Fruita. The singletrack here is very smooth and narrow. We parked at the first parking area and rode Prime Cut Trail up to Chutes & Ladders. Prime Cut trail is a very nicely cut winding singletrack. Chutes & Ladders consisted of a climb and then downhill and a clumb and then downhill, hence its name. However, the last half of it was a steady winding singletrack through the gently rolling plains. Truly great riding, except that cows get the right of way and sometimes they don’t want to move. The last half of it was so fun, we rode Chutes & Ladders twice.

Next we rode Kessel Run up to Joe’s Ridge. Kessel Run has you weaving up and down constantly as you ride a small stream
bed. Joe’s Ridge is the ultimate top of the world experience. The trail rides the ridge line with drop-offs on both the left and right side.

The amazing thing about Fruita is that we did four trails that were all within a few miles of each other. All four trails were different and all four trails were the same in some way. Just an endless variety of trails here. Unfortunately, it was overcast this day and the smooth singletrack meant that we hardly stopped, which also meant no still camera pictures to post. The only pictures I have are from my helmet camera. Below is the top of Joe’s Ridge.

April 2nd

Our final day of riding and we were going to do the Loma area trails. The trails here consist of big loops with great views of the Colorado river. The terrain is closer to Moab, with rocks and ledges and double track. Rustler’s loop is considered a warm-up loop before going onto Mary’s Loop. Within Mary’s Loop is the entrance/exit of Horsethief Bench.

Rustler’s was truly a warm-up loop as it was a great easy ride without difficult climbs or technical portions. Mary’s Loop consisted of alot of double track in the beginning. Throughout the entire ride, the Colorado is too your left. Horsethief bench has a nasty drop in that is very technical and rocky. We did not see anyone attempt to ride this down this day. Once down onto Horsethief, we rode it clockwise and were able to stop and take pictures of the great views it had to offer.

After Horsethief, we continued and completed Mary’s Loop. Now it was time to head back to Denver.

April 3rd & 4th

In Denver, we stayed with Lisa again and somehow convinced her to see ‘Hellboy’. After a relaxing Saturday we left Denver at 9am on Sunday morning. Arriving in Chicago at 2am Monday morning. Our 2004 Fruita & Moab trip was complete.