I hadn’t been to Breckenridge since 1997.  Back then we must have been poor because we squeezed 8 people into a studio condo at the Beaver Run Resort.  I seem to remember that it was about $260 a night.  We wanted a ski-in/ski-out place!  Allot has changed in 12 years.  This time we rented a 3600 sf house with 6 bedrooms and plenty of beds for everyone.

Day 1

The trip didn’t start out very well.  We had a choice at the rental counter between a Ford F150 or a Nissan Titan.  We chose the F150 because we didn’t care but we when got to it, the inside smelled like smoke.  So we asked for the Nissan.  About 1 hour into our drive this weird light comes on in the dash.  We weren’t sure what it was but we guessed that it was a tire pressure light.  It also started to rain and all of our luggage was in the pickup bed.  So we pulled over at a gas station to put a tarp over the luggage.  Eddy bought a tire pressure gauge and found out that one of our tires was at 12 PSI.  The tire must have had stiff sidewalls or been run flat because you couldn’t tell from looking at the tire that it was flat.   We hoped it was a faulty tire gauge, but then we heard the hiss of air escaping and it was confirmed that we had a flat.

Luckily, there was a Big O Tires less than 100 ft away from the gas station.  They informed us that our tire was unrepairable and put on the spare tire.  They didn’t charge us for the work and also wrote us a letter to give the rental company. Props to Big O Tires.  From the airport to Breckenridge took us 5 hours.

Our house was located on Ski Hill Road just passed the Peak 8 lifts.  The house was in a great location because it was near the Peaks Trailhead and it was uphill from town.  Some people had trouble sleeping the first night due to the altitude.  It can be quite a change to go from 500 ft above sea level to over 9,600 feet.

Day 2

We went to town and picked up our awesome Santa Cruz Blur LT rental bikes.  The first day we decided to do an easy ride and do a short out and back on the Peaks Trail.  The was the acclimation ride and it felt pretty tough.  It was a gradual climb but the trail had many roots and rock gardens making it more difficult.  After the Peaks Trail a few of us took some singletrack down to town and rode the Flume trails.  This consisted of the Lower, Upper and Middle Flume with Mike’s Trail in the middle.  The Flume trails were sort of fun and easy.  We got lost on the Middle Flume and ended up in an unknown subdivision when it began to rain.  We called the house for an “extraction” and John picked us up along highway 9.

Early this year I became a reseller for the Go Pro Helmet Camera.  Helmet camera technology is making leaps and bounds each year.  This year I supplied 3 helmet cameras so we have multiple videos of each ride.  By the end of the 5 days we had over 30 gigs of video which equates to 15 hours of riding time.  One thing I noticed is that there was much less picture taking and allot more video making.

Day 3

The guys decided to ride down to town and do the flume trails.  Mark and I decided to stay at the house so we could bring the car to the Flume trailhead later.  When the guys left the house it began raining.  We thought that the rain would pass but it kept coming down harder and harder.  While Mark and I were in the nice dry house, the rest of the guys were riding in the pouring rain.   The guys finally called when they got to town, I drove down and picked them up.

A few hours later the rain had stopped and Mark and I were itching to ride since we didn’t go earlier.  We rode down to town and decided to hit the Colorado Trail from Tiger Road.  The book that we bought had described this portion of downhill as a can’t miss 3 mile downhill.  You can watch the video and decide.  The video doesn’t show the impossible switchbacks and the end of the trail.  I think that’s what killed it for us.

Day 3, the plan was the same as Day 2.  Ride from town, to the flume trails and I would drive the car to meet them at the trailhead.  I ended up being late because I had to wait for the rental management lady to leave.  She was trying to fix our internet which was slower than 800 baud modems.  She kept telling us that internet is slow in the mountains.  Yeah right.  We are less than 1000 feet away from a 5 star resort.

We got alot of riding in on this day.  We did the Flumes to Mike’s Trail to Tom’s Baby to Discovery Ridge to the Colorado Trail.

Day 4

We bought lift tickets and rode the Peak 8 lift.  We spent the day descending on Breckenridge’s downhill trails.  These trails aren’t very difficult but our hands were all sore from braking and downhilling so much.  We rode the Game Trail, Dwight’s, Pioneer, Swinger Switchback and Frosty’s Challenge.  Mark had a record 3 flats on this day.  His first flat occurred as we were waiting for the ski lift.  Then he got 2 simultaneous flats on Frosty’s Challenge.  I think if we kept a tally on flat tires for the last 8 years Mark would be the clear winner.

Day 5

On the last day of riding we decided to ride the Peaks trail from Breckenridge to Frisco.  I should mention that Mike saw a black bear a few days ago on the trail.  But he was riding alone and didn’t have a camera so I don’t know if we should believe him.  We expected alot more climbing on this trail but the big climb never came.  The downhill portion heading into Frisco was very good.  It was fast and semi-technical, but not too technical that you had to slow down.  The ride was about 9 miles and we completed it in less than 2 hours.  We rode back to Breckenridge and ordered pizza on the way.

We had dinner at Mi Casa which got mixed reviews by the group.  Then it was t-shirt shopping time to get the traditional tourist shirt and back to the house for the last time.

Day 6

The next morning everyone left fairly early and I caught my flight back to Arizona where it was 110 degrees when I stepped off the plane.

Another annual mountain biking trip is in the books.

So I dug out the old photo album… and that was one of the top five things that have changed since the 2001 Crested Butte Mountain Biking Trip.

Photographic Memories – In 2001 I had my Canon EOS 35mm film camera.  I remember taking 6 rolls of film during the trip.  That’s 144 photos!  I had to pay extra to get my photos scanned and put on CD.  We did not have any video recorders.  In 2009, we had 4 Digital SLR’s and 3 helmet cameras.  Our trips slowly changed from photographic memories to massive videos of our biking trip.  We had over 30 gigs of biking video (15 hours) in the 2009 trip.

Accommodations - In 2001 we set up 2 large tents at Lake Irwin.  We took the tents that our parents had from the early 1980′s. We took showers by warming up a bag of water in the sun and hanging it on a tree.  JJ bathed old school style with a heated pot and a pan.  We also paid for showers at hostels and coin operated showers.  Then came Eddy, Shanda and Kevin who wanted regular accommodations so we began with a small condo.  Then came the luxury homes.  In 8 years we went from ghetto tents to luxury homes.  Check out the ghetto tents!!  Notice the rock tie downs as the plastic yellow stakes don’t penetrate Colorado rock.

Bikes – I’ll let the pictures do the talking…  Hardtails with 1″ travel on the front.  How did we ride those trails??

Skillz - We have gotten so much better at both climbing and descending.  Look at that difficult streaming crossing below!  I can’t believe we walked it. LOL

One thing that hasn’t changed in the past 8 years for sure is the amount of fun we have every time we go.

(I think someone farted)