Baxter Gulch and Green Lake
We passed through Crested Butte on a mountain biking vacation over a decade ago and loved the few days we spent riding. We wanted to spend more time in the area so we swing back through to do just that. Day one was new to us. We rode a loop of Baxter Gulch, Carbon, and Green Lakes. Baxter Gulch is new and was 25 years in the making. It took 15 years just to get easements from 4 different private property owners. It’s a beautifully built bi-directional trail that we started the day with climbing. It switchbacks up the side of a hill before crossing a stream and diving in and out of the trees. It’s a 6 mile trail with 2,013′ of climbing so it’s a grunt. We hooked up to Para Me Para Te for yet more climbing and descending on rocky loose trail. At the top we checked out Green Lake which was beautiful, and then we bombed down rooty fast Green Lake Trail to our car.
Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman Loop
We’d ridden this before and loved it again. The loop has three distinct climbs and decents which can be tough on the legs but we’ve ridden so much it doesn’t matter. It is 18.9 miles with 3,253′ of climbing. The best part of this whole ride is the last downhill with over 30 switchbacks!!!! I like big payoffs and this ride has three.
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