Derek and I volunteered to be chili judge assistants at the festival. Since the chili competition was a blind tasting, we were in charge of bringing each chili to the judges and keeping track of whose was which chili. In exchange, we got in free to enjoy all you can eat chili and all you …
Double Top Loop This ride had my least favorite trail of Crested Butte. We rode out Brush Creek dirt road to a short trail called Death Pass. It sounds ominous but it wasn’t, just a nice ribbon of cliffside singletrack above the creek. We kept climbing on Trail 400 until the intersection with Block and Tackle. Up that …
Trail 403 is a challenging trail that goes from Washington Gulch over to Gothic Road. For this ride we drove to the trailhead. 403 isn’t very long at just 4.2 miles and that’s a shame. After the initial mile long climb, it’s rolling, flowing singletrack through flowers and pine forests and then ends with a steep switchback descent …
409 and 409.5 Loop With Add-ons! This was a pretty big day. We rode Walrod Cutoff Trail, up 409 to Point Lookout, 409.5, Strand Hill, Canal Trail, 409, and down the Walrod switchbacks back “home”. It was 23 miles and 4,600′ of climbing. That’s a lot, and it felt like it. I feel like a …
Crystal Peak/Star Pass This was a big day. The mileage wasn’t huge, but the climbing and views were. 21 miles 3800′ climbing. It’s nice starting rides so close to camp. We started by riding up Cement Creek Trail and then hopped on Crystal Peak trail which was pretty steep at times but switchbacked up through …
Lily Lake and Dyke Trail Today’s we rode out off Kebler Pass. We rode Keblar Wagon Trail out to Splains Gulch and climbed up an around Lily Lake. It wasn’t a very big lake and well, from the pictures you’ll be able to see why it’s named such. We continued on up past Irwin Lake to Dyke Trail. The first …
Rustler’s Gulch Hike Crested Butte is known for wildflowers and this hike showcased some. We hiked a total of 9 miles out and back along the gulch and headed up along a stream of snowmelt through fields of flowers with mountains all around. We crossed several rock fields, some snow, and picked our way up the side …
Teocalli Ridge Loop is no joke. To get to it you have to climb a gravel road up to a singletrack and then, in your easiest gear, grind up to the ridge. It’s steep, real steep. It’s loose and rooty in sections, but it’s gorgeous. Moto’s chew it up quite a bit towards the top …
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 …
Turquoise Lake is a 1,788 acre boot shaped reservoir in Leadville, Colorado and was the start of our last ride in the area. We rode singletrack around the lake, then hopped on a gravel road and climbed to Sugarloaf Pass. When the Colorado Trail crossed it, we took that back down to the lake and retraced …