GORC Crested Butte Trip - Day 4: Trail 401

Trail 401 is has been billed as the best of the trails around Crested Butte.  After Doctor Park, that had to be saying a lot!  With my knee a little tender after Doctor Park, when I found out that Diana and Steph were going to be shuttling to (almost) the top of the trail and riding down, I decided to seize the opportunity to hitch a ride.  Bryan took the three of us up to the top of Schofield Pass, elevation 10,707'.  From there, we would have a steep climb to get to about 11,100' and then a more gradual 200'+ climb to the top of the trail above 11,300'.

The drop-off point.

 As soon as I turned around from this sign to start up the trail, I had to get off and walk.  The first half mile alternated between areas too steep to ride (for me anyway) and grinding uphills.  Thankfully, that section only lasted as long as it did.  From there, we had another half mile to the summit, and while noticeably uphill, I at least was able to pedal.  The second half mile also was out in the open and therefore had some awesome views.

My smiling mug.

 Just before the top, we came to a fork in the trail.  None of us had a map, so I went up one route and fortunately there was a sign not very far up the trail saying that it was a wilderness area, so therefore, no bikes were allowed.  That made the decision easy, so we headed down the opposite fork.

Which way?

After we got back on the correct trail, we started descending.  It wasn't too bad at first, and was a welcome relief from the climb (as short as it might have been).

Whee!

Pretty quickly though, the route turned onto a fairly steep face of the mountain.  While the trail itself wasn't bad, you could almost reach out with your left hand as you were riding down and touch the side of the hill.  It goes without saying that the hill was dropping away equally fast on your right side.  Keep the wheel pointed straight, and don't look down!  We also came upon a couple hairpin turns to navigate some small gullies along the mountain.  Below is the hairiest one.

This was a very technical U-turn to the right with a pretty deep crevice in the middle.  Make a mistake and you're going down several hundred feet.

Another view of the crevice.  This doesn't do it justice though.

About this point, Steph went ahead of me and Diana, as she is more skilled on the downhills than either of us were.  We didn't see her again until we were back at the car.  As with most downhills I come across, I was savoring it rather than blasting down it. 

This is probably the best shot I have of the trail while it was hugging the mountain.

View of the valley.

Eventually we passed through the following stand of aspen trees and came out at a small parking area.  After taking a short break, we continued on, but now we had some climbing to do again.  Unfortunately, this was more technical as well, so there was a fair amount of hike-a-bike going on.  Not long after we entered this area, some of the riders who had ridden the climb started to catch up with us as well.

Scenery.

More scenery.

A descent on the trail.

Still more scenery.  I think the brownish yellow is skunkweed that was prematurely dying from the drought.

Interesting descent to a creek crossing.

Here, I rode up on some of the guys who had passed me that were taking a break at this rocky area.  After seeing some locals come through and try climbing these rocks, Bryan was studying them and gave it a shot, clearing it on his second try.  Knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to, I wanted to try again as well, but neither of my two extra attempts were successful.  I think I might have actually made it the farthest the very first time I came up it.

At this point, we were almost back to the cars when I came on this rocky area that didn't look real tough, but I was going pretty slow through it when my front wheel got stuck on a rock and I went over the handlebars.  Amazingly, I didn't draw any blood, but I did pick up a lot of dirt and I had the wind knocked out of me.  After cooling off for a couple minutes, I continued back to where the cars were parked and the rest of the group was waiting.

This is the lame group of rocks that tripped me up.

After resting with the group for a few minutes, I decided to ride back to town since I'd gotten a ride to the top of the mountain.  I knew there were a couple hills going back to town, but it actually turned out to be a pretty easy ride, and then once we were in town, it was nice flying back to the condo at nearly the speed limit on the road. 

All in all, the upper part of 401 was pretty awesome, but the lower parts were a lot like some of the technical sections of Greensfelder.  At Missouri elevations, it wouldn't be bad, but at 9-10,000 feet, the lower section was tough!  I think I liked Doctor Park better, but maybe that's just because that trail just got better and better the further you went down the trail.  The best part of 401 was at the top (well, after the initial climb).