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).

GORC Crested Butte Trip - Day 3: Doctor Park

Our second full day in Crested Butte is when we started hitting some of the trails this area is known for.  Today we packed our bikes up and drove several miles south of town to the base of the Doctor Park Trail.  Our plan of attack would be to park at the base of the trail, then ride up to the top before we would get to bomb down the singletrack back to our cars.

Unpacking our gear.

 After following the road paralleling the Taylor River downstream for a mile, we then headed up Spring Creek Road, which we would follow for about 8 miles, climbing about 1200 feet.  This part of the climb, while grueling for a flatlander, really wasn't that tough, and it was nice paralleling the creek on the way up the valley.

Views of the creek along the road.

About 5 or 6 miles in though, there was one little sudden climb, where due to the altitude and all of the climbing I had been doing, I just had to get off and walk for a couple minutes.

A few rapids.

This is the climb that broke me (for a few minutes).  From this picture, it doesn't look that bad.

The climb did a pretty good job of spreading us all out, and up until this point, I had been riding about the same pace as Lisa, though there wasn't much conversation because both of us were gasping for air while we were grinding up the climb.  However, when we got here, she kept going and for the next few miles I would be riding solo.

Over the crest of the hill.  At least it looks that way from this picture.  Notice how I've been dropped.

At this point, the road was in a pretty narrow valley for a few miles, but then all of a sudden we came around a curve and the valley opened up some and became a little greener.

Quite a difference from the last picture!

Looking upstream.

 

 

Finally, I saw the rest of the group at the creek crossing we'd been warned about.  Some of the people had attempted to ride across this, but not really wanting to soak my shoes, and knowing I probably wouldn't be able to make it, I just pulled my shoes and socks off and walked across the creek.  The water was cold, but it felt good on my toes!  Wish I could say the same about the rocks at the bottom. 

Creek crossing!

After I crossed the creek (the picture above was taken after I'd crossed), I started to put my shoes & socks back on when I realized one of my socks was missing.  Uh-oh!  I was told that if it fell out in the creek, it'd probably be several hundred feet downstream by then, but I walked back across just to see if it had maybe caught on something.  Luckily , I found it on the opposite bank.  It must've fallen out as I was stuffing everything into my Camelbak before I crossed.  By the time I dried my feet off and got my shoes back on, people were heading on up the trail.  I let myself fall to the back of the pack here, and starting grinding up the rest of the climb with Doug, his wife Diana, and Rob.

Time to start the serious climbing.

At this point, the roads starting getting even steeper, as we had about 1600' left to climb, but only about 3 1/2 miles to do it in.  Except for one steep stretch though, it was pretty rideable.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy, but at least there wasn't a lot of hike-a-bike.  However, with all of this grinding, my left knee was getting a little tender by the time we reached the top.

Looking at the other riders uphill.  The picture doesn't do the steepness justice here.

Lots of mountain still left to climb.

The view keeps improving!

Closer to the top.

Starting to flatten out, but where's the singletrack?

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I reached the top.

Summit!

Resting and regrouping for the downhill.

At this point, the stronger riders opted to add an extra 3 mile loop to the ride, but knowing I was not in the strong group, I headed straight for the downhill.  At first, I was wondering if I'd made the wrong decision, as there were some areas that were the sloppiest I've ridden in since Cedar Cross.  Fortunately, those only lasted for a mile or so, and then it dried out as we got into some sunnier & rockier areas.

Downhill, but not conducive to speed.

Looking out over the trees.

Probably the best picture I have showing the steepness of the slope.

 I think this is the spot where a lot of the riders from the fast group caught up with me.  Not being the type to let it all hang out on the downhills, I was running pretty conservatively and riding my breaks a lot on the downhills.  My mantra for the trip was, "I'm savoring the downhills!"  While most of these pictures don't show the most technical parts of the trail, this first section was as tough as anything at Greensfelder here.  I'll be honest and say that I could've lived without this part of the trail.  Fortunately, after another couple turns, we headed into a forest of aspen trees and were rewarded with some of the best singletrack I've ever ridden!

Sweetness!

More sweetness!

Taking a break to absorb the sweetness!

Have I mentioned how awesome this part of the trail was?

This mile or so of the most awesome singletrack I've ever been on was good enough to make you forget how much your legs hurt on the steepest parts of the climb up.  The only bad part about sections like this is that if you aren't careful, you'll blow through them so fast they'll be over far too quickly.  Fortunately, at one point I lost control and ran off into the weeds, so I had to stop and rest for a minute, giving me the chance to savor the awesomeness of this section.

However, we did have one more technical section before the trail ended.  With about a mile or so left to the trail, we came through an area that looked like it had been burned in the not too distant past.  Following that, we had a rocky decent to the cars.  While there were definitely some tricky areas, most of it I could handle without too much of an issue.

Burn area.

Still looking a little sparse.

Back into the trees.

Rounding a switchback.

Long way down off of this switchback.