RR: Crested Butte '04
The Crew: Morryjg, The First Officer, and myself
I woke up around 4a.m. because the friggin' full moon was so bright I
thought the sun was up. Luckily, the ground under the fir was so
comfortable that I found it easy to get some more quality Zzzz's until
the 6:00 *real* sunrise woke me.
We'd hatched the plan months before. A Big Ride somewhere. A "Man Day"
worthy of making a trip deep into the mountains and leaving our families
for a couple days. We'd done a similar ride the last 3 years, so it was
becoming sort of a summer tradition.
We first tried to find something in Steamboat - but it appeared that
long, gnarly rides were not that area's forte. So I suggested Crested
Butte. There was interest. One mate had never been. It looked like the
Butte was the target.
I'd ridden the Butte a bunch, but there were some "classics" I'd yet to
hit. I saw this as a golden opportunity to link a few of those together
and see the sights. We hit the maps, website, guides and settled: we'd
try out a big loop: Camp->Town->Upper->Upper-Upper->409->Reno-Flag-Bear-
Dead
Yeah. That sounds like a good ride. Should be a 50-miler, right?
Definitely could be a good day of riding..........
So the Three Amigos loaded our bikes & [censored] into the Outback XT and
headed for the Butte Friday evening. Everybody had a $hitty week, so we
were looking forward to sleeping under the stars and getting an early
start. We made excellent time into the Butte, had dinner at Donita's,
got a few last-minute rations, and headed out Cement Creek road to throw
down the bags.
Out by 10. Up by 6. Camp was broken in about 10 minutes and we headed
down to park the car at the Deadman's trailhead lot. It was cold. We
suited up and I had liners, bike gloves, and fleece gloves over those.
And my hands were *still* cold.
We did the requisite road-work into town. Luckily the 14 miles went
quickly. We sat down for a gnosh-fest at the Paradise Cafe, then filled
up with water and headed to the bus stop. The shuttle dropped us right
near the trailhead for Upper. The ride was about to begin.
Upper and Upper-Upper are not too long. They're fun singletrack with
some little rock gardens and a few steep, loose climbs to keep you
honest. Of course, one of the rock gardens decided to show me who was
boss and tossed me face-first into a boulder. I got off lightly, all
things considered, with a small gash just below my lower lip, a small one
above my upper lip, and a gouge on my left forearm. No trip to the
emergency room this early in the ride.........
We finished off the first couple trails and did a bit of dirt road out to
the start of Farris Creek/Strand Hill/409. The jeep road was pretty nice
since it was still pretty cool, being early. A group of local
Hammerheads blew past us on the way up, headed eventually to 402 for a
big ride. They neglected to tell us what we were in for.
Apparently several years ago, due to private land issues, the 409 trail
had to be re-routed. Right through the biggest talus field I think I've
ever seen on a mountain. It went on for MILES. We alternated between
quick patches of riding followed by impassible rock gardens. It took
some perseverence, but we finally made it through and were treated with a
hot meadow climb to some aspens followed by stellar rolling singletrack
through trees and meadows. Then a banzai-fun screaming descent to Cement
Creek Road. We all had grins at the bottom. And 30+ miles under our
belts. And the big loop yet to come.
We grunted back to the car up Cement Creek. It was warm and we were
suitably knackered from a morning of strenuous excercise. But a Big
Sandwich did wonders for our spirits. Morryjg decided that we were
Nuggin' Futs for thinking about doing the next loop, but was very
supportive when we brought up the idea of having him shuttle us to the
top of Reno Ridge, avoiding a 5+ mile, 2k vertical climb - basically
eliminating the "Reno" from the Reno-Flag-Bear-Dead loop. :thumb:
So we took the shuttle to the top of the pass and suited up once again -
this time for an unbelievable loop in the high country. The first
downhill was along a creek in a meadow - the moto's had created alot of
whoop-de-do's, so it was fast, but kept us on our toes. A couple creek
crossings and a little loose stuff and we were at the junction of the
next climb up to Bear Creek. We were starting to feel the mileage now -
luckily, alot of the climbing was in the trees, which saved us from
direct sun for the most part.
We leapfrogged with another group of 5 up this climb, and when we got to
the top of Bear Creek we found ourselves on a fantastic luge run down
through the trees along the creek. This one was a bit steeper and faster
than the Flag descent, and it was in a less damaged state moto-wise.
This one was over *far* too soon for our taste and led to the final
Deadman climb. This one was in full sun almost the whole way up valley.
But what a beutiful valley - tons of wildflowers, beaver ponds, aspen
groves on the hillsides..... it was heaven. Except for the last, steep,
loose-a$$ climb to the saddle. Luckily most of the last bit was in the
trees again.
So we found ourselves at the top of Deadman's switchbacks. Pretty much
spent, but secure in the fact that the climbing was *OVER*! So down we
went - plunging straight into the famous switchbacks. The motos again
had caused some pretty severe damage to this part of the trail, but
goldam! was it fun. At the bottom we congratulated each other on a good
day's ride and soaked our dogs in the creek. Morryjg picked us up
shortly after and we made our way back to Denver by way of Jan's
restaurant in Buena Vista <burp> and the Likker Barn just down the street
<burp><burp>
All in all, an out-of-control-great-day in the mountains on our
bikes............ 😄
-S.S.-
P.S. Oh yeah - pictures here: http://home.comcast.net/~elan_mbx/Butte04/