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Please excuse our indulgence but we are just back from a biking trip and thought some might enjoy a few higlight pics.
This year we returned to Colorado but with the intention of including some lesser-known (to us) trails.
We flew into Denver, grabbed the rental car, arrived at hotel, built the bikes, bed. Next day was a few hours shake-down ride at Betasso Preserve. Nice compact trail system - predominantly shared flowy single-track although we started at the canyon floor so we could end on the steeper rocky Betasso Link trail.
We then popped into Boulder to meet Duzer and grab a copy of his book and a brief chat (he was just preparing for Burning Man). Really nice guy.
Second day of cycling and we pushed a bit further and higher on the Lefthand Canyon trails just outside Boulder. some great ribbons of narrow singletrack but interspersed with cut-up double track from previous use by quads and motos (currently banned). Neither of us feeling great which we put down to elevation (7500 ft) but turned out we had picked up some lurgy somewhere.
more to come...
Day 3 found us exploring the Magnolia trails near Nederland. Lots of forest singletrack with deceptive climbs taking us up to well over 9500 ft. The signature trail (Schoolbus) was a joy - long flowy forest decent.
We stayed the next couple nights in the casino town of Black Hawk. Next ride was a little different - we followed the old Moffat Road out of Rollinsville up to Rollins Pass. An old railway track bed winds its way over the Continental Divide at near 12000 ft. Our aim was to reach the impressive Devil's Slide trestles still perched precariously on the mountain side after 120 years.
Next day we explored the fairly new trails at Maryland Mountain (riding distance from our hotel at Black Hawk). Small but fun trails although we both bottled doing the double-black Ore Chute trail.
Rest day with a 'scenic' drive up Mt Evans (14260 ft). Yes, I can see the irony in taking a large V8 motor up the mountain then photographing a Pika - likely to be the next extinct US creature due to climate change.
Breckenridge next and we explored trails connecting up some of the mines to the east of the town. Quiet forest singletrack both up and down the mountain sides.
Also had a butchers at the Frisco jump park but not brave enough to risk limbs this early in the trip.
Then on to Leadville. We had hoped to climb Mt Elbert (highest in the Rockies) but, still feeling a bit under the weather, we opted to get clear of the tree line (where the lengthy hike-a-bike kicks in) turn around and enjoy the blast back down the Continental Divide Trail.
We then explored some of the Leadville mining history on the bikes with a pootle out to the famous Monarch mine that provided Molly Brown (Titanic fame) with a large chunk of her wealth.
Couple days making our way over Independence Pass and then Kebler Pass brought us to Crested Butte. Last time we were here Jill opted top go horse riding rather than ride the 401 trail so that mistake was put right this trip.
Then over to Salida with a magnificent ride on the Monarch Crest trail (and a little bit more of the CDT)
While staying in Salida for a couple days we also explored the great 'town' trail system on Salida Mountain. Easily ridden from town and with some testy rocky stuff. Chatted with a guy on a lovely steel hardtail that turned out to be Zach - the owner/builder of Acoustic Cycles - not a brand I had seen before.
Next few days took us to Canon City and then Pueblo. Rode a bunch of trails out at the Royal Gorge, found out about gas chambers, prison life (they have 16 prisons around Canon City) and had a scary 15 minutes driving the Dakota Ridge drive.
Pueblo didn't look that promising as not a lot of elevation but the trails out at the reservoir turned out a really good little blast. The system weaves up and down what height is there with some great chunky technical rock to test the skills.
Final riding was around Colorado Springs with plenty climbing and descending around the Cheyenne Mountain area.
We had hoped to ride the infamous Dakota Ridge near Denver but rain stopped play (first in 3 weeks) so tourist stuff done like a look at the impressive Red Rock Amphitheatre (just missed Sierra Ferrell by a day too early) and a couple hours drooling over the Shelby American Collection with original cars driven by Ken Miles and some of the "Ferrari beaters".
All in all a smashing trip and we surprised ourselves that we can still handle 15 days of biking without motors at our age (hit 60 this year). Cheers.
That looks like an absolutely brilliant trip.
😎
Wow, some trip that, and the photos are ace! Looks amazing, very jealous...
Fab stuff mate, brilliant... thank you.
Holy moly thats a trip. Amazing, thanks for sharing. Impossibly jealoius.
Looks like a brilliant trip, envious!
Very jealous - that is a lottery win bucket list trip for me.
Thanks for sharing
Now that looks like an amazing trip!
Thanks for sharing!
That looks excellent
Looks amazing.
Beautiful. One day.......
Tremendous pics, looks like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing!
Bloody marvellous! Thanks for sharing!
Features like this were always my favourite part of the magazine, and the main reason I became a subscriber. So a thread like this is like a complete bonus!! Thanks so much to the OP for taking the time to post this.