Mountain Biking to Billings Lake

The past several months I have been focused on mountain biking.  Last winter I bought a new mountain bike and this fueled my desire to hit the trails by bike.  This is also my first full season of riding in Colorado.  I never lived somewhere with so many great mountain bike options and I am excited to explore new trails.

Since I have been biking so much, I was ready to hit the trails by foot again and do some hiking.  Puma was busy for several days, so I set my sights on an outing to visit some new peaks in the nearby Sangre de Cristo Range.  I basically live on the downslope of the Sangres.  I woke up Sunday morning ready to hike, but I was greeted with rain and the summits completely hidden in the clouds.  I was ready the next two morning to hike but both days saw the Sangres shrouded in clouds early in the morning.  Although the mountains were not giving me ideal conditions, the lower elevations were fair and I managed to get in a mountain bike ride just a few minutes from home.

Tuesday, I woke up early again, ready to hike.  Once again, the mountains were obscured.  A few hours later, the visibility improved but it was too late to hike to my original destination.  I wanted to travel in some alpine terrain.  With a good part of my morning lost I decided to go mountain biking again.

At the last minute, I decided to head to the North Fork of the South Arkansas River.  Although I never ridden bike here before, I had cross country skied in the area.  It isn't too far from home and the route ends in a beautiful alpine basin, just above treeline.

My ride started at the Angel of Shavano trailhead. at 9200'.  FS Road 240 travels along the river, a small creek at this point, to its headwaters above treeline at Billings Lake.  I had never been on this road when it was free of snow, so I didn't know entirely what to expect.  I did know that high clearance vehicles can travel the distance however.  I also knew that I could make it to Billings Lake on skis, so I knew it wasn't too steep.  The jeep road travels eight miles and gradually climbs about 2800' to Billings Lake.

A typical section of rocky road

The start of the ride is one of the steeper sections.  In the first mile, the road is fairly rocky and somewhat loose as it climbs on sandy soil.  After the first mile, the road becomes more gradual for much of the way.  The road is consistently rocky but never really too technical.  Riding on the road reminded my a little bit of the forest roads that I rode while growing up mountain biking in Pennsylvania.  Rain had fallen overnight making the road damp.  The air had a cool fall-like feel and a leafy smell to it as the aspens were changing color and loosing leaves.  The dampness and forest smell also reminded me a bit of the east.

Lingering color on the aspens

The ride had little else reminding me of the east.  The scenery is quite a bit different.  The road travels along the base of 14ers Shavano and Tabegauche.  Rocky slopes and cliffs surround the road much of the way.  Nearby 12 and 13,000' peaks tower above the road.

Early view of alpine terrain

Peaks in the distance near Billings Lake

Rocky terrain above the North Fork

Lingering snow from the previous night

While the elevation gain along the road is manageable, rockier and sandier stretches add to the difficulty.  Seldom did the road ever seem steep.  The higher I climbed the more mountain scenery came into view.  Finally, the road reaches the end of the trees just below Billings Lake and the view is amazing.

Getting closer to treeline

View close to treeline

Approaching the Billings Lake basin with
Pomeroy Mtn  as a backdrop

Entering the basin

The final stretch of road travels above Billings Lake to the end of the line. Between the lake and the end of the line, I passed an old cabin ruin and a large unmarked mine entrance.  Just past the mine, the road ends at a tunnel that is the entrance to the long abandoned Pride of the West Mine.  The entryway to the tunnel is remarkably well preserved with its keystone dated to 1880.  The elevation at the mine entrance is right around 12,000'.

I had good views but the skies were ominous

Looking across the basin toward 13,000' Sewanee Peak and neighbors

Close up of a nameless 13,000' peak

The road as it passes above Billings Lake

Mine entrance along road

Pride of the West Tunnel

The keystone at the tunnel entrance

Close up of the tunnel

Old shack near the mine site

From the perch at the mine entrance, the views are quite impressive.  The peaks in this part of the Sawatch Range stand right around 13,000 feet and pretty jagged.  The large alpine basin in which Billings Lake sits is quite pretty.  On this day, the northeast slopes of the surrounding peaks had a few patches of snow still lingering from the previous night.  The summits occasionally ducked behind passing clouds.

View over the basin along the road

View over Billings Lake, the two pointy peaks in the
distance I believe are 13ers Taylor and Aetna

Another view across basin

Sewanee Peak

I was too busy enjoying my surroundings to think about looking at my bike computer.  It was over 8 miles to the Pride of the West tunnel.  I didn't think to look at how long the climb took me.  Even though the climbing was never too steep, it seemed like a slow climb.

After taking a few minutes to soak in the scenery, I looked forward to my 8 mile descent.  On the upper reaches of the descent, it is hard to pay attention to the road with the great views of the peaks around you.  The downhill was a little tough on a hardtail cross country bike.  2800 feet of rocky downhill is tiring.  This is one of the times I wish I had a full suspension bike.  It took me well over 2 hours to finish the entire ride.  Even with an 8 mile downhill, the travel was slow going.

The view as I began descent

The view in front of me

The views continued as I got lower

I had to pay attention to the rocky road and not
focus on the mountains

More leaf color as I got closer to the trailhead

At the trailhead, the Colorado Trail passes through.  I decided to ride a couple more miles on the Colorado Trail to get in a little bit of singletrack riding.  When I returned to my car, as I was changing and putting my bike away, it began to rain.  The sky was somewhat ominous the entire morning so I'm glad the shower held off until I was finished riding, especially since it was only in the low 50s.

While I'm glad that I took this ride, I wouldn't say it was my favorite.  I enjoyed  this route more when I traveled it on skis.  The entire route is on jeep road with no singletrack riding.  I have ridden plenty of long uphills,  but thisone is definitely a grind.  What the ride lacks in awesome terrain, it makes up for with scenery.  For those traveling on a full suspension, all mountain bike, I'm sure the downhill would be worth the ride too.  I probably don't see myself revisiting the area anytime too soon on bike. I'm sure I'll revisit the area in winter on skis however as the area is even more stunning covered in snow.

Clicking the link below will take you to my blog post of my winter cross country ski outing to this area and it's interesting to see the difference when the route and surrounding mountains are snow covered.
Cross Country Skiing the North Fork of the South Arkansas River

My bike enjoying the view

Mountain Biking Crested Butte for the First Time

Colorado has its fair share of great mountain bike destinations.  With a long history in the sport, one of the most iconic destinations in Colorado is Crested Butte.  I live about two hours away from Crested Butte and was ready to take a trip to check out some of the riding there.  The riding season is relatively short in Crested Butte so I wanted to go sooner than later.

The problem, if you want to call it a problem, with mountain biking in Crested Butte is that there are too many choices.  This was my first trip to Crested Butte and picking a ride is overwhelming with more than 500 miles of trails.  There are several iconic and renowned rides in the area.  I scoured over maps and guides to figure out where to ride but had a hard time dwindling down my choices.  My short list was still a handful of rides.

I wanted to get a lot of bang for my buck on my trip since I was only going to be there for the day.  I was looking for rides that were close together so that I could possibly combine routes.  I finally thought I'd go for an epic ride and combine two loops that were close enough to start at the same trailhead.

I found two rides to combine.  The first is a route called Reno-Flag-Bear-Deadman, named after the trails that make up the 20 mile loop.  The second ride is another 20 mile loop called Doctor Park.  The first ride is a fairly popular ride in the area with three distinct climbs and descents.  Doctor Park is known for its downhill singletrack and often listed as top ride in the Crested Butte by many.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to ride both loops in one ride.  The total distance would be over 40 miles.  But the real challenge is the elevation gain.  Both rides have around 3400 vertical feet of climbing.  The combination of mileage and intense climbing would make it a challenging ride.

On Tuesday, August 18th, I got an early start an headed to Crested Butte.  By 830AM I left the North Bank Campground trailhead and began my 8 mile grind up Spring Creek Road, FS 744.  The road climbs gradually the entire way but never gets too steep.  It's actually a nice warm up since it was only in the low 40s when I started.  The road follows a canyon cut by Spring Creek and is often surrounded by cliffs.  It's a fairly easy spin heading up the road apart from a few washboarded stretches.

Cliffs along Spring Creek Road

Although I was on the route for the Doctor Park ride, I turned onto FS 744.2c.   This would connect me to the Deadman Gulch Trail and the Reno-Flag-Bear-Deadman Loop.  FS 744.2c  is a rocky and rough affair that is the kind of technical that is more miserable than fun.  Luckily it is fairly short.  Before long I connected to the Deadman Gulch Trail.  The end of 744.2c and the beginning of Deadman were quite unpleasant riding in the morning.  Overnight thunderstorms left the trail a slimy mess.  There were endless puddles on this stretch.  Running through the puddles didn't just splash water  .It caked my tires in 2 inches of slimy mud that didn't come off.  There were numerous small water crossings in this area and the mud didn't come off in the water crossings.  Each additional puddle I passed through just added to the mud already on my tires.

FS 744,2c and its rough rocks

Deadman continued to climb and eventually got away from the water crossings.  The trail climbed gradually through a meadow much of the way.  There was still an occasional puddle but they were less frequent and somewhat avoidable.  Deadman gradually climbed to its high point at over 10,600 feet.  Other than a few short flat stretches, I had been climbing since the trailhead at an elevation of 8400'.  I finally got my first real downhill of the ride after the high point with a 1200 foot drop over about 1.25 miles.  The descent wasn't too technical but the trail has more than 30 switchbacks in this section.  Because dirtbikes are allowed on the trail, the switchbacks were fairly wide and fun to negotiate.

Riding up Deadman Gulch

The downhill ended much too quickly before the long climb up Reno Road.  From the end of Deadman, I had 5 miles and 1700 feet of climbing ahead of me.  The first 1.5 miles are up Cement Road which is a decent dirt road.  Reno Road is a jeep road and is moderately steep at times.  Although there are nice views from the road, the trudge up Reno Road is definitely not the highlight of the loop.  The top of Reno Road was the high point of my entire ride at over 11,100 feet.  I don't know how long it took me to get to the top, but it seemed to drag on.  By the top of Reno Road, I had already climbed more than 3800 feet.  There are descent views from the clearing near the top of the road looking to the north at the Elk Range just south of Aspen.

View from Reno Road

Looking north from the ride high point
at the top of Reno Road

From Reno Road, Flag Creek was my next trail.  Flag Creek drops more than 900 feet in about 3 miles and is basically all downhill on nice flowing singletrack.  It was a nice break from the climbing but over too soon.  Since the trail isn't technical, I could enjoy the views, and easily avoid the grazing cattle and their presents left on the trail.  The bulk of Flag Creek traveled through a grassy meadow and never got steep.

The beginning of the Flag Creek singletrack and downhill

Nice scenery as I dropped through a meadow

Road block

Mother and child feet from the trail

Near the end of Flag Creek

After Flag Creek, I hit Bear Creek.  All the elevation I lost on Flag Creek, I had to regain on the first 3 miles of Bear Creek.  Before the climbing began on Bear Creek, I sat down in a section of woods and took a quick lunch break consisting of three granola bars.  With a few calories and and a little bit of sugar in me, I began the gradual climb through the grassy meadow along Bear Creek.  Even though the climb was never steep, I was beginning to feel the effects of nearly 5000 feet of climbing.  Soon enough I made it to the high point of Bear Creek and the start of another 3 miles and 1200 foot descent.  The downhill started out gradually through a meadow.  Then the trail dropped into the woods with a few technical spots.  The technical spots never lasted too long before opening up into more fast, flowy sections.  The downhill on Bear Creek is surely a fun ride.

Near the beginning of Bear Creek

Much of Bear Creek rode through a meadow

More bovine friends grazing along Bear Creek

Near the beginning of the downhill I had my only incident of the day.  I was descending fairly quickly on a super smooth stretch of trail that wasn't steep.  I looked away just briefly to check out data on my bike computer on my handlebars.  My eyes were off the trail long enough.  The trail was a thin ribbon through the grass in this stretch.  My front tire went into the grass.  As I attempted to correct my trajectory, my rear wheel caught the lip of the trail.  The next thing I know I faceplanted into the grass.  Luckily the grass was soft and soil sandy, so it was painless.  If anyone saw where I went down, I would be embarrassed since it was such a nonthreatening section of trail.  I checked my bike to make sure there was no damage, made sure my helmet visor didn't snap since my helmet hit the ground, wiped off the dust, and continued.  If it was rougher trail, I wouldn't have been so nonchalant and the mishap would have never happened.

At the end of Bear Creek, I rejoined the Deadman Gulch again.  This was the end of the Reno-Flag-Bear-Deadman Loop. Unfortunately, I had to retrace my route through the muddy section with all the water crossings.  Luckily the dry mountain air and steady breeze dried most of the mud from earlier.  I still had a few puddles to contend with, which were still full of tacky mud, but not nearly as bad as earlier.  I also had to retrace my path through the rough, rocky section of FS 744.2c before I was back on FS 744.

Once I was back on FS 744, I had another climb to look forward to.  A short distance from the intersection of 744,2c and 744, I turned onto FS 554.  Before reaching FS 554, I had to cross Spring Creek.  The creek is wide enough that I didn't want to attempt riding it, not knowing how deep it was.  I took off my shoes and socks and forded the creek.  On the other side of the creek I began climbing gradually up the jeep road.  After a mile there is a junction and the road gets steeper and rougher at times.  I had nearly 1500 more feet of climbing to go from the creek.  Normally, I wouldn't have found this climb so bad but by this point I was really feeling the results of more than 30 miles of riding and well over a mile of climbing.  Although it was breezy most of the ride, this stretch was out of the wind and I was starting to feel the mid afternoon, high elevation sun hitting me during the climb.  The road traveled in the open and at least there were good views.

The beginning of the climb toward Doctor Park

Sections were rocky

Some views as I climbed higher on FS 554

After several miles of climbing, I finally hit the start of the Doctor Park Trail.  Doctor Park is one of the most regarded trails in the Crested Butte region.  It is often listed as a favorite ride in the area.  That is saying a lot for an area with as many miles of trails as Crested Butte.  What makes Doctor Park so well liked is its 2500 feet of descent over 5 miles on a mix of technical switchbacks and rocks combined with fast flow bombing through groves of aspens.  This was the part of the ride I was most looking forward to.

Back on the singletrack on Doctor Park

At the start of Doctor Park, the trail turned back to singletrack and traveled through woods.  Unfortunately it wasn't what I was looking for.  The trail was full of puddles and muddy.  The trail was flat and still uphill at places and didn't have great flow for at least a mile.  I wasn't seeing the hype over Doctor Park.

Messy on the first part of Doctor Park

The beginning of Doctor Park was also rooty and rocky
with no flow

Then the flow of the trail changed and I finally started going downhill.  Initially I descended gradually through a meadow before the trail reentered the woods and the fun began.  The trail descended fairly steeply in a technical section.  Roots, rocks, loose terrain, and switchbacks all tested my bike handling and line choosing abilities. The technical terrain and steepness let up and I entered a long stretch of beautifully flowing, narrow singletrack that traveled though the forest.  Finally the flow ended and I hit a short rolling section with a few final short climbs.  Then it was back into the tech and probably the most challenging riding of the day.  The last mile or so of trail gets steep.  Several switchbacks keep your speed in check.  To add to the challenge, several of the switchbacks feature some rocks to negotiate immediately after passing the switchback.  Despite hours on my bike, I forgot all about my previous six hours in the saddle and had an absolute blast on the Doctor Park descent.  By the time I finished Doctor Park, I understood the hype about this trail.  It was definitely one of the most fun downhill trails I have ridden.

Finally getting to the fun stuff on Doctor Park

Steeper than it looks, dropping fast over some
tech on Doctor Park

more tech

Dropping into the Aspens

Still some wildflowers lingering in the last half of August

Between the downhill and switchbacks lower on
Doctor Park

Much steeper than it looks,  Cement blocks used to control erosion
on the switchbacks of Doctor Park.

The trail ended at the North Bank Campground.  A short ride on the campground road dumped me out on the main road right where I parked.  By the time my ride was finished I covered 43 miles in 6:15 minutes of riding time.  While I have ridden longer road riding, this was the longest time-wise that I spent on a mountain bike.  My total ride climbed and descended somewhere in the realm of 6800' vertical feet when all was said and done, more than I had ever climbed in a single mountain bike ride.

Both Doctor Park and the Reno-Flag-Bear-Deadman Loop can be ridden individually and are both around 20 miles.  Doctor Park is a long road trudge followed by a killer downhill.  Reno-Flag-Bear-Deadman is more of a crosscountry ride with 3400 feet of up and down.  Having never ridden the Crested Butte area, I was like a kid in a candy shop and couldn't pick just one ride so I chose these two.  They are close enough to be ridden together and both are known as great rides in the area.  This late in the riding season, I'm in my peak riding condition so I figured I would get the most bang for my buck and cover two rides in one outing.

Despite the popularity of mountain biking in the area I saw very few people for the length of my ride.  On the road sections, I saw one group of ATVs and another of dirt bikes.  I saw two cyclists on the dirt roads as well.  On the singletrack I saw far more cows than people.  A group of dirt bikes that were parked along Bear Creek and a group of five mountain bikers near the end of Doctor Park were the only people I saw.  I did have the advantage of riding on a Tuesday though.  Now that I have experienced the riding in  Crested Butte, I'm sure I'll be back many more times.  I'm hoping to get in at least one more trip this season.  I have only ridden a small sampling of the riding there and can't wait to see more of the many marquee rides in the region.

The Elk Range from Reno Road

Sweet singltrack on Doctor Park