Deer Creek is a trail that connects Brush Creek road to Gothic road, making it a nice addition to something like 401 or some other Brush Creek trails like Strand. Still, I’ve never actually had the opportunity to ride this trail, though our backcountry ski adventures have taken us on parts of it in the past. I’ll blame Frank for this, as he basically hates Deer Creek. Since he’s my primary riding partner, we avoided it like the plague. Luckily, my friend Heather was game to ride it with me on this windy but blue-bird day!

Deer Creek lacks the fun downhills that many of the trails have here in Crested Butte. Since it follows above the East River Valley, the trail rolls up and down along the contours of of the Elk Mountains. However, this trail does offer some fantastic views!

Heading up Brush Creek road.

Gothic as seen from Brush Creek, Baldy full of snow.

The start of Deer Creek.

The “Black Hole”

Every hill and valley, climb and descent took us closer to Gothic.

Heather.

Looking up at White Mountain, with Western State Peak peaking out behind.

The trail ends in the town of Gothic, which is very much closed for the season. Snow is creeping lower and lower. Trails are shutting down. It’s that transitional time of year when it’s both bike season AND ski season. It’s a fun time of year, surely. But, before we know it, our trails will be covered in a winter blanket of white. True ski season is just around the corner! Still, there’s a few more days of riding left

After roughly 14 years here in Crested Butte, I sometimes feel like I’ve seen and done it all, especially when it comes to bike trails. When I’ve stared at the map, looking for new adventures on two wheels, my eyes have always been drawn to the Lowline trail south of Ohio Pass. But whenever I’ve asked anyone about it, all I’ve ever heard are words like “lots of cows”, “lots of horses”, “muddy”, and “easy to get lost”. Despite the lack of local enthusiasm for the trail, when Pete Sowar suggested it I was all in. Jay Prentiss thought it was a great place to go explore as well, and we were off.

In a lot of ways, we got really lucky in our timing. It was clear that this trail is normally a mudfest, but now, right before the snow starts to fall in earnest, it was mostly dry and sometimes even frozen in the shade. It was also obvious that the area usually has cows, cows and more cows, but they have all been taken to pasture for the winter. The horses haven’t done the trails any favors, but it wasn’t that bad. The lack of signage and myriad of cow trails fooled us and we did get lost for a bit. In the end, this was one of the more enjoyable rides of the summer, but I would highly recommend that anyone trying it wait until the very end of the season, so they catch it in the good conditions that we had.

We started off at the Swampy Pass trailhead on trail 439.1 and the views were off the hook right off the bat.

I took a number of photos of lines that looked like they might be worthwhile ski descents, and this was the first one, off the backside of the Anthracites.

We got on trail 563.1 and began heading directly towards the Castles, a unique geologic feature in the West Elks.

We hit the wilderness border right where trail 438 skirts the border and begins to traverse the range. As it turns out, 438 is also the lowline trail, although it wasn’t marked on our map as such. More ski beta, wonder if this one goes all the way through or not?

The scenery continued to be “OK”

We got lost in this area and followed some cow trails. Eventually, we made a small loop and returned to a stream confluence where we should have crossed. This cost us an hour and a half, and we were concerned about finishing in the daylight, but decided to give it a shot anyway. More scenery and ski beta:

Between losing any decent light to shoot any photos as a storm rolled in and our need to hurry before we got “nighted”, we didn’t take many other photos. Some awesome sections of trail, though:

The final downhill to Mill Creek was tight, twisty, and steep. It descended the hill above Jay and Pete here on Mill Creek:

A descent down Mill Creek led us to a 10 mile ride back to the truck on the Ohio Creek road. We were pretty smoked at this point, but we made it right as it got dark. Beer is good:

The stats: almost 32 miles, 4:15 ride time, almost 7 hours out there, and 4100′ of vert. Had we been able to ride without consulting the map repeatedly (and not getting lost), I’m sure the ride would be a more reasonable 3.5 hour ride. Lowline is worth a return trip next fall, for sure…

Echher Gulch has been a cursed trail for me. This trail is Frank’s favorite ride, yet every time I’ve attempted it with him, something has gone wrong- bad weather, bike mechanicals, too cold. There have been instances where we’ve ridden almost the entire loop, but had to skip the actual Eccher trail. In four summers of riding here in Crested Butte, I finally was able to ride Eccher Gulch for the first time this past weekend.

Eccher Gulch and the associated trails provide one of the most scenic fall rides. Knowing this past weekend was going to have great weather and prime fall leaves, we decided to attempt Eccher once again. Frank and I were joined by our friends Jarrett, Adam, and Ethan.

Here’s some pictures that show just how lovely it was!

Adam

Ethan

Jarrett

Me

The group enjoying the views.

And the beautiful fall leaves!

Spectacular views were everywhere. But, this one was my favorite.

Thanks, Frank, for taking all the photos. And thanks to Jarrett, Adam, and Ethan for a great day out!

For more Trail Information see Eccher on our Crested Butte Mountain Biking Guide.

Video: You can view Jarrett’s fun “mouth cam” footage on this video linked from Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1044224961808

My schedule seems to be shaping nicely this fall with tutoring, allowing my Monday mornings to be free for some fun! This time, instead of riding with the girls, I went with my friend Zach. The night before, a lot of rain fell. But the day was beautiful. So, the trails were in perfect shape. Here’s a few pics.

Crossing the Spring Creek.

The fall colors are emerging. The trees seemed to radiate in yellow when the sun hit them.

Zach making his way up the road.

The view from the top of Doctor’s is always lovely, with or without the clouds!

Zach on the descent.

Me.

The ride kept getting better and better. I was reminded how fun the Doctor’s descent is! It’s definitely one of the best trails in the CB area. But, the sweet ride turned sour near the very end when poor Zach took a crash that resulted in a tacoed wheel and a deep gash in his arm. The gash was deeper than anything I’d ever seen before and it was obvious he needed stitches. Zach went through an entire roll of paper towels and half a container of wet-wipes, all filled with blood, in the drive back to CB. We took Zach into the CB Medical Center, where Doctor Sherman took one look at him and basically said his gash was beyond what he could take care of. The doctor’s concern was that the gash was so deep, and right on the joint, which is apparently especially prone to strange infections. Evidently there is a kind of bacteria that can go in and eat all of your cartilage in a matter of a few hours. Doctor Sherman set up an emergency “surgery” at the Gunnison OR with Dr. Beim, the same doc that reconstructed my ACL. Zach’s surgery didn’t start until well into the evening. Dr. Beim confirmed that the wound was dangerously prone to infection. She said it went clear to the bone. She cleaned out his joint tissue and then sewed him up. I never knew getting stitches could be so complicated!

Despite the sour ending, the ride was fabulous! Zach is on the mend, though he’s not allowed to ride his bike for 2+ weeks. My best wishes go out to Zach for a quick heal. And thanks again for joining me on a great ride!

For more trail information please see Doctors on our Crested Butte Mountain Biking Guide.