After Crested Butte’s opening day on the 17th, Brittany and I decided to mix it up the following day by both skiing [i]and[/i] biking. Now, I’ve skied and biked on the same day on many occasions, but always in the spring, and the biking always involved a trip down to Gunnison and its’ lower, drier environment. What I haven’t done is ski around Thanksgiving and then ride at around 11,000′ on Doctor’s Park, and have comfortable temps to boot. It turns out that Doctor’s park was in great shape, and offered up an entirely new experience for a ride I’ve done many, many times. With no traffic on Spring Creek road, no leaves on the aspens, and the sun low on the horizon, it was one Doctor’s park ride I won’t soon forget. That said, riding a bike in November is a sorry excuse for what we should be doing: skiing on more than one strip of manmade snow! For the time being, there isn’t much to do other than keep hoping that the winter of ’07/’08 will eventually start.
Brittany approaching the top:
Brittany on the trail:
And one of me a little lower…
Just wow!
My fiance stumbled across your site as part of her vacation research project and I’ve been gawking since she sent me the link.
Awesome stuff Frank. I’ve done a lot of the CB rides you’ve documented here (including the one I’m posting on – Matchless to Doctors) but some are new to me. CB has always been a special place to me and I look forward to exploring more.
By the way, for the Whitepine ride, I’ve ! climbed ! Horseshoe to get to Canyon Creek
I’m not saying it’s better than climbing Tomichi but it’s an option. It would definitely be a gnarlyburlyfun descent. And, I was one of the riders in the VT125 that day you saw the sign.
Finally, not sure if you ever got to do it but if you make that right off of Canyon to Wuanita, it’s fun but you do end up on some forest roads. Once on the dirt roads you can climb to Black Sage Pass and hit up Quakey Mountain.
Later!
Ed
Thanks Ed!
I’ve really got to check out Horseshoe one of these days. Brittany did some riding at Black Sage Pass while recovering from knee surgery last summer, so maybe we’ll try to make a longer canyon creek ride as well to check out some new trails. The exploring is just as good as the riding as often as not in my book, so it will be on my radar for sure.