This TR will never do this trail justice. I wish I was a master of words, capable of describing the jaw-dropping nature of this ride. Around every corner, around every bend, this ride brings out exclamations of oohs and ahhs. As an anecdote, I took well over 200 photos on this ride- and very few of them were shot on continuous shooting mode. It’s that kind of ride. You’re very likely to see large herds of Elk, you’re not likely to see people (our tally, over the course of 10 hours- 1 thru-hiker, 2 horseback riders, 2 ATV’s near Carson Pass). We spent roughly 6 hours straight above treeline, traveling from one high basin to the next. The Cataract Ridge portion of the Colorado Trail contains its highest point, at 13,200′. I would honestly say that anyone within 10 hours of this trail is doing themselves a huge disservice by not riding this trail. Consider making an alpine weekend out of it by combining it with Snow Mesa-Miner’s Creek.
You might be asking yourself, “Why describe such an awesome ride, why not keep it to yourself?”. One answer is that this trail is far from everything- the closest towns are Lake City and Creede, neither of which is known for mountain biking, so the trailhead is a couple of hours away from any town with a bike culture- namely Gunnison and South Fork. The other, and more important answer, is that this trail is threatened by Wilderness designation, an absolute travesty in my mind given the fact that the area is heavily grazed by both cows and sheep, and will continue to be even after Wilderness designation. Ride this trail, and then scream bloody murder to your representatives. IMBA is (hopefully) on the case. Here’s the proposed Wilderness map:
I’d like to offer up some advice to anyone heading out this way. This trail takes you out there. You’ll be exposed to bad weather for a long time, there are very few escapes, and some of the escapes will take you to Silverton- a long way from the trailhead which is closer to Creede. In addition to whatever you usually bring, I’d add a water filter, lighter/matches, warm clothes, and even a headlamp. Also, keep in mind that the Cataract ridge trail is new as of 2009- this is something neither of our maps showed, nor did any of us know. We easily spent an hour completely confused by our outdated maps. Here’s a new map and website with more maps for more clarity:
On to the good stuff. The trailhead is located at the West end of the Rio Grande Reservoir, at the marked Lost Trail trailhead. The trail is currently under construction and marked “closed-impassable”, but a group of dirtbikers had just finished their ride and confirmed our suspicions that the trail was fine, and only impassable for ATV’s. Lost Trail climbs steeply and is a wide ATV trail, which made it easier to gain the 2,000′ or so to treeline.
You could see the last part of Lost Trail for a while, and it was every bit as steep as it looked:
At least this Eagle kept us company:
The hike-a-bike finished off our elevation gain to reach treeline, and we wouldn’t see trees again until the sun was going down. We made the turn onto the Colorado Trail (CT) and the quality instantly ramped up a few notches. Danny:
Chad:
We reached the top of the first climb, the CT’s high point and started down towards Cataract Lake. Chad:
NW Pole Creek Mountain:
Danny:
Cataract Lake and Sunshine Peak (right):
Chad and Cataract Lake:
Danny and Chad nearing the top of the 2nd climb. There were at least 4 climbs on the CT section; some big, some small; some with hike-a-bike, some without.
Chad:
Danny:
Handies Peak:
American Peak:
Danny checking out Niagara Peak. Needless to say, we were scopiong some winter lines out here:
Chad:
Sheep Mountain in the foreground, Vestal left, Arrow right:
Danny:
Chad:
Danny:
Trail:
Danny:
Chad, Danny, Sheep Mountain:
Finally, we reached West Pole Creek. The CT continues to Stony Pass and onward to Silverton from there. West Pole Creek seems like the best option to drop off the CT, although Middle Pole Creek also has a trail. We ran into an equestrian here and he explained the situation with the recent trail re-route, and let Danny and Chad use his water purifier (I still had some).
Danny on the final descent. It was sad to leave, but the light was fading fast and it was time to start heading to the car. West Pole Creek is a fun descent with a bit of everything, but it does have some boggy sections and cows.
The light was amazing as the sun went down:
Danny taking one last look at where we’d been:
As you can probably tell, we were about to become officially “nighted”. No matter, we had about an hour remaining on the Stony Pass road (FS520) before we’d get back to the start. I can’t speak for Danny or Chad, but I was so stoked I didn’t even care. We even had some moonlight to guide our way. The main concern at that point was getting some dinner. Since we got to the truck around 9pm, we assumed nothing in Creede, about a half hour away, would still be serving food. So, we hightailed it towards home, likewise thinking nothing in Lake City would be open either. We rolled into Lake City a bit before 11pm and the sign at Mean Jean’s coffeehouse said “Open”. We rolled in and they were kind enough to serve us some delicious Chicken Fajita Burritos despite the fact it was just minutes before they were hoping to close. Turns out Jean isn’t so mean after all.
Thanks, Jarret, for staying on my case to ride this thing!
By the numbers: 36.3miles, 5hr, 55min ride time, 10 hours out (much of it looking at a map). The numbers tell the story- there is some elevation gain to be had, at altitude.
Thanks for posting this. It’s one of the last corners of our state where I’ve wanted to ride but everytime we head that direction, it snows! You’re photos are awesome. Have you ridden the section west of Spring Creek Pass?
Also – IMBA will need local help to keep this out of wilderness. And since there are few locals in this area, that means you and me and all your buddies who just rode this. I know this from experience from working on Hidden Gems. So anyone intrigued by this ride, should write a letter. Personally, I’m really tired of losing all the cool high altitude riding. Is this part of the DeGette proposal?
Thanks Ellen, I really hope you can find yourself down there before it snows some time, it’s pretty amazing. I haven’t done the CT section to the W of Spring Creek on Jarosa Mesa. It looks like a fair bit of road, and I’m not sure how to make a loop out of it. Maybe Jarrett would care to comment?
Yes, the Handies Peak Wilderness proposal is DeGette’s. I’ve heard amazingly little about this proposal compared to the Hidden Gems, yet DeGette’s is so much larger than the Gems if you check out the Canyon Country website. Scary stuff. I don’t even know where it’s at in terms of the process, or who to write (unlike HG, which I was pretty active with)
Ellen, The Jarosa section goes as well. And although it starts on dirt roads from the west, and involves a few hikes, is a worthy trail for it’s spectacular views. We shuttled it from the bottom of Wager Gulch to the Spring Creek Pass. I can’t confirm for certain that the Camp Trail ties in from the north, but the best bet for a loop would be from the south. The Lat 40 Trails Southwest is a good map for the area. I’ll be sending my letter to IMBA soon!
I just emailed imba about this route and they responded that the CT Trail has been taken out, but I’m not sure about all the linking routes (Lost Lake Creek, West Pole, Middle Pole etc) since all of those routes are still on the ‘canyon country wilderness’ webstite as part of their Handies Pk wilderness proposal. If I hear back from IMBA on these other routes, I’ll get back to you. The DeGette wilderness bill scares me though. So many regions where mtn bike routes might not exist today, but I see so much potential. We need to start pushing for new land designations – wilderness with mountain bikes.
Thanks Jarrett for the info. We’ve skied Jarosa Mesa and also skied the CT Trail to Baldy Cinco to the east. Looking forward to riding this.
IMBA informed me that DeGette’s bill is a long ways from completion. West Pole and Lost Lake are on the list for removal. I’ll keep you posted.
What do you think about riding up Stoney Pass and accessing this trail from there?
Thanks for checking in on this, Ellen. That’s great to hear that these trails are “out”, for now, but I wonder what other trails just in this area are still “in”? Trails such as Minnie, Maggie, and Cuba gulch. The other issue, as I’m sure you’re well aware, is that the Wilderness advocates are quite savvy- this area and many more are put on the plan, even if there’s no chance of approval so they can then take it out and say “We’ve compromised 75% of our plan, now you guys have to compromise, too.” Frustrating.
I would say that you could do this as a loop starting at Stoney Pass as well. I’d probably say ride to West Pole and descend it 1st, then do the rest of the loop as I describe it. The only bummer about that plan is that you’ll be hitting treeline later in the day and end up finishing on the up and down CT, rather than a downhill. But it certainly makes sense if you’re coming from that direction, like Durango.
I rode this trail again 2 days ago and it was just as fun the second time around. We cut the time down to 8hr, 15min since I knew the way and we weren’t looking at a map all day or taking any photos. West Pole is in really great shape- the cows are gone and it’s so dry at this time of year we were able to ride all the boggy sections in the willows down low.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the riding options in the area. Here’s what I really want to do, and it goes out to Durango-area riders: Durango group leaves a vehicle in Silverton and takes another vehicle up and over Cinnamon Pass. We’ll meet you somewhere up Cinnamon and drive to Spring Creek Pass. Then we’ll ride the Jarosa and Cataract sections of the CT, dropping to Silverton via Minnie or Maggie or Stony Pass or walk through the short Wilderness section of the CT. Then complete the shuttle. Kind of a pain, but it could make for an epic day of alpine riding on the CT. Just get in touch, maybe next year…
Frank -
Billy Laird & I are thinking of riding some combo of this on Saturday….that’s what brought me to your site, but got caught up on skiing of course! …any interest in joining us?….or should we just go ski some lines outta Lake City, ha!
Oh man, I’d love to, but Fox currently has my shocks so I can’t this weekend. Have fun though! (And yeah, since I don’t have a bike I’m going to ski Atlantic this weekend!)
LC to Spring Cr to CT all the way to Stony Pass. Down Stony Gulch and up and over Cinnamon Pass back to LC….13,700ft of gain, 91 mi…15 total hrs…ouch, but waaaaay sick!! Nailed the weather too! Wick
Nice! Hoping to add the section from Spring Creek one of these days. Or dropping Minnie or Maggie gulch towards Silverton to get more singletrack. Fun area to explore, that’s for sure.
Wow – we did Spring Creek -> West Lost Trail Saturday. Spectacular. Cataract Ridge proper is still on the menu for a future trip. Thought we could do it on this one but travel is pretty slow way up there in the mountains…
Went backingpacking in this area earlier this year and couldn’t stop thinking about how alltime the cataract gulch descent down from the lake would be. It’s part of the wilderness proposal/study so no bikes right?
Yeah Zach, I believe it was signed closed even though it isn’t Wilderness at this time. And I agree, it would be a really good descent…
Yup – that Cataract Lake trail is closed to cycling according to the map I had (recent Trails Illustrated). It seems that in the San Juans if a singletrack is open to cycling it is also open to motos… none of the non-motorized singletrack is available to bikes. It makes me sad.
Thankfully they seem to “get it” here in the Gunnison NF, and the standard seems to be “If it isn’t Wilderness, then it’s open to bikes.”