First things first: I’ve been working a ton. That’s why this is the first entry in quite some time. Thankfully I was able to get out for one day last weekend, and even more thankfully conditions were exceptional. While the early season snows largely melted away, Doctor’s Park was left in a state of tacky perfection with rustling leaves covering the trail. Perfection.

‘Tis a beautiful sight to see:

Brittany killing it:

Our regular camera died pretty quickly, so most of those shots were with the GoPro, which I actually think takes pretty good photos of the fisheye variety. I shot video on the descent, and it was pretty hard to edit out much of it. Doctor’s Park is so good from top to bottom, so which part of the descent would you eliminate- the top fast section?, the techy middle?, the Ewok descent through the forest?, or the tech finish? So I left it all in- perhaps too long, but a good reference for the bike guide for those who have yet to ride it. Enjoy:

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After nearly a week of rain leading up to September 18th, we were all racking our brains trying to figure out a ride that might be dry. Taylor Park tends to be a touch drier than Crested Butte, plus the soil is more rocky and Texas Ridge is mostly spongy pine needles, so that became the goal. The last time we rode it, we went up Texas Creek, but this time we decided to access the Timberline trail off of Cottonwood Pass instead.

While accessing Timberline from Cottonwood adds almost 5 miles and 20 minutes of riding, it’s totally worth it since the Timberline trail is a rockin’ downhill from Cottonwood down to Texas Creek. Unless I expect Cottonwood to be extra busy, this is probably the way I will usually go to get to Texas Ridge. One of the Texas Lakes near the junction of the Timberline Trail and Texas Creek road:

Sydney:

From Texas Creek, the Timberline trail climbs steeply- very steeply before the downhill starts again. Still, most of the trail is barely rideable and a good challenge if you’re up for it. A couple shots of the climb:

Once the descent on Timberline, and then Texas Ridge starts, the fun levels spike on what at least one member of our party openly wondered “might just be Gunnison County’s best ride”. High praise indeed, and completely warranted. I was shooting video with my GoPro, but unfortunately the lens got splashed early on and it wasn’t worth using any of the footage. So, just a couple shots of the descent:

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I wanted everyone to know that I have done some work on the web’s best Crested Butte Mountain Bike Guide by adding an alphabetized page. The original guide was grouped by proximity as well as similar ride lengths (i.e. Strand and Farris would be grouped together), but it was admittedly unwieldy if you were just looking for info on a specific ride. So, I added some code to the original page and added another so you can now quickly get to the ride you’re seeking. It is also on the 14erskier pages on the right sidebar.

Here’s the link: Crested Butte Mountain Bike Guide A-Z

I’ve done my best to doublecheck for broken links, but please let me know if I’ve missed anything or if you have any other suggestions. Happy riding!

This is an old bike TR from TGR that I thought I would resurrect here on the blog (mostly as a reference TR on my Crested Butte Mountain Bike guide)…

Since the weather looked iffy at best, we chose a ride with lots of options in case things went bad. Here’s the town of Mt Crested Butte, where my condo is located, taken from Snodgrass.

More Snodgrass:

After Snodgrass, we headed up Washington Gulch to get to 403. The ski area is getting smaller Notice how the flowers compliment Brittany’s pink jersey

Backcountry rail session, anyone??

Brittany nearing the top of 403…

It might not look like it, but 403 is about as steep and techy as we tend to get here in the Crested butte area.

… But it has its’ share of smooth singletrack as well

The weather kept cooperating, so we headed up Schofield pass for more fun on 401.

Brittany, Avery in the background, and you can see 401 way off in the distance if you look closely.

Brittany:

Where’s Waldo, (Frank):

It’s a jungle out there

Frank:

I’ve been in CB so long, I think I’m a bit dismissive of 401, given its’ most favored tourist ride status, but I’d have to say it is in really good shape right now and was really tacky and really fun. A couple of hours after we got back, the skies let loose with one of the most entertaining lightning storms I can remember, which kind of put a damper on my buddies’ birthday BBQ, but we need the moisture, so we’ll take it. Anyway, hopefully the next TR I do is a skiing one, and it comes really soon