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The problem in the southern part of the state in the Rio Grande Forest turns out to be the Spruce Beetle. This insect attacks primarily Engelmann Spruce, though it will occasionally infest Blue Spruce as well. After the beetle does its damage, we’re left with a forest which isn’t just unsightly, but also a forest fire waiting to happen, and those trees eventually start falling down.

We’ve been incredibly lucky here in the Elks, dodging both beetle outbreaks… so far. Of course, the Aspen trees around here are dying, too- due to what is known as “Sudden Aspen Decline”, or SAD.

They say these phenomena are natural, occurring every century or two or three. The drought years we’ve experienced are certainly a likely trigger, as are warming temperatures. That doesn’t make the thought of stark hillsides with nothing but dead trees and sagebrush any more cheery. I guess it’s just one more reason to hope for a big winter this season.

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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 We easily spent an hour completely confused by our outdated maps.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.

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Pete Sowar:

Views from the top:

And the video:

12,201′ from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

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Mt. Ouray:

There were large areas of downed Aspen trees along the road. Our guess was that a windstorm had swept up the valley, knocking down trees of similar aspect as it went. Unless anyone else has some guesses…

We cruised up Marshall at a nice easy pace in a couple of hours and found ourselves at the top of Starvation Creek, along with several other parties. The word is out- Starvation is where it’s at. Brittany:

Frank:

Starvation Creek dumps you out on the Otto Mears Toll Road, where a left hand turn will take you back up to Marshall Pass. We took another break at the top and this extremely bold little fox begged for food as we ate our sandwiches.

We went “backwards” up the Continental Divide Trail, thankful that it was now afternoon and the hordes of Monarch Crest Riders had long come and gone. We reached the start of Agate and our final descent of the day. Brittany:

Frank:

Rocks are less bumpy when you levitate.

One of the nice features our GoPro Helmet Cam has is the ability to take photos, and one of the settings is one photo every 3 seconds. While not all of these shots were great, I thought a number of them had a great effect. Brittany:

Frank crossing one of the many famous (or infamous) crossings of Agate Creek:

Vehicles that don’t make it on Monarch Pass end up down here on Agate:

Agate is a great trail, but at the end the trail is one river crossing after another and it can get old. This is followed by a steep exit back up to Monarch Pass in order to avoid private property. This is unfortunate, since it leaves a bad taste in the mouth after such an otherwise great trail. In any case, we coasted down a couple miles of Monarch pass back to Sargeants for a ride time of about 6 hours and a little under 50 miles. This is a great figure 8 loop and I highly recommend it. Check out our video for more:

Starvation Creek to Agate Creek from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

Deadman’s Trail from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

Bear Creek 8.7.10 from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

Note: I was recently reminded of this awesome day almost 4 years ago and decided it needed a bump on the blog. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Elbert looks snowy in a couple of weeks again soon…

Mt Elbert is the highest peak in CO, the highest peak in the rocky mountains, and the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48. Despite this, the mountain is basically a huge hill, so riding a mountain bike down it isn’t just possible, but enjoyable. When Brittany and I skied Elbert just 2 and a half months before, we discussed a return trip to ride down the thing, so that’s what we did. Ski TR

We awoke on Saturday, the 26th to a downpour. We didn’t even try for Elbert, but instead went to Buena Vista to kill time drinking coffee at Bongo Billy’s, hitting the Cottonwood hot springs, and eventually the drive-in theatre. This is what it looked like most of the day:

Sunday looked a bit more promising, and we began pushing our bikes up (there is approx 1 mile of riding on the way up). As some clouds parted and I got a look at the upper elevations, we realized that quite a bit of snow had fallen. I was pretty excited about it, and only got more excited when the clean, crisp, snowy air reached my nostrils and touched my skin. Not dirty old suncups, mind you, but fresh clean snow.

The 4,000 foot climb took just 2 hours and 45 minutes, despite pushing our bikes. We were feeling strong this day.
Brittany on top, needing some warmer clothes:

The north face of La Plata, almost looking skiable:

Me, on the summit, with my Yeti waiting patiently in almost a foot of windblown:

Some shots from the way down:

Singletrack leads all the way past the shores of Twin lakes, far below in the picture (over 6,000 vert)

A bit of air down low:

The trail remains steep and techy all the way down:

Given the continued threatening nature of the weather and a bit of an endo suffered by Brittany, we called it a day at the 4wd trailhead, rather than continuing down to Twin Lakes. There is at least one more rideable route on Mt Elbert, the NE ridge route. Having hiked it as well, I know that it is more technical, but doable.

The Trail That Needs a Name from 14erskiers on Vimeo.

A recent internet discussion finally confirmed a few things for me which I had long wondered about. NWS weather forecasts mention a probability % of rain or snow on most days, but what does that mean? As it turns out, a 70% chance of rain means that if you had 10 nearby weather stations, 7 of them would record measurable precipitation, and 3 would not. It does not mean that there is a 70% chance of rain, and a 30% chance of no rain. Here is what Stan of the Pueblo NWS office had to say: Part of the confusion is due to (IMO) an unfortunate policy of the NWS to mix Probability with Spatial characteristics in defining what constitutes a POP. For example, usually in the first 12-24 hours, for thunderstorms, the 3% or 60% refers to a spatial distribution So, if there is a 30% chance of rain for the Sangres for example, that means that 30% of that total area will see measurable rain, the rest will stay dry. (In contrast, a probability forecast of 30% would suggest that 3 out of 10 times its going to rain over the whole area. Confusing, if you ask me. Regardless, either way there is a 30% chance if you are in that area of seeing rain. What bugs me is when I see statements to the effect of “Well, the forecast called for 30% chance of rain, but it poured all night, so the forecast was wrong” THAT is wrong. First off, that person is not looking at a map of rain gauges, or a radar image of accumulated precipitation, so he/she has no clue what percentage of the area got rainfall. Rainfall in rugged terrain is extremely variable, it can be pouring in one location but totally dry a mile away. Of course, the complainer never recalls the 7 out of 10 times that it was dry when the forecast was for 30%–he/she only recalls the time it poured. If, like me, you were forced to actually look at the hard data for verification, you would see that the forecast, over time, is statistically quite good, better than you might expect. In short, it’s not something to ignore.

Another interesting tidbit from Stan: As an experienced climber (not much of late due to a bad back) I am fully aware of how radically different weather conditions can be in the alpine zone. Weather forecasting is largely a matter of applying personal experience to scientific data, so someone with the personal experience of relying on forecasts for ventures above 12000 feet is going to have a better understanding of the rules that apply there. Since we (NWS) are a team of forecasters (10+ per office) and offices (4 in Colorado, numerous surrounding) the forecast is a collaborative effort and sometimes it goes the way of the “lowest common denominator”. In other words, if from ones personal experience one knows that the chance of it raining in the mountains is 80+ percent, unfortunately if the other forecasters don’t have that experience and think it will be lower, to maintain a consistent product sometimes the compromise results in a ‘watered’ down forecast (pun intended). That is probably why some of you in the thread i referenced note that POP (Probability Of Precipitation) forecasts are sometimes underdone for the summer monsoon season–the same is true during orographic (terrain-driven) snow events in the mountains. I can’t tell you how many times Ive been up at 10K+ feet in the Winter, and it’s dumping like mad, chains required, when the official (sometimes mine!) forecast calls for 20 percent chance of snow or some similar smallish number.

This quote confirmed some of my other observations as a keen weather observer (at least in the winter, when my mind constantly thinks SNOW!). It can be quite informative to look at two nearby forecasts, each forecast coming from a different office (i.e. Grand Junction, Pueblo, Boulder, as Colorado examples) Even if they are just a mile apart and similar in elevation and aspect, the forecast are often quite dissimilar. Sounds to me that different forecasts can easily be chalked up to differences of opinion in the forecast offices.

Hopefully that clears a few things up for people, as there is certainly a bit of confusion on the subject. Weather forecasts for the Crested Butte area can always be found on the right sidebar here on 14erskiers. The weather for the next week looks good, by the way, so get out there!

Starvation Creek. Starvation Creek is clearly marked at the top of Marshall Pass, and the singletrack starts a mile or two after some road climbing from there. This trail has gotten a lot of work lately, which is probably why it has been gaining in popularity lately. For the most part the trail is super buff, flowy, and fun. Thanks to everyone involved with this trail. On to some photos… Brittany on the crest:

Sydney and Brittany near the start of Starvation Creek:

Rob:

Brittany:

Sydney:

Rob:

Frank:

From the bottom of the trail, one can ride up a road to catch the Rainbow trail. We didn’t have time and the monsoons were moving in again, so we weren’t able to finish with the Rainbow trail. The time and distance is probably about the same as doing the standard Monarch Crest, but my bike computer had a dead battery so that’s just a guess.