Bike TR: Reno-XX-Bear-Deadman’s 8.15.09

A couple of weeks ago Pete mentioned a trail he went up which was simply marked with a “double diamond” on his newer latitude 40 map. It sounded like it was a lot of hike-a-bike on the way up (they continued over to American Flag/Mysterious Lake), but he also mentioned it might make a nice alternative to the standard Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman’s loop. Since I love new trails and Flag has always been my least favorite downhill on the standard loop, I put this one near the top of my list of things to check out. I was joined on Saturday by Rob, Zach, and Tom.

After reaching the top of the Flag singletrack, we continued on old Italian creek towards the new trail. We ended up on some rough but fun jeep road on the south side of Italian mountain, near treeline. Zach:

The posse:

We dropped in on the trail which had clearly bee created and destroyed at the same time by the dirtbike crowd. At times we had to choose between several trails as the dirtbikes would ruin one area and then move on to the next. The riding was fun, but also showcase the very worst of what dirtbikes are all about. Zach, with Italian mountain behind:

The trail eventually became doubletrack again (with lots of kickers), and dumped us out near Spring Creek reservoir. From there it we got on 744 and then rejoined the standard second uphill of the standard R/F/B/D route. The light was spectacular on the Deadman’s climb, which made Tom start to twitch, since he didn’t have a camera. He took the rest of the shots…

All in all, it was a pretty sweet ride. It added about an hour and over 8 miles to the standard route, but also gained a superior descent versus Flag Creek. I probably won’t do it every time, but it’s definitely a loop that is now on my list of options. Two thumbs up from me…

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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