Biking

So, since we’re on a mission to ride lots of obscure miles, we found ourselves down by Needle Creek reservoir, east of Gunnison in the Cochetopa Hills. It’s an area that I haven’t been to all that often, or all that recently. In fact, I couldn’t even remember how I accessed the Flying Dutchman downhill the last time I was there 15+ years ago. The area is steep, rugged, poorly marked, and mostly the home of ATV’s and dirt bikes.

June is always an amazing month in Crested Butte because we always see such fast change. At the beginning of the month, many of the trails are often snow-covered and not rideable. But, every day, the snow melts a lot more then you think it will. And every day you spot more and more wildflowers that weren’t there the day before. The rate of change is remarkable. And, aside from the astounding beauty, the sheer change is part of what makes the month of June so amazing.

The rules are pretty simple: Only singletrack counts. So, roads – even dirt roads – don’t count toward the 700 miles. Chairlifts cannot be used to access trails which count toward this mileage. And similarly, shuttles will be minimized, keeping shuttlable miles to 15% or less of my total singletrack tally. Last, all of the miles must acquired during calendar summer which is June 21st through September 22nd.