OTHER Trip Report 08/06/2014

Peak(s):	Colorado Trail - 89354
Date Posted:	08/06/2014
Modified:	08/11/2014
Date Climbed:	07/12/2014
Author:	summitbound

Mountain Biking the Colorado Trail
After completing the 14ers a couple years ago everyone kept asking me what's next? Good Question?! The obvious choice was to move onto the centennials. I didn't want to do that just yet as I am re climbing the 14ers with my son. We could have tackled a big chunk of them with the 3 weeks we had planned, but we live close enough that we can do 14ers as weekend hikes. I wanted something else, something, special, something cool. My son mowed lawns for 2 summers saving up enough money to buy himself a mountain bike and has become an avid rider. I love to hike, he loves to ride. How to combine the two? Long story short, lets mountain bike the Colorado Trail. The "original" plan was to mountain bike the bulk of the trail and hike the wilderness sections. As with any good plan it got tossed out the window about day 3 as we discovered our daily mileage totals were nowhere near where they needed to be in order to complete it with the time we had available. We shifted to just mountain biking the legal sections of the trail and taking the bike bypasses around the wilderness sections. Some day we will go back and hike the sections we rode around. My parents came along as our support team. They met us at various spots along the trail for food shelter, etc, hence the limited gear you see on us in the photos. It was nice to not have to carry a lot of the extra stuff, but in some areas (San Juans) it made for some big extra mileage to ride down to where they were able to get to, then turn around and ride right back up the next day to start back on the trail. A proud father comment. My son was amazing on this trip. There was plenty of complaining and whining going on, but it was all coming from me. He gutted out big day after big day without complaint. No other 15 year old I know has the physical and mental stamina to do what he did. This sucker is 500 miles long and nearly 90,000 ft of gain.. I originally planned on keeping a pretty detailed log of how this trip progressed, daily mileage, elevation gain, photos of every step of the way, well that didn't work out. Some days we kept track of stuff, other days we had electronics issues or gear failure, and some days we just didn't feel like it. So, this is not going to be a daily play by play of what we did over the course of our 22 days on the trail, instead it's a random selection of photos that I liked and wanted to share. It was hard to pick just 40 out of the 1600 plus that we took. Besides we all "read" trip reports by scrolling down and looking at all the pictures anyway right?! This looks like our "completion" photo but it's actually where we started. We did the trail Durango-Denver. From our practice rides I knew that there was not a cool place like this at Waterton Canyon to get this shot, so we faked it. As noted, none of these pictures are in any sort of order. Hayman burn area. Ok, So like I poser shots on high places. Guilty as charged, but I still think they look cool. My son "bike-a-neering" down one of the many cornices along the trail. Sometime the trail hurts, and hurts a lot. I crashed (a lot). I never claimed to be world class biker and my son tackled some stuff I probably had no business attempting, you want to play sometimes you have to pay. This snowbank is literally 20 feet high and you can see the trail disappears right into it. One of thousands, (ok dozens) of stream crossings. The up side is that water for filtering was plentiful. The trail affords million dollar views all over the place Dunno where, but I think it's a cool shot Stony Pass and one tall snow bank. We guessed about 60% of the trail was actually rideable (for us) This is one of those sections downhill and nice single track. The other 40% was either too rough, too steep, or we were too @#$! tired to bike it. I have tons of pictures of the CT markers, this one is particularly cool. Handle bar views.. Flowers were out in full force the entire way, one of the many high ridge lines Hero shot on the rocks The heavy snowfall this past winter was evident all over the trail. Lots of downfall and uprooted trees like this one. I will say the CT volunteer crews has already been out clearing a ton of this stuff out. Big Thanks to them!! Reminds me of many of my 14er shots, only with a bike.. My son getting after some of the rougher sections of the bikeable portions. I am pretty sure I walked it.. Swapped my trail king tires for some "ski tires" and I'm off... no.. not really. Many sections were still completely blocked with snow. Bush wacking with Bikes....joy :/ Yet another cornice to navigate. We ran into a few people along the way who were nice enough to get a shot of us together. This is some of the beetle kills clean up near Breckenridge, not much else to say about this shot. It speaks for itself. "Why did I bring this stupid bike again?" Sunrise in the San Juans, yes its real- I have no Photoshop skills My son was an animal on the trail and always way out in front. The many, many aspen groves were spectacular to ride through Brutal, just brutal The high ridge lines had fantastic views One of the few sections of ridge line that we could actually ride. Huge Ponderosa Pine. Maybe it was national huge a tree day? A nod to what this site is really for. We spotted the CFI truck along the trail, near Elbert. I recall voting so many times from so many different computers. Nice to see its getting put to good use. Why we all do what we do... Somewhere along the miles upon miles of forested trail Single Track on the Single Track Pretty much sums up the mindset after about day 2 or 3...lol Kokmo pass "What you look'n at?" Oh look more snow Water! everywhere is water!! One of my favorite shots. Proud of this kid. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mountain Biking the Colorado Trail

After completing the 14ers a couple years ago everyone kept asking me what's next? Good Question?! The obvious choice was to move onto the centennials. I didn't want to do that just yet as I am re climbing the 14ers with my son. We could have tackled a big chunk of them with the 3 weeks we had planned, but we live close enough that we can do 14ers as weekend hikes. I wanted something else, something, special, something cool.

My son mowed lawns for 2 summers saving up enough money to buy himself a mountain bike and has become an avid rider. I love to hike, he loves to ride. How to combine the two? Long story short, lets mountain bike the Colorado Trail. The "original" plan was to mountain bike the bulk of the trail and hike the wilderness sections. As with any good plan it got tossed out the window about day 3 as we discovered our daily mileage totals were nowhere near where they needed to be in order to complete it with the time we had available. We shifted to just mountain biking the legal sections of the trail and taking the bike bypasses around the wilderness sections. Some day we will go back and hike the sections we rode around.

My parents came along as our support team. They met us at various spots along the trail for food shelter, etc, hence the limited gear you see on us in the photos. It was nice to not have to carry a lot of the extra stuff, but in some areas (San Juans) it made for some big extra mileage to ride down to where they were able to get to, then turn around and ride right back up the next day to start back on the trail.

A proud father comment. My son was amazing on this trip. There was plenty of complaining and whining going on, but it was all coming from me. He gutted out big day after big day without complaint. No other 15 year old I know has the physical and mental stamina to do what he did. This sucker is 500 miles long and nearly 90,000 ft of gain..

I originally planned on keeping a pretty detailed log of how this trip progressed, daily mileage, elevation gain, photos of every step of the way, well that didn't work out. Some days we kept track of stuff, other days we had electronics issues or gear failure, and some days we just didn't feel like it. So, this is not going to be a daily play by play of what we did over the course of our 22 days on the trail, instead it's a random selection of photos that I liked and wanted to share. It was hard to pick just 40 out of the 1600 plus that we took. Besides we all "read" trip reports by scrolling down and looking at all the pictures anyway right?!

This looks like our "completion" photo but it's actually where we started. We did the trail Durango-Denver. From our practice rides I knew that there was not a cool place like this at Waterton Canyon to get this shot, so we faked it.

As noted, none of these pictures are in any sort of order. Hayman burn area.

Ok, So like I poser shots on high places. Guilty as charged, but I still think they look cool.

My son "bike-a-neering" down one of the many cornices along the trail.

Sometime the trail hurts, and hurts a lot. I crashed (a lot). I never claimed to be world class biker and my son tackled some stuff I probably had no business attempting, you want to play sometimes you have to pay.

This snowbank is literally 20 feet high and you can see the trail disappears right into it.

One of thousands, (ok dozens) of stream crossings. The up side is that water for filtering was plentiful.

The trail affords million dollar views all over the place

Dunno where, but I think it's a cool shot

Stony Pass and one tall snow bank.

We guessed about 60% of the trail was actually rideable (for us) This is one of those sections downhill and nice single track.

The other 40% was either too rough, too steep, or we were too @#$! tired to bike it.

I have tons of pictures of the CT markers, this one is particularly cool.

Handle bar views..

Flowers were out in full force the entire way, one of the many high ridge lines

Hero shot on the rocks

The heavy snowfall this past winter was evident all over the trail. Lots of downfall and uprooted trees like this one. I will say the CT volunteer crews has already been out clearing a ton of this stuff out. Big Thanks to them!!

Reminds me of many of my 14er shots, only with a bike..

My son getting after some of the rougher sections of the bikeable portions. I am pretty sure I walked it..

Swapped my trail king tires for some "ski tires" and I'm off... no.. not really. Many sections were still completely blocked with snow. Bush wacking with Bikes....joy :/

Yet another cornice to navigate. We ran into a few people along the way who were nice enough to get a shot of us together.

This is some of the beetle kills clean up near Breckenridge, not much else to say about this shot. It speaks for itself.

"Why did I bring this stupid bike again?"

Sunrise in the San Juans, yes its real- I have no Photoshop skills

My son was an animal on the trail and always way out in front.

The many, many aspen groves were spectacular to ride through

Brutal, just brutal

The high ridge lines had fantastic views

One of the few sections of ridge line that we could actually ride.

Huge Ponderosa Pine. Maybe it was national huge a tree day?

A nod to what this site is really for. We spotted the CFI truck along the trail, near Elbert. I recall voting so many times from so many different computers. Nice to see its getting put to good use.

Why we all do what we do...

Somewhere along the miles upon miles of forested trail

Single Track on the Single Track

Pretty much sums up the mindset after about day 2 or 3...lol

Kokmo pass

"What you look'n at?"

Oh look more snow

Water! everywhere is water!!

One of my favorite shots. Proud of this kid.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

dsr1986	This is awesome 8/6/2014 8:25pm Great photos and account of the trip. Love #24.
RobertKay	Inspiring 8/6/2014 9:33pm Thanks for the great report. What a cool achievement, especially with your son. Congrats.
Tempelton	Great report 8/6/2014 11:23pm Thanks for posting. Your trip is inspiring me to get a mountain bike!
rijaca	Very Cool 8/7/2014 1:46am
kushrocks	This report is 8/7/2014 1:26pm freaking awesome!!! Well done by you and your son.
boudreaux	You guys rock! 8/7/2014 1:33pm Now that's what you call father/son bonding! Outstanding!
rkalsbeek	Very cool! 8/7/2014 8:30pm Thanks for sharing this. Looks like a great trip! Added to my list of to do's
summitbound	Thanks everyone! 8/8/2014 1:59pm For the positive comments! Was not sure how well received a mountain biking TR would be, you all are great!
mtgirl	Very nice !! 8/8/2014 6:41pm On my bucket list, even more so since seeing your pics. Is your son involved with a high school mountain bike team? The CO High School mountain Bike Assoc. puts on some great races and events.
bethtrombone	Awesome. 8/10/2014 1:51am Thanks so much for posting this. It's great to see a teenager so into something that isn't electronic I would love to do this one day... when I get some more MTB skills.
nyker	Awesome! 8/14/2014 1:23am Looks like you had a great time! Thanks for posting pics. So, when are you doing the Appalachian Trail back east?? ;-)

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