I'm sure he'll respond after he gets home from work today. Landon, how long are you guys staying in the area? I'm going to be at RMAR over in Silverton the first few days of August and move over to the Lake City/Creede area on the 6th to hit that area for a few days.

 

We are leaving on Friday the 27th around 6PM and driving straight thru to Lake City and should arrive there on the 28th early evening. We will be there till Aug. 4th and heading back home that morning. Sounds like we will just miss each other

 

You guys have fun over there. There's more than enough riding to keep you busy.

 

Ramz posted up some picks of the east side by Snow Mesa, doesn't look promising. I'm not sure how anyone could call that a trail.

 

I saw those, except he says its the west end by spring creek. I cannot even make out a trail in the pictures he posted.

 

That is because from there to the top of the mesa there is no real trail, just fricken rocks. The pictures he showed are at the West End of the trail near Spring Creek. But grub mentioned the east part as you are coming down off of the plateau on to miners creek is difficult as well.

Are you still planning on riding that trail (ha ha)? If so take photos it will be epic. Seriously there is so much other riding in the area I wouldn't bother with that trail unless you are feeling particularly masochistic.

Dan

 

I don't know what we will ride. I am taking my list and maps and will discuss it with others when we arrive. One of the guys is 73 and I doubt he will want any part of any ST. Some of us younger guys may go try it, I don't know...I have not ruled it out. I do enjoy a challenge, if it was all easy nobody would want to ride it.

With that said I am not affraid to turn around and go back if I feel I am in over my head. There is nothing to prove when your in the middle of nowhere with very little resources for help.

 

That's the way I'm going to approach a couple of those trails in that area. If it's too nasty, I'll head back out and ride something else. I would at least like to look at some of it. BTW, I asked grub if he could post up that ADV ride report that he showed me some time ago. If he does, it's a great report and great pics.

I'll tell you something about a lot of Colorado singletrack. Even though I've gone to this state many, many times for off roading, neither you nor I are used to this kind of singletrack they have there. I raced enduros for many years in Texas, and the roughest sections on many of them were similar to a lot of what's in many of these CO singletrack trails. On many of the CO trails, however, it was one of these "test" sections one right after another. Their terrain is so steep with so much rain, snow, and resulting erosion that a lot of it is like a death march to get through. I'm more of a southeastern Utah sort of guy in my preference. I have often found CO singletrack to have too much moisture, too much steepness, too many serious commitment moments. I found a lot of it to be really skinny with stumps and such all over the place that interfered with the kind of "flow" that I like. And please don't take me wrong. It's not all like that, and I'm really not that big a wuss...but...a good deal of true singletrack that is popular with a lot of those folks is almost death march level. Some of these guys like being beaten with hot coat hangers. My hat's to some of the guys I know and their ability to traverse some of these trails. Bottom line for me also was that even though I could make it through some of those crux points, it wasn't as much fun as it was just survival.

Again, don't get me wrong. If I wanted nothing but silk lined trails and feather pillows, I'd just get a road bike...aaack! But after decades of being hammered by enduro racing and such, I'm not looking for unrelenting hammerfests anymore. Now, all that said, even much of the 2-track in CO and UT is nothing to sneeze at in terms of difficulty. I know quite a few greenhorns go to CO and UT expecting nothing harder than fireroad riding because of seeing "jeep road" on the maps they're looking at. And while some of it is just that, there are plenty of nasty 2-tracks that will curl your hair.

 

Ah, I'll be doing the RMAR & planning on staying in the area for another 12 days till the Tour of CO. Maybe we can do a few trails, I getting some maps and taking a look around. If I am by myself, I'll be passing on the hero ST's. I am thinking of taking my mountain bike if anyone is into that.

 

Hey, I'll see you there, and maybe we can do some rides. Usually when I go there, I ride by myself or meet up with a small group. This RMAR is going to be huge, and I'm not sure how the riding will shake out. When the number in a group ride gets too big, it can sometimes take the fun out.

I'm a big time MTB'er here at home and at Moab, but when I do these trips, it's straight up dirt bike riding for me. Where are you residing for this gig? I have a campsite at the event site at Red Mountain. Will you be on the KLX? Look for this setup...and here's a shamless MTB promotion pic.