Wow, what a fantastic experience! This weekend the family headed up to Crested Butte to hang out with some friends and mountain bike (ok, the mountain biking was just for Craig, Lanny, and me). I had never been to Crested Butte before but I’m so glad that I went.
Judging by the size of the town it was clear that skiing, hiking, biking, and photography are the only things that the keep the town alive. I get the distinct impression that this part of Colorado is somewhat of a little known secret. The town is very small and quiet yet it still boasts some of the most beautiful scenery this state has to offer. It’s essentially the same area/range as Aspen, but on the other side. So, it benefits in the beauty category but it’s not as crowded or developed. The ski mountain is small and there’s only one way in to Crested Butte, so all things considered I think it keeps a lot of the population elsewhere.
On to the mountain biking. If there’s one trail to ride in this state it’s 401! The views and wildflowers were mind blowing! Everyone we ran into agreed this weekend’s trail was the best trail they’ve ever been on…if not, in their top 3. We rode up the hill with a local from the area who had been on the trail countless times and he said all things considered (trail condition, flowers, greenness) it was the best he’d seen in a long time. You can ride up to the top all the way from the town or you can essentially drive to the very top of Schofield Pass and get dropped off for a fun ride down. We started our ride at the parking lot at about 9,700 feet and climbed all the way to the top at about 11,400 feet. At the top the trail heads down the mountainside and into the most beautiful valley you’ll find anywhere. From the top of the mountain it’s 4 miles of continuous descent. We rode all the way to the bottom of the trail and then rode all the way back to the house on Saturday. In total we covered 22 miles on mountain bikes in about 4 hours, which is a pretty good trip. Lanny has a GPS odometer, heart rate monitor, etc that he can upload to Google Maps. Although it cut off the beginning of our trip, it’s really fun to view the elevation, speed, distance, and his heart rate.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. The other highlights of our trip was the Tercel averaging 41.67 mpg and our Salida gas station adventure. Long story short, the gas station was packed with cars waiting in line to get gas. As we were waiting a Jeep that was parked started to roll backwards into the line of cars. I saw it out of my periphery at first and initially wondered why he was backing out. I did a double take when I realized the “person” in the driver’s seat was really a black lab. I had to jump out of our car, run over to the rolling Jeep and jump into it and slam on the brakes. Luckily, the owner had left the door unlocked. She also had left the keys in the car so I was able to pull it back into the parking spot. I got a round of congratulations and thanks from some of the other waiting drivers and I also made sure the woman driving knew what had happened when she returned to her vehicle.
Not a bad weekend! Seriously, you need to check out all of these gorgeous photographs.
Music by Sigur Ros (Untitled 4)