My buddy Mark from Kauai joined up in Crested Butte. The east coast fellas left after Rainbow trail ride but I stuck around for another day to hang with my buddy and go chill in Salida. Salida is a neat oldwest town. They close off about 4 blocks of old historic downtown to pedestrians and it is a cool party vibe. Anyway, Mark and I walk into Benson's at 11am when they open. Bartender Nick says "First customers of the day get to do a free shot with the bartender, what'ya want?" then he goes, "it was a rough night, have a drink with me!" Repsado it is! Awesome place. Where the locals hang out and recover from the night before. We had a nice chill Saturday just day drinkin', tellin' stories and laughing. Good fun.
Even the local pup gets a seat at the end of the bar and a plate of chicken!
Our new friend ShawnaLee. She is an artist. I got a lithograph of a pencil drawing she had done of Aspens, pretty cool. It was only 5 bucks-there are alot of vendors and artist and arts and crafts booths all over downtown on the weekends
The last 2 nights, Mark and I stayed at Lake O'Haver camp grounds. He keeps a nice Ford Diesel truck and a toy hauler/camper with a Tiger 1050 and a KTM500 in the mainland. Lake O'Haver is an AWESOME place. Nice sites, picnic table and grill at each site. Plenty of clean potties. Right next to the lake and the views are killer. 22 bucks a night. We did some fishing and caught a couple small rainbow trout. The lake is stocked and it is a good time of the year for fishing. You can ride from this park to Rainbow trail head in 10 min! It's right up the county road.
Caught the sun at just the right angle for the reflection to be perfect-up on top of those mountains in the background is the Continental Divide Trail. I have ridden a bit of it in earlier trips. About a 1/2 mile from this campground is the Marshall Pass road that takes you up and over to the top and then you drop into Sargents. Mark said this road was part of the TAT when he rode it back in 2017
Day 4! Crested Butte. My buddy from Kauai met us at this point. This was supposed to be a kinda easy day to rest up for Rainbow the following day but, that's not how it ended up! Last time I rode CB was 2018. Double Top, which is a main trail that runs south to north along the mountain ridge that parallels Cement Creek road down in the valley, was busted up at the "Cliffs", so it was a bit harder to traverse than in the past. This is one of those places where small mistakes can have big consequences. I started feeling the trip at this point. The other big issue, you start at 8500 feet and go up as high as 12600 feet (lunch break at American Flag) and stay pretty much around the 10000 foot mark until you drop down Deadman trail back to Cement Creek road and camp. So you feel it in your lung capacity and you tire easily when riding in these altitudes.
This is Double Top "Cliffs" you can see if you eff up, well, no bueno! It is a steep drop downhill, again, the camera does not do justice to how busted up this trail is. I didn't video the last part when you have to drop down a 2 foot staggered ledge to get back on the trail at the end of the cliffs
On Double Top, you ride open meadows and then single track through deep forrest. Alot of variation on this trail.
Sometimes you just gotta stop and take in the view!
More killer views. It's like being in the sound of music and my 2stroke engine is the song!
So after we got off Double Top, we were all kinda feeling it in the arms. 4 days of killer riding was starting to show! We elected to take Italian Connector road to American Flag for Lunch thinking it would be easier. WRONG ANSWER! The DAMN road was a really rocky Jeep road and it worked your arms. This is the road the SxS or jeeps use to get up to the American Flag
More of that rocky ass Italian Connector Road. My arms were mush at lunch on Am Flag.
This is my first and only get off for the whole trip. As I was passing Phoo, I hit a rock, front slid a bit and when I went to drop my left foot to recoup, I hit the shifter and dropped it into 1st, causing the rear to just spin out! Landed on my fat ass and video'd those behind me coming up!
Coming down American Flag after lunch. You don't really see how steep this downhill is with video's. Fun stuff and killer views-
Coming off American Flag, we definitely took Italian Connector Trail down since we road the harder Italian Connector road up!
And finally! We make it to DeadMan's to drop back down the mountain to camp. Long day and spent arms. DeadMan is a long trail all downhill and switchbacks. I videoed the whole downhill, so kinda long but look at how the landscape changes as you come down in altitude.Long day but it is always awesome riding in Crested Butte. There is so much to ride there. You can spend a week just riding in that area from a single basecamp
Day 5. Last riding day of the trip. We got to camp late the night before, so it was a slow morning to get started and motivation was mixed! It has been dry and dusty all week, so dirt boogers were the norm in the mornings! Only rode about half the loop, everyone was spent and the main crew were leaving that afternoon to head east. I stayed one more day and hung out with my buddy from Kauai at Lake O'Haver Campground. Great trip, probably my favorite bike trips to date, and I have been on a lot of good ones! Love riding out west. Good trails, awesome camping and the "social distancing" was right on time. Starting in Moab and working east was a great plan and offered us so much variation and a little bit of everything you could want in an offroad trip. Didn't watch TV, listen to news or shit for 10 days-I miss it already! Looking forward to the next adventure with the crew
Rainbow is a nice, long and varied trail. It can be smooth and silky through the trees, then turn a corner and DAMN! Long, loose and rocky uphills for 100's of DAMN DUSTY yards. I mean it has been pretty DAMN dry this year out west. Very nice stuff and different than Crested Butte for sure. You are on the eastern side of the Continental DIVIDE when you ride Rainbow. Just outside of Poncha Springs/Salida Colorado. We rode it from the Siver Creek trailhead (west side of US285) and crossed over US285 as we rode to the east side of the loop. It is a long trail, almost 40 miles of I remember correctly
Last edited by Firebolter on Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
That's it! Some video's from each day to show you DAMN dirtbikers what you need to add to your Bucket list! No broken bones, just some sore asses (from riding perv's!) dirty bikes and tired/sore elbows and knees! 5 days on the bike riding 40-60 miles a day of really good ST will work ya! Especially my old ass!
I have been out there 9 times now and will always look forward to going back. If you are not into the single track or riding cliffs and such, there is just as much good ADV roads and other good stuff as well, so these trips can suite any rider level or desires. Get out and ride dammit! Life is short fellas-
Firebolter wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 11:48 am
That's it! Some video's from each day to show you DAMN dirtbikers what you need to add to your Bucket list! No broken bones, just some sore asses (from riding perv's!) dirty bikes and tired/sore elbows and knees! 5 days on the bike riding 40-60 miles a day of really good ST will work ya! Especially my old ass!
I have been out there 9 times now and will always look forward to going back. If you are not into the single track or riding cliffs and such, there is just as much good ADV roads and other good stuff as well, so these trips can suite any rider level or desires. Get out and ride dammit! Life is short fellas-
