So my buddy asked if I was up for a ride and suggested heading up to Mt. Falcon to do an extended Falcon-LotB loop. He hadn't done it yet this year, but I had. So after feeling out the hall pass situation, I suggested we might head up and do something bigger in the High Country.
He was quick to agree and we got a crew together to hit up the Colorado Trail between Georgia Pass and Gold Hill. We met at 07:00 on Aug. 20th and headed to Frisco for breakfast. Everybody threw some greasy chow down the hatch (I had a big burrito smothered in spicy green chili
) and we headed to the Gold Hill parking lot to get started. Here's my buddy threatening to moon me for some unknown reason:
The start of the ride wanders through a subdivision and then we picked up Tiger Run road for the climb to the pass. The pre-ride hydration became apparent quite soon into the dirt road work:
My buddy taking exception to the fact that I'd taken a pic of him whizzing in the woods:
And here's the Token Bloke - one of our mates from Yorkshire in the good ol' UK:
The climb was fast and easy for awhile.......... then got steep and grunty. Here's the Moonie climbing the jeep road about 2/3 of the way up:
The forest was *CARPETED* with fungus. The whole ride was 'shrooms. Some were BIG:
Finally - the pass. The boys were glad to be near the end of the first climb:
And it was a pretty good climb:
We climbed a tiny bit more to connect with the Colorado Trail proper and started down the singetrack. And it didn't suck. Neither did the views. My bike in its Happy Place:
My mate in *his* happy place:
More gratuitious singletrack. You can see the boys in the distance:
The descent goes along around treeline for a bit, then drops into the woods and then descends along the spine of a ridge. It's FAST. Then it drops off the ridge into some more woods:
The trail then turns into one monstrous rock garden. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this section is down to the Middle Fork of the Swan. It's stellar. The rocks are big, plentiful, and literally go on for MILES. It's really, really good. Really good.
So good my buddy's chain decided to commit suicide at the bottom - it must've known that the rock garden festival was over:
After this unbelievable fun descent there is some fast rolling to the next fork of the river, and then a brutal climb. The pitch is just such that it's reasonably difficult and it goes on forever. It definitely put me in the crapper. We all made it to the top, though and grabbed some lunch.
The next section goes along West Ridge. Fast singletrack that's fairly flat at ~11K feet. And then it pitches over. No rock gardens on this downhill. Just steep, narrow trail cut into the mountain. We all hauled BALLS down this part, being careful not to catch a pedal on the uphill side of the trail - it was that steep.
The finish was a series of small ups & traverses along a ridgeline that ended up right above Highway 9 - the drop off the ridge again was fast and gooooooooooooooooood. We quickly dropped into Tiger Run mobile home park, wound our way through, and dropped our tired a$$es back at the cars.
Damage: 32+ miles and 5+K feet of climbing. And just as much DH goodness.
This is a trail that everone should check out before they die.
He was quick to agree and we got a crew together to hit up the Colorado Trail between Georgia Pass and Gold Hill. We met at 07:00 on Aug. 20th and headed to Frisco for breakfast. Everybody threw some greasy chow down the hatch (I had a big burrito smothered in spicy green chili
) and we headed to the Gold Hill parking lot to get started. Here's my buddy threatening to moon me for some unknown reason:
The start of the ride wanders through a subdivision and then we picked up Tiger Run road for the climb to the pass. The pre-ride hydration became apparent quite soon into the dirt road work:
My buddy taking exception to the fact that I'd taken a pic of him whizzing in the woods:
And here's the Token Bloke - one of our mates from Yorkshire in the good ol' UK:
The climb was fast and easy for awhile.......... then got steep and grunty. Here's the Moonie climbing the jeep road about 2/3 of the way up:
The forest was *CARPETED* with fungus. The whole ride was 'shrooms. Some were BIG:
Finally - the pass. The boys were glad to be near the end of the first climb:
And it was a pretty good climb:
We climbed a tiny bit more to connect with the Colorado Trail proper and started down the singetrack. And it didn't suck. Neither did the views. My bike in its Happy Place:
My mate in *his* happy place:
More gratuitious singletrack. You can see the boys in the distance:
The descent goes along around treeline for a bit, then drops into the woods and then descends along the spine of a ridge. It's FAST. Then it drops off the ridge into some more woods:
The trail then turns into one monstrous rock garden. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun this section is down to the Middle Fork of the Swan. It's stellar. The rocks are big, plentiful, and literally go on for MILES. It's really, really good. Really good.
So good my buddy's chain decided to commit suicide at the bottom - it must've known that the rock garden festival was over:
After this unbelievable fun descent there is some fast rolling to the next fork of the river, and then a brutal climb. The pitch is just such that it's reasonably difficult and it goes on forever. It definitely put me in the crapper. We all made it to the top, though and grabbed some lunch.
The next section goes along West Ridge. Fast singletrack that's fairly flat at ~11K feet. And then it pitches over. No rock gardens on this downhill. Just steep, narrow trail cut into the mountain. We all hauled BALLS down this part, being careful not to catch a pedal on the uphill side of the trail - it was that steep.
The finish was a series of small ups & traverses along a ridgeline that ended up right above Highway 9 - the drop off the ridge again was fast and gooooooooooooooooood. We quickly dropped into Tiger Run mobile home park, wound our way through, and dropped our tired a$$es back at the cars.
Damage: 32+ miles and 5+K feet of climbing. And just as much DH goodness.
This is a trail that everone should check out before they die.
