Went up Saturday evening for the first ride of the year. 20 miles later I was a hobbling, pain-ridden disaster. We rode up Waterton Canyon and hit up the singletrack (Colorado Trail beginning), then rode over to the Indian Creek Trail. We knew we wouldn't have time to do the whole IC loop, but we hoped to do the Stevens Gulch cutoff.
We left around 5:30-ish and did the fire road up to the dam. Well, the subsequent climb up the ridge on IC trail just about killed me...
and then we got down to the IC/Stevens Gulch saddle and hit up what should have been a beautiful swoopy DH. Except for the mile + of dense dead fall we ran into. 
We climbed up, over, under and around probably 30 downed trees. Many were full size pine/firs that had literally uprooted from the ground. I knew the last snow the foothills got was pretty heavy, but it must've been accompanied by some horrendous winds.
Once we got past all the dead fall we joined back up with the "short" loop and ran into some pretty significant stream crossings. And this area usually doesn't even have stream crossings. Looks like there's a lot of water in them there hills.
Needless to say we got back later than anticipated, but still before 8pm. We beat dark by a bit....
So don't ride Stevens Gulch. At least right now.
