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So you want a Down Hill?

Ascentrek

Ascentrek

Monkey
Jul 17, 2003
653
0
Golden, CO
The wife and I headed up to Steamboat two weekends ago. I was un impressed with steamboat riding (I need to find some more local knowledge)... most if it lame boring super widened singletrack (no wonder Moots hasn't figured out the freeride / DH scene). However, I did stumble upon Fish Creek Falls Trail.

For those of you who need lifts, don't read on. For those of you who pedal to downhill trails, this is for you.

Fish Creek Falls has 3 miles of super-knar rock gardens. It makes Keystone's DH course look like a baby-green (I laugh at the 20 yard Rock garden they have now). I'll post a trip report, but if you want to test out yer rock garden skills, this is the trail for you.

We accessed the trail 5.5 miles from the Fish creek trail head, from another trail called Mtn View. It looks as if you can access this thing further up from Buffalo pass, but I don't know what that level of riding is.
 
DHCorky

DHCorky

Monkey
Aug 5, 2003
514
0
Headed to the lift...
There are a lot of great DH trails in CO. It is just a matter of how hard do you want to work to get to them.

I am finding the harder you have work to get to a trail the harder the trail is to ride(making it more fun).
 
Pau11y

Pau11y

Turbo Monkey
Oct 20, 2004
1,968
0
In a web in the corner of your room
Buff pass is how we shuttle the ride. You can drive to Long Lake and jump right on the trail in the summers. But when I like to hit it, it's waaaayy early season and you typically have to ride in. The worse I've done is 12 miles w/ a 54# DH rig; hike-a-bike a lot bit. Of that 12, 6 was climbing Buff Pass. I was pretty wrecked by the time I got to the trail head.
The super ballz DH portion was only about 3 miles worth, but VERY "worth it". In the middle of the super gnar, you can cross the switchbacks on rocks. Just watch those drops as there's generally no trannys. Getting up to that portion is some pretty tame high country meadow pedaling, altho it slowly ramps up in difficulty. Once you get thru the super gnar, there's a really fun, not too techy (altho there are spots...) high speed down the hiking path (it's not hiker only on this trail; be nice and play fair and ppl won't mind you at all). You finish the ride w/ a 200 ft climb out of the canyon of Fish Creek.

I've taken SylentK from here on that ride and he loved it. The type of bike you'd want would be something like Ascentrek's Nomad or a Karpiel (my old bike). On my Tomac 204 I had a lot of pedal strikes. Also, the Tomac is really wide in the bb and tail which is not good to thread thru rocks w/. The Nomad w/ the 135mm rear and tall bb with a big fork is prob a dream in that stuff.

You can fo' sure do at least 2 shuttles in a day if you have the fitness.

Hey Taylor, the other shuttle-able super sweet DH is in Salida, off the Crest trail. There are actually 3 drainages you can go down. Most do Rainbow (done it). But there's also Starvation Creek (done it and LOVED it) and another called Agget (sp?) Creek (next on the list to do). I think Rainbow isthe longest, but the tamest. I'm heading over there the weekend of the 19th in Aug., the break between my summer session and fall. It's a 8 mile tight singletrack down that can potentially dump you 100 ft from your camp site! :D

How you want to do this is ride your bike down to the gas station. Take the shuttle up to Monarch Ski Area ($25.00?) and you start the Crest trail there. Once you get to Marshall Pass, you pick between the three downs. I think all three requirea 2+ mile climb before you start going down (note: you start this climb at approx 11K ft, heading up to above tree line). The next day, you can just drive up Marshall Pass and do the small climb and the big down (you have to do the Crest Trail on your first day tho...too sweet!).
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
66,139
13,033
In a van.... down by the river
scrublover

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,993
6,480
just did this last saturday.... rode north from rabbit ears pass allthe way to buff pass rd. then backtracked south to take fish creek back down to town. the previous two times i'd ridden it, i was on the beefy hardtail; this time i took the 6x6 instead.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=213950

i totally lucked out with how empty the trail was, considering it was about 3 in the afternoon when i got to the main falls.
 
scrublover

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,993
6,480
Ascentrek said:
burly.
Click to expand...

yep. it was a long day. some locals i met on the trail actually convinced me out of a longer loop i'd planned. it would have given me a bit more singletrack, but with a whole lot more road that they said was just not worth the trail i'd be able to hit.

i'm actually glad; having the shock collar bust forther out would have super sucked.

hit a sourdough/SSV loop today that was quite nice, though not quite in the same league.
 
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