Bridges of the Butte

Jake, Trent, and John put in some long nights making Bridges of the Butte trophies out of 100% bike parts. They came out great. The Bridges ride is a benefit for Crested Butte's Adaptive Sports Center. 24 hours on a townie, solo or team. It's nuts.

A Good Ride

A few years back I came to CB to ride for the first time. I pulled in the Visitor Center parking and a couple guys came over to talk and ask where I was riding. They spread a map out on the hood of my car and showed me great places to ride and gave some good advice. This is a very different experience than most mountain towns where locals are fiercely protective of their natural resources, not wanting their trails populated by wankers from the front range. Not so in CB. Information flows freely....except that I think there is some funny business going on with a certain trail. In ride descriptions it's tagged as "too much uphill for the amount of downhill", "filled with black flies", "a muddy slog", "off camber, braided game trails", "littered with cow patties", etc. Locals have told me that it sucks and is not worth doing. Why would I go do it anyway? Skepticism. It was one of the coolest rides and longest downhills I've ever done. Total single track joy. A classic. How do you find it? Look for the swarms of black flies, rotting cow carcasses, neck deep stream crossings, hour long hike-a-bikes, and impassable cliff bands. Don't bother. Go ride Breckenridge.

Gunnison River Gorge

Howdy. I was feeling a little cooped up and soggy last week in the rain so I hopped on the opportunity to go over the hills to the North Fork Valley for some +70 temps and sunshine. We ended up in the Gunnison River Gorge. It's down-river from P-towne and up-river from where previous rafting photos were taken. This is the tail end of the Black Canyon before it meets the North Fork. It did my heart good to see some adobe hills and sage brush. Jake was trying to hit the stonefly hatch. They hatch and hang out for a couple of days and then start getting busy (if you know what I mean) and then they land on the water to lay eggs a few days later. If you get the hatch or the egg laying, the trout are like sharks in a feeding frenzy. I've heard that trout will eat stoneflies until their gills are packed with them. We got there right between the hatch and the egg laying and missed the bulk of the drama but it was still a nice day to get outside, stretch the legs, take a nap under a pinon tree, and watch the desert unfold itself.

Fun With the Smileys

Found some pics of my little buddy Rigal taken from this past Spring. We had good times eating Cheerios, painting the deck, driving the lawnmower, and sitting under the apple tree.

Daisy Pass

Had a nice Sunday afternoon stroll up Daisy Pass. The wildflowers are starting to show.

Trail Building

I had a nice day helping put in new trail at Crested Butte. CBMR staff, USFS staff, CBMBA, and over 80 volunteers showed up to build about 3 miles of new trail to re-route some badly rutted existing trails. The recent rain and snow made the trail easy to work. Hopefully the new section will be ready to ride for Wildflower Rush and Fat Tire 40. The new trail works up from the West Wall through open meadows, a huge aspen stand, then climbs through a loamy forest with big pines. It's going to be a beautiful middle chain ring climb and a fun, twisty descent.

Snow in June

For Real. Snow on June 7. The real deal.