This year, another new treat was introduced to car camping...hitting the coffee shop before the ride. I think this was a real life saver for me, because its really hard for me to get up at 7:30 in the morning, what with my schedule. Prep was lazy. In fact, we laid out the plan for the rest of the week on the shop's patio while street vendors got ready for an arts fair a dozen yards away. Lower Loop today, Upper Loop to Farris Creek tomorrow, 401 Saturday, road ride recovery Sunday, Teocalli on Monday, home Tuesday. Took just about a 12 oz cup of coffee to cover.
The Lower Loop trail head is right at the edge of town, and we pedaled through re-familiarizing ourselves with the little burg. There has been some development since our visit in 2003. Not much, which is nice. Crested Butte is still difficult to get to, so maybe that has helped. Property is still extremely expensive, even modest homes in town go for hundreds of thousands. Immediately, we began hatching a plan on how we could form an LLC and get a place out here. Then we'd always have a comfortable home base, and rent it as a vacation residence when we're not there. It seems the vacation rental business is big, since there are almost as many realty companies as there are shirt shops.I'd love to live there all the time; the solitude is amazing. Of course I'd need something major to happen in order to make that work. Even now I can't help imagining setting up camp there for the maximum two weeks...maybe in a little pull behind camper. For my car, not the bike.
Finally making it to the right corner of town, we left the concrete for the first time. Just a fire road, and there were still some rustic vacation houses along the way, but it felt good. I like the sound of loose gravel under my tires. Reminds me of 3rd Divide trail in Downieville. Landmarks etched into memory 7 years ago were still there, including GRONK. I can only guess its part of an old mine. Someone spray painted “GRONK” on one side. GRONK, incidentally, would be a great name for a dog.
I remember stopping a lot the first time we were here. I remember walking a lot of it. This year...I kinda owned it. It was hard to breath, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I may not have been the fastest climber on the mountain, but I wasn't the slowest either. Then again, consider the competition. Lower Loop is the mountain bike equivalent of a Bunny Slope. Once the first good snow hits the best this area would be used for would be cross country skiing and snowshoeing. There were couples on hybrid bikes with young children on the trail, a few trail runners. Eric said he saw a professional rider out there, but his name escapes me now. Point is, it gets a lot of use from a wide array of riders.
We sat for a bit an ate after finishing the first lap in what seemed like an incredibly short time, I think it was something like 53 minutes riding time. Lunch was a mix of Shot Blox, Clif Bars, and gel shots. Even though I can't remember what we talked about in that 5 or 10 minutes, I know it was full of optimism. Buoyancy. The down hill was no sweat, a really nice warm up, but it turns out I kinda worried about the climbing for nothing. I climbed really well, as a matter of fact. I took all the rock gardens and tree roots in stride, even got a chance to do a few jumps on the way down. It went so well, we decided to ride it again.
This time it went a little quicker, to my amazement. Eric showed me a little shortcut that took out the trail's only real obstacle; a 50 ft drop to the Slate River rushing by below. Gladly took that cheat.
The climb on the fire road in made for a good bomb run heading back down. 30 mph at one point. After changing we immediately went looking for some chips and salsa and a pint. We bellied up to some pizza joint that had an outdoor bar. We never ate there, and I learned a few days later that pizza is not a food you want to eat on a bike trip, because the next day you get 'pizza legs'. I don't know if I've ever had it or not but it sounds hilarious.
It was a one pint visit. The atmosphere that afternoon included plenty of the 'Dude...' sort and a pair of smokers. Plus, we had a cooler full of kick ass food and cold press coffee back at camp. Went all out on the camp stuff this year, I even scored a perfectly working propane stove for $25. It was the star of the campground for sure. Dinner was sauteed vegetables with curry pasta.Eating and clean up went quickly, and before long we were sitting nearly idle. Only 90 minutes before, we were pedaling like hell with a heart rate somewhere around 150; now only enough energy was being exerted for Eric to read and me to strum my guitar (yes, I brought it). There were only a few other camps occupied. One right right across from us belonged to someone we never saw. Perhaps 4 or 5 cars went by as we sat there, each time Eric would mutter “keeeep movin'”. Worked about as well as saying “rabbit” repeatedly to keep campfire smoke out of your face. Right then I thought to myself “where does that road go?”, and Eric said it just after I thought it.
“Have we ever gone left there?” he asked, looking at the fork in the road that led to camp.
Nope. And suddenly a drive further down the valley sounded like a great idea. Evidently the road takes you up and over Paradise Pass. An appropriate name, I think.
We could see all the way down to where we were camped.Journal entry for the day:
11pm First full day
in Crested Butte
rode well today. 16M
1,000 feet of climbing
I'm really dirty , but
happy as I've ever been.
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