Week 1: Sendoff...Steamboat

PREFACE: I'm using this page mostly as personal electronic journal. Feel free to to give me pointers like "more pics, less talk", or "tell us more about the towns and not just stupid mountains and biking". Enjoy!

I had planned for an early Monday AM departure but was pleasantly surprised when Chloe’s morning client cancelled so we could chug coffee and enjoy each other’s company before I left. We picked some veggies from her landlord’s garden for the road. The guy has a produce section for a yard. After packing some final items, it was time for me to hit the road. I knew there might some tears shed, but that lump in my throat stuck around for hours. Luckily, we booked her a flight to Phoenix in October for us spend some time adventuring together.

Like any under-prepared adventurer, I needed an REI pit stop on the way out of town. More underwear was probably a good idea. Oh, and some propane. After 2 hours of horsing around I finally hit I-80 east bound. I’d been on this stretch of road to Park City a hundred times before but this time I didn’t know the exact date I’d be back.

Since I left later in the day I decided to stop in Vernal, UT to do a quick bike loop on the McCoys Flats trails. It was too hot, dry and loose to write much about. My previous Vernal MTB experience in the Red Fleet area was better. Likely worth a spring desert getaway when the Wasatch is caked in snow. I ate, got gas and drove further east to Dinosaur National Monument road where I pulled off and called it a night.

After a poor first night of sleep morning coffee at Dinosaur Nat'l Monument set me off right for the drive to Steamboat.

I hadn’t done too much planning on what to do in Steamboat, nor for any of my time on the road for that matter. I had a few things in mind, but wanted to keep an open itinerary. My friend Roy Hobbs from Denver gave me a few pointers. Like any good mountain town, Steamboat has trails you can pedal to from town. So I looked up a ride that started from town and linked up to the Buffalo Pass trail system. This area is chock full of aspen, wildflowers and good views. I climbed Flash of Gold and descended Bear Tree Ridge to Spring Creek back into town. FOG was a treat to climb up.

Flash of Gold trail, rightfully named.

Aspen groves are thick in Steamboat.

BTR trail was interesting. It’s just one of those trails that seems like a well laid plan that never lived up to the dreams. I then connected to Spring Creek downhill. Big props to the City of Steamboat for recently adding a purpose built downhill bike trail to separate the hiker and biker traffic on Spring Creek. Bermed corners, jumps and some well-placed rocks made the descent fun back into town. I drove back up to Buffalo Pass, cooked and camped for the night.

Buffalo Pass and a beer. And bugs. So many blood-sucking @%#%$%!.

Eat the rainbow. Squash and Hungarian hot peppers compliments of Chloe's landlord.

A little trick I use to discover fun bike trails out of town (steep, fast, technical, remote) is to look up course maps from previous enduro mountain bike races. I’d seen people raving about Grouse in the “Buff Pass” area. Grouse is anything but buff (in the bike world this means smooth and flat). It’s an extremely creative technical trail linking rock feature after rock feature together with countless alternate line choices. Steeps, drops, rolls, jumps, mini-chutes. It’s a trail you want to ride 5 times to get to know the lines and increase the fun and flow. If you’re in Steamboat, you have to hit Grouse. This trailbuilder is a wizard.

The white stripes and stacked rocks on Grouse give you an idea of what line to take. Bring your own skills.

After two days of pretty hot riding closer to town I was craving some alpine pursuits and solitude. So I headed north to the Zirkel Wilderness. Often times some of the most jaw dropping scenery is in the federally designated wilderness areas, where “mechanized” equipment (like bikes) isn’t allowed. I’m generally OK with that since these are trails best enjoyed by foot anyways. Backcountry skiing opened my eyes to the wonder and sheer beauty of the alpine, and now I really enjoy hiking to remote alpine places where a bike doesn’t make sense. My first objective was to hike the “Zirkel Circle”. It’s best done CCW and comes in at 10.8 miles and 2,600 ft gain for the full loop. It goes up and over a pass and loops past two alpine lakes.

I love the wooden carved wilderness signs. I wonder where you can buy old retired ones?

Gold Creek Lake. People looking for a quick hike do this as out 'n' back.

Approaching the pass and sniffing flowers.

Gilpin Lake for lunch is the apex of the loop before trotting downhill 5 miles.

After the Zirkel Circle I got back to my truck and realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing next. It's an interesting if not unsettling feeling at first. But that freedom is why you save money, quit a job and live out of a truck for a while. So I drove 7 miles back to a main road and got cell signal only to discover there's a mountain bike loop on the edge of the wilderness back where I was. Back to camp I guess.

I'd read this loop was quite remote, if not a " backcountry epic", as some cyclists like to say. It was clear this trail didn't see many tire tracks, which I love. Not every bike outing is meant to be a safe, manicured experience. Sometimes when out enjoying these scrappy old trails I imagine a 70 year old curmudgeon cyclist from the old days giving me an "atta boy, keep 'em alive".

Old school is cool. I'm probably, definitely a curmudgeon already.

Back in Steamboat the next day I met up with Roy to ride the Steamboat "Divide" trail. It's a 25 mile point-to-point shuttle ride from Rabbit Ears Pass all the way into Steamboat. It usually requires logistical gymnastics, but Roy's girlfriend was OK with taking us to the pass and hiking on her own. Score! We pedaled 2k vertical feet and then descended 5k into town. Then each smashed our own pizza and beer as proper post-ride nourishment,

Roy races XC and rides in aerodynamic spandex.

I do not wear spandex but my kits are certainly getting trim fitting these days. Better watch out.

After 6 days in Steamboat I'd racked up 100 miles and 15k vertical feet of singletrack and was absolutely smoked and needed a day off. Time for some new digs. I pointed the truck camper south towards I-70 to wake up in a new town.