At this point in my Colorado Mtn bike I was supposed to be
back home, but when John Schilling announced his idea or Casual Colorado Trail
bikepack from Silverton to Durango using the Narrow Gauge Railroad as our
“Shuttle” I was in. So I stayed a few
days longer in Durango (oh what misery) and met up with the Crew at the Train
Depot Saturday Morning. Since I had my trailer with me I chose to park in the
train lot rather than at Audrey’s house.
That is blessing and curse of even a small RV.
The train ride up to Silverton was relaxing and
enjoyable. At first the train follows
HWY 550, but soon breaks off and simply follows the Animas River all the way to
Silverton. Bench cut where needed and
taking a shallow grade as trains must.
In the Animas Canyon the scenery is very special.
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| Me taking a picture of Jeff Z taking a picture of me. |
We arrived in Silverton 6 strong (3 couples, err sort of)
ready take on a casual 2 ½ days back to Durango. The original plan was taking the Colorado
trail all the way back, but a fire closed one section so we changed plans and
would be taking Hermosa Creek back to
550 and then some backroads/trails to Durango.
This is Schilling adventure so why take a paved road when there is some
faint satellite image of what could be single track instead? More on that
later.
We started after lunch in Silverton and to help digestion we
had nice 7 mile climb from 9300 ft to 10,900 feet. At least it was paved and surprisingly a
moderate grade even with bikepack gear. I was new to a 1x11 drivetrain and had
chosen to go with a 28t front with 10-42 rear. The 28 should be low enough, but
this still left me 1 gear short of my old 3x9 set-up. Bikepacking is where this
really could hurt, btu the climb was actually pretty easy as far as any climb to
nearly 11k feet can be on 45lbs bike.
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| Jeff Z on his single speed starting the paved road climb |
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| First part done. It is still up from here and would be over 24 hrs before we got this low again. |
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| Jeff leading the train in to Molas Lake |
From Molas Pass the Colorado trail started and then we really got to climb. We met up with Ian who self shuttled from Durango on pavement and after some “Which trailhead” confusion we found Ben who was shuttled by his wife Kimberly. Who while not riding with us still provided excellent moral and SAG support.
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| Not much to say |
This part of the ride was really fun. The altitude did not really both me and the
heavy bike was manageable on trail. I
guess my time being altitude really helped.
As we climbed higher we
encountered snow patches and soft ground. This slowed the pace, but did not dampen the
spirts.
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| Riders on the Colorado Trail |
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| Nancy beating the boys up the climbs |
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| Ian |
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| Ben with his tribute to 4th of July jersey |
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| Iron Man John Schilling - Warm up for the CTR late in the month |
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| Jeff Z |
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| Free stuff or free box? |
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| Hmm snow.. this does not look that good |
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| Still smiling |
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| John |
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| Jeff Z |
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| Nancy |
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| Ian |
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| Ben |
This began to change at the junction of the Colorado trail
and Engineer trail. This spot was about
11,900 feet that left us about 500 feet and 0.9 miles to highpoint for the day
and the ride. It was already early evening we had maybe 2 miles to our camp
spot. Jeff looked at me and said “500
feet and just about a mile? How hard can it be?” Little did he know what lay
around the little ridge behind us. From
that ridge we enocountered snow fileds that we bigger, rougher and so frequent
in number that those final 500 were brutal in ways that cannot be
understood. We went around as many
fields as we could, but were forced to go straight through others. This sounds easy, but the snow melts in strange
ridge patterns that are 18” high and 18” wide.
These are not the kind push through let alone ride through so you have
to pick the bike up over each one. The constant lifting of heavy bike over
these ridges why stepping over them and trying not break through into hidden
stream below was taxing both physically mentally. Also by this time the sun had gone down
behind the mountains so while light was plentiful sunlight and warmth were
waning. Cold feet from the snow was just
another hardship. At one point my rear
wheel fell out of the frame from the constant lifting. The rear quick release must have gotten
caught and open in the snow and the rear wheel sifted. My use of rear brake
when HAB meant I closed the caliper down and had to push the pistons back
before I could get the rear wheel back in.
Not a major problem, but one that makes HAB even more challenging.
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| Bypassed this one. |
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| Jeff Z dragging through this patch |
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| Riders scattered looking for path |
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| Hey there buddy! |
Then at very top the snow conditions changed from slushy to icy. The bench cut trail was smooth slope due to the snow and more solid ice snow make it hard to get traction. At one point I failed and slipped slid a few feet down the side of the trail. I did not go far, but it was not fun at all to start sledding in bike clothes. I found my way to the top following Ben’s path a bit. Then Ben and I went help all the riders behind negotiate this nasty bit of snow field. Next time I should bring crampons.
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| Made it to the top |
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| Top of Rolling Mtn pass |
From here John’s plan was down rill run to area with small
lake trees and nice camping spot. The
run down had much less snow and went pretty quick, but John’s magic camping
spot never materialized. We did get into
the trees, but nothing flat and no water. We rolled on and cross the White
Creek trail junction and back on to part of the CT I had ridden on
Tuesday. I knew of at least one camping
spot near a bridge over Cascade creek, but that felt like a long way off and
with sun light gone I wanted to find a spot sooner. Jeff lead the train as we rolled down hill
and made good progress. Then we came to a “S”
bend in the trail and found perfect spot. Flat ground, trees and water nearby. All before dark too. Day 1 was not many miles, but some serious
effort. So much for “casual”. I was asleep by 8:45pm.
Day 2
The day started slow
as we “casually” wait for the sun to hit out camp before we really started
going. We were all 11,200 feet and it
was really not that cold. I camped with
just a ground cover, sleeping bag, silk liner and long underwear and was
fine. We rolled down from camp
encountered more endless views. The
landscape here simply cannot be captured by photographs and just make you feel
so small.
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| Hey I was here on Tuesday. Just pointed the other way and without gear. |
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| Just an unnamed pass |
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| Nancy |
The good news for the day was however that trail conditions had improved since Tuesday. All the downed trees were cut, most of the snow patches were smaller and creeks were running a little less deep. All this meant pace was up. About mid day we rolled in to Bolas Pass and met up with Kimberly. She ready with some snacks, drinks and good company.
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| The little pond at Bolas Pass |
None of us “needed” the supplies, but there
sure we were welcome to make the trip a little more fun. It was here we ran into two groups 1 couple
out for day ride and couple singlespeeders out for a ride as well. Next stop Blackhawk pass at only
11,995ft. Easy… right? … The
climb out of Bolas was step and rough but manageable and generally speaking the
riding was excellent. I was doing a
little leapfrog with the couple on the day ride was just wondering how far they
were planning on going. As we climbed
the conditions started to revert back to snow fields and slush. Yet again we regrouped about 500 feet short
of the pass at about a mile to go. “How
hard could this be?” We were left with a
similar slow pace as on the last high pass.
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| Trail Junction on the Colorado Trail |
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| Snow Field and trail to the top of Blackhawk |
Lot so HAB through snow fields and steep trails. Not much riding really and when I caught the couple on the day ride I was able to blow past them using newly found HAB/Snow skills. Man I am really going to get a lot of use from them In Arizona!” All was going well until I saw the final two snow fields to the top the pass. Again bench cut trail covered by snow. I was really careful this time always make sure had good footing. First patch when by just fine.
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| All is well till. - Photo be Jeff just seconds before my summer sledding adventure |
Mid way through the second one my footing slipped and both me and the bike decided to go sledding down the mountain. I slid for what seemed like ages and probably about 150 yards and a good 80feet down before I was able to get one handlebar to anchor into the snow and stop my momentum. This was the lowest point on my ride and probably just about any ride. I had no idea how I was going crest this climb. I decided to ditch the snow field and cut across to patch of clear ground. The trail was up. Straight up, but I had decent footing so started climbing and push my heavy bike up. I was able to back to the snow free part of the trail and to the top, but it was hard. As turned back to seem friends I saw each of them taking a different path through this final push.
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| It almost does not look too bad. |
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| More Choose your own path |
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| Aftermath from the sledding |
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| "How hard could it be?" - Jeff Z |
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| We all made it. |
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| Had to run up a hill to clear 12k, but why not. |
It was hard
but we all crested the top. I said by to
the day rider couple and after short walk to 12,000 feet for a photo op it was
time to go down. The trail from
Blackhawk down to our cut off at Hotel Draw road was really fun. The snow patches and soggy ground was minimal
and smiles were maximized.
From Hotel Draw road the plan was to get to the Top of
Hermosa and meet up with Kimberly for another “SAG” stop. The road was…
well a dirt road so nothing outstanding, but it was required to divert
due to the fire. The top of Hermosa
creek trail is easy access by cars so turned in Colorado version of 4x4
Hillbilly central. Kimberly however was
not there. So we waited as we had planned to camp near here, but not too close
to all the action. Turns how she was
delayed helping one of the singlespeeders we saw earlier. One had nasty crash
and she relayed some information to get help. We also learned that Jason and
Jennifer had bailed at Bolas and took the road back to Durango. Kimberly took off torward Purgatory resort
to get a few supplies we road down Hermosa trail and found nice campspot by the
creek. Not many bugs, but we did upset a
Marmot across the creek that barked at us for a good 30 min before she and gave
up. She and her 2 little one had her side of the creek and we had ours. Kimberly rode down to camp with us that night
and brought Beer! Wow now this SAG support I can live with.
Day 3
We rose again after the sun rise, but found the morning much
colder than the day before. At 9000 feet
it was colder than 11,200? I guess it
was being in valley and that the sun did not find its way to us until later in
the morning. Still we rolled off on the
“trends downhill” Hermosa trail. I had ridding most of this last year, but not
this upper portion.
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| Hermosa |
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| Bridge over Hermosa Creek |
It was fun and mildly technical in few spots with a loaded
bike. After some time and many smiles we
hit the big climb on Hermosa. It was only 1 mile and 500 feet up…Wait where have
head that before…. So it did start out with some HAB, but was generally
good. No snow or mud. It was mid day and we finished Hermosa. We had gotten all of the “hard bits” out of
the way the rest of was run down the road to 550 and some trail John and heard
about, but never ridden that would take us to Durango. Despite rising temp we
all were happy to set forth. We knew
from the GPS track there would be climb from valley floor, but it was out about
400 feet up in a mile. “How Hard..” I
think you know where this going. Well
turns out that despite being a paved road this was 12% grade and pretty much
straight up. I pulled in front but soon ran out of stem with 28x42
gearing. I needed one lower gear to
climb this and had to walk . Ian on a
2x10 slowly caught me pressed on as I was walking. Jeff on his singlespeed was really read to
give John a few swift kicks for that climb, but lucky for him Jeff was too
tired to do it. Form here we found fun
singletrack that make climb worth right up to the point a little climb I call
John’s Revenge. It I only about 500
yards long, but goes up about 40% grade and twists in dense brush. When I got
to the top I was overheated and wiped out. What later learned was that we could
have by passed this killer climb and still been on the same singletrack. Next time
I guess.
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| Just some field following track John found from Satellite |
I figured with was the last
major hurdle of the ride, but in typical John Schilling fashion we cut off
Junction creek road foregoing the easy roll into down and started on a.. you
guess it HAB up the Dalles Mtn Trail system.
Fun trails, but rather hard on a loaded bike beat from days on
trail.
Finally we rolled in to Durango proper and stopped for a
late lunch. We had nice chance to chill after another long and crazy John
Schilling adventure. Trips like this are
never “easy” even if they have are labeled as “Casual”, but I really like them.
They are hard and there is always adventure.
You can just ride the same old places for an couple hours every week or
you can try something different and push yourself not just for Strava PR, but
for something different. These rides always end with exhaustion, but
accomplishment and the memories that can’t be erased. Good view and good time with great people.
