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The South Park Crest is a link-up of 5 days of single track mountain biking through 3 distinct Colorado mountain ranges in central Colorado. The Crest delivers over 175 miles of fantastic riding; buff sub-alpine single track, rocky mining trails, high passes with beautiful landscapes the entire route. The latter portion of this tour traverses one of the premier, northern sections of the Colorado Trail from Georgia Pass to Kenosha Pass. Your expert local guides take all the guesswork out of this journey by pre-arranging meals, transportation and nightly accommodations in historic ranches, inns and mountain lodges. Ride hard by day and relax in comfortable unique accommodations by night.
We'll meet at 7am at Bicycle Outfitters in Evergreen, CO. There we'll gear up and get everyone loaded for the week. From there we have a shuttle of about an hour and a half to the start of our ride in Buena Vista. Our pedaling begins around 7500 ft along arid decomposed granite singletrack along the Midland Trail climbing amongst prickly pear cactus and pinon pine. Once atop Trout Creek Pass, we find ourselves above 9000 ft departing arid Chaffee County and entering the South Park. Onward to the rugged Salt Creek Trail Riders have the opportunity to ride a total of 35 miles today with great emphasis on climbing stair stepping up and down on the flanks of the Buffalo Peaks Range. The second half of our day travels through sub alpine aspen and fir forests and ends with spectacular down hills along side natural beaver ponds and Rich Creek. At day's end, we are met by vehicles for a short (20 min) shuttle to the Historic Salt Works Ranch. Enjoy open pit barbeque in this preserved 1850's ranch in the heart of Colorado's south Park – participants will sleep comfortably in cowboy bunks which hosted the likes of Jessie James. Ride length is approximately 35 miles.
Speed through old growth Aspen groves along the Sheep Creek trail upwards to Browns Pass where you will discover several abandoned gold mining operations circa the 1880's. The immense aspen groves surrounding the sheep creek trail are some of the most impressive in the entire South Park – there are countless towering giant white trunks in every direction. Today we are afforded a preview to the south and east of Park, Kenosha and Tarryall mountain ranges, which we'll traverse in the tour's final days. A 19th century abandoned mine near the top of Brown's pass provides an ideal lunch stop in the protection of gnarled limber and bristle cone pine forests. We pedal a total of 20 miles into the town of Fairplay at day's end to enjoy the Historic hand hotel. Ride length is approximately 20 miles.
Continue retracing the paths of Colorado's Moutain miners from Fairplay to Como over Gold Hill. Today's ride is the shortest of our 5 days but still packs a major punch with steep climbing and descents. Ascend to over 11,000 feet on Gold Hill and hold on tight for the rough down hill on 'The Gold Dust Trail' into the village of Como. The village of Como is an old railroad depot town which serviced freight and passengers bound for Breckenridge in the gold mining boom of the late 1800's. Aside from a few rusty pick up trucks, little has changed in Como since the steam engines powered through here over a hundred years ago. Como has 1 restaurant, 1 post office/general store, 1 volunteer fire hall and 1 Mountain Man gallery – all one needs. At day's end, we'll either stay in Como at the Como depot OR take a 30 min vehicle shuttle to reach the Bison Peak Lodge for great food and overnight accommodations. Ride length is approximately 20 miles.
Be sure to eat a hearty breakfast to fuel up properly for the climb from Jefferson 9,500 ft to Georgia Pass 12,000, our tour's high mark. The Georgia Pass to Kenosha Pass section of the Colorado draws thousands of Denver/front range riders each season. The route offers above tree line single track, dense sub alpine sections, rocky switchbacks, narrow wood bridges, aspen tunnels and wide open South Park and mountain views. Once atop the spine of Colorado's high Park Range, it's a ripping downhill on the Colorado Trail through sub-alpine forests, aspens, along rushing creeks to the valley bottom. Today's ride ends atop Kenosha Pass where we'll return for our final and ultimate day. Ride length is approximately 25 miles.
Kenosha pass to the Bison peak Lodge is a full day of hard riding along the axis of the Kenosha Mountains. We like our tours to ramp up and save the best for last. This day from Kenosha Pass to the Bison Peak Lodge is an epic day of riding where bonking is probable for the strongest of riders. The route starts in vast aspen forests at Kenosha pass leading to Rock Creek trail head, we take a 30-45 minute section of dirt road along the Lost park road to avoid riding in a protected wilderness area and then rejoin a little know section of the Colorado trail to the Lost Park Campground. Creek crossings are plentiful in remote sagebrush and willow lined mountain streams. Just when riders are getting tired, we look ahead to the tour's final big climb up an over Topaz mountain. The secret DH on the Nate Stolz Trail is steep, technical and challenging to riders already 4-6 hrs into their day. The DH takes us down quickly from 11,000 plus feet to 9,000 at the bottom of the Tarryall river valley along a mix of single track and fast fire roads. We get some serious bounty today - fast singletrack descents, technical sections….all the way to the Bison Peak Lodge to celebrate the week or world-class riding. Ride length is between 25 and 40 miles depending on options.
After a great week of riding, we'll shuttle you back to the town of Evergreen and your hotel. Return time should be around 3-4pm. We usually recommend holding off on return flights until Saturday morning.
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