Red Feather Lakes

Sunday was yet again a day in the name of mountain biking. Not trail building this day, but rather trail riding. A group of us, 7 in total, headed up north to explore the area around the Red Feather Lakes. Jason, a former “local”, had promised us an epic day. In terms of snow on the ground, he had gotten the “go ahead” from a recent report about a neighboring area to where we were heading, but as we were to find out – you never quite know what you will find in the mountains.

We parked the cars at about 10,000 ft of elevation and while it was sunny outside, there was a fresh breeze from West and snow flakes falling out of the sky. It was looking good for our adventure! We started the climb up the rocky jeep road. All full of anticipation and big smiles!

The destination was Middle Bald Mountain and the single track trail that heads North from there. Jason estimated it to be about 45 minutes of climbing before we would get to the turn off. We later learned that Jason’s time estimates are a little skewed since he last rode these trails on a motorcycle.

The climb was steady on a nice rocky jeep road with a couple of steep pitches thrown in for good measure. When we came to the first little snow drift I excitedly called it out and snapped a photo. It wasn’t long, though, before we saw the next one, and the next one, and the after that one. Not only were the drifts getting more and more frequent, they were also getting bigger and bigger. I think Tracy made the goal to attempt riding through each and every one of them!

The snow drifts eventually led to quite a bit of hiking, but as Dave says: “It isn’t mountain biking if you aren’t hiking!”

That said, we hiked some more…

Went over some downed trees…

Until we were hiking more than we were biking, and I think Dave would also agree that “it isn’t mountain biking, unless you are riding!”, so Jason proclaimed that this was it! This would be our turn around point.

We did consult the map to find out that the turn off to the single track was another 500 vertical ft up, and since it mainly sits on a North facing aspects, we would probably find even more snow here, so we stuck with the decision to turn around. Before going back, though, we stopped to get a bite to eat.

By the way, am I the only one that thought of Charles Ebbets’ “Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper” when looking at this setting?

But, I digress. Back to our mountain bike ride. At this point we had been out for about 2 hours. So much for Jason’s 45 minutes and it was time to cash in on the elevation we had gained, so we put on jackets and warmer clothes in prep for the fast descent.

The descent was a BLAST and with the added help of gravity we were able to power through almost all of the snow drifts coming down.

While I thought the descent would go way too fast I was pleasantly surprised by how far the 5 miles or so back felt. What a treat! Definitely worth the climb. Back by the cars consensus was quickly reached: We had not ridden enough! So that said, we all saddled up again, except for Johnny who chose to stay by the cars due to a thundering headache. We went back out on the gravel road for a little while before we connected up with the Sevenmile Creek Trail.

Sevenmile Creek Trail runs parallel with Sevenmile Creek. No surprise there.

Well, “parallel” may be an overstatement, in some places the Trail and the Creek seems like its one and the same!

That said, our path did cross the creek. We knew that was the case when the water level was above the hubs!

Tracy attacked each and every creek crossing with as much determination and effort as she had done the snow drifts earlier in the day. I think this is your calling Tracy!

The trail eventually dumped us back out to the gravel road after numerous creek crossings and miles of exhilarating rocky downhill fun. The final numbers for the days was about 24 miles of riding, and more than 4,000 ft of climbing; a lot of that through snow drifts!

We will definitely be back in this area after the snow melts…

More photos here.