While Jen headed down to Durango for an adventure race this weekend I decided to go for a long mountain bike ride. I was joined Saturday morning by Don and his buddy Troy. Don had brought the puppy so the doggies could play and have fun while we went out to have fun. From our house we headed up Left Hand canyon. The destination was the South St Vrain trail head by “Peak to Peak” highway. Here we were joined by Don’s other buddy, Adam.
South St Vrain Trail runs alongside South St Vrain Creek but deviates from the creek in a couple of place; at one point leading to a couple of small meadows with pristine single track.
While those sections of the South St Vrain Trail are very smooooth, the most parts of South St Vrain are much more like Sourdough; one big rock garden which provides for lots of fun as you pick your way up, over and between the rocks. That said, there’s also a small section of gravel road.
The gravel road and a connecting section of single track trail takes you up and around a property, but only to dump you out back down by the creek again. Not long after that it intersects with Sourdough Trail and from here we got on Sourdough heading south. We ran into the first snow drifts as well as several downed trees shortly thereafter.
At first it was just an occasional snow drift here and there, but they got bigger and more frequent as we climbed up Sourdough Trail. Closing in on Brainard Lake Road it was turning into more hiking than biking. As a matter of fact, it was beginning to look a lot like last weekend!
We finally made it to Brainard Lake Road and (against all odds) decided to check out Little Raven, so we started climbing up the gravel road towards the Little Raven trail head. At first, the gravel road was perfectly dry and clear but then around one corner it was completely blocked by snow.
Seeing the wide open gravel road in this condition we gave up even attempting to continue and get on Little Raven as it was bound to be covered in snow. Time to turn around.
Back down on Brainard Lake road we decided to ride up to Brainard Lake and from here get on the South St Vrain Trail again, but starting at the other end.
The road was clear all the way to the lake as opposed to the last time we were up. Back then we were on our road bikes and had to turn around about a mile or so before we got to the lake. Not this time. The gate is still closed so you still can’t drive to the lake, but you can ride and hike to it.
Up by Brainard Lake and despite the snow we actually found the South St Vrain trail. Well, at least we found the blazes. It took a while before we saw the actual trail.
But after a creek crossing…
Hiking through some more snow drifts…
Yet another creek crossing…
We finally dipped down below the altitude above which quite a bit of snow is still lingering. It was time to ride again!
Back at the intersection with Sourdough Trail, Adam peeled off heading down South St Vrain Trail back to the cars. The rest of us headed north on Sourdough in order to get on the Wapiti Trail.
Wapiti Trail is a fun add on loop especially when ridden clockwise. It starts with a little climb, but then its an awesome fast downhill section all the way back to Sourdough Trail. No pictures from the downhill section. Too much fun to stop and take pictures. Isn’t that almost always the case!
Anyway, back on Sourdough we continued north. Don even found a log pile up here.
…and yes, he did clean it. Riding out east will teach you a thing or two about riding over logs!
We continued North on Sourdough until we got to Beaver Reservoir.
We rode around Beaver Reservoir in order to get to the Beaver Reservoir Cutoff Trail.
The Beaver Reservoir Cutoff Trail is yet another fun downhill section. Much like Wapiti it takes you all the way back to Sourdough Trail again. Back on Sourdough Trail we decided that it was time to turn around and start heading back towards the car so we started climbing up Sourdough Trail heading South.
There is this one bridge on Sourdough. It is wide. It is pretty straight. But the railing on just one side makes it challenging to ride across the bridge, especially with wide handlebars. Here is Troy working the balance act:
One of my favourite sections of the Sourdough Trail is this one ridge or hill. I don’t know its name. I don’t know the history, but there is evidence of a relative recent forest fire. The remnants from the fire and the rock formations here make it look a lot like Buffalo Creek.
Another favourite spot of mine on Sourdough is this high meadow, complete with a small lake, views of the Indian Peaks and a mountain side full of aspens. A true “Kodak spot”.
It is particularly breath taking in the Fall when the trees are changing colours.
From here the rest of our ride was mostly down; all the way back to where Sourdough intersects South St Vrain trail, and then from here back down on South St Vrain to the trail head where the car was parked.
A quick recap of the route: We started at the East end of South St Vrain trail (SSV), rode up SSV, headed south on Sourdough Trail (SD) until we got to Brainard Lake Road. From here we attempted Little Raven but had to turn around. Rode the road to Brainard Lake and picked up the west end of SSV here. Rode SSV back down to SD. Headed North on SD for a little while then rode clockwise around Wapiti until it connects back up with SD. From here we continued North to Beaver Res. Rode around the North shore of it to Beaver Res Cutoff trail. Took it down to SD. Back at SD we headed south all the way back to SSV, and then SSV back down to the East end trail head. All in all about 25 miles or so.
The absolute values on the profile below are not correct. My altimeter needs to be calibrated, but the profile is correct. All in all we ended up climbing a little more than 3,000 ft.
More photos here.