Bikepacking The Colorado Trail, Sections 1-14

okay the donkey is loaded clocking in at 219 pounds with all my gear and myself seems like a lot of weight go west middle-aged man that's the theme of the trip keep going west well i got this feeling that about to get my ass handed to me but gotta do that and uh shoot got this jg you can do it one foot in front of the other all right well it's getting narrower not quite single track but getting there here it goes okay this is the real deal now and i'm already in my lowest gear and sweating buckets just cracked six thousand feet here we go onward and upward all right well it's uh pretty nice single track is advertised so far the gradient's been manageable but i know there's going to be some hiki bike coming up soon okay the hika bike has begun in earnest whew yeah what i'm talking about yeah baby nice [Music] okay i am just above the end of the first section of the colorado trail this is the south platte river south fork of the platte river and i'm gonna tank up with some water here and figure out how far down section two i'm gonna try and go today it is uh 208 pm and i've been riding for just over four hours 24.27 miles okay this is the south flat river uh end of section one beginning of section two and i'm gonna fill up with some water here okay i started to climb up the beginning of segment number two and that's the valley where the river is right out there and that's where i zigzag down all the way from that ridge up there i think so climbing back up again addie so so [Music] that was fun so fun now getting to the end of day one it's been a long day starting to get tired so nice oh i just passed two hikers oh three hikers saw two mountain bikers going towards denver a few more hikers today i guess i'd say mostly hikers but i heard from some of the hikers that there's at least four bike packers that are headed the same way i am and so maybe i'll be kept near them tonight but uh looking forward to getting my cat set up soon i'm getting tired i think that's the fire station or you can get some water up there on the hill and i think that's the end section too good evening well it's my first evening out on the trail uh just finished segments one and two of the colorado trail and just finished up dinner getting ready to hang up all my food and hit the sack i am beat okay day two here we go just got everything packed up finally felt like it took forever i need some practice getting my procedures dialed in but uh got it all there and excited to hit the trail again it's a little windy this morning a little cool right now so i think it's pretty much perfect riding conditions see you down the trail hey here we are on segment three colorado trail 8 15 started riding so far it's been fun all downhill which means i gotta ride back up the hill later and just past the naked jogger again saw that guy this morning run past the camp i was like what the hell where's your pants buddy guess that's a thing here in colorado oh yeah such nice flowy single track so fun even with all this weight on my bike it's still fun riding this single track as long as it's downhill [Music] well it's uh 10 15 been riding for two hours gone 10 and a half miles at about 8 000 feet and getting close to the end of section 3 at least the part that i can ride i have to detour soon so that's where we are seeing lots of uh bikers out today just out for a day ride all right made it to the end of section three cannot ride this section i gotta go down this gravel road so downhill on a gravel road we should make some good time greetings from wellington lake didn't really know this place was a resort but uh it is and they sell coke what yeah so about a coke i can't remember the last time i'd drink a coke it tastes so good [Music] okay well that was fun downhill while it lasted but now i gotta climb all the way back it's the story of today up and down up and down oh yeah some downhill woohoo [Music] okay 27.8 miles and riding for five hours made a wrong turn a few miles back but fortunately i realized that i've made a wrong turn before i'd gone probably wasn't even a mile [Music] [Music] pretty epic scenery even if it has burned it's a really cool granite domes okay i'm at 8855 feet and i sure hope that's the end of the climbing for the day pretty sure it is that's what it looks like out ahead looks like there's some uh storms trying to happen here so it could be an interesting end to the day well it was sprinkling just a few minutes ago and uh it's stopped thankfully i'm just on a downhill roll to a river where i'm gonna camp for the evening so hopefully i'll be there in about 45 minutes [Music] final downhill stretch yeah okay well i mean officially in plan b mode the area where i was gonna camp along the river is all fenced off with barbed wire no trespassing so um i'm gonna try a campground up the road here and i'm sure it's all gonna be full because it's saturday night but uh i'm gonna ask somebody if they wouldn't mind letting me stay with them so amazingly beautiful right now and i'm so amazingly tired welcome to colorado trail day three just left the campground where my first trail angel let me share the campground and made me dinner stuffed me full of hot dogs jim from colorado springs what a guy thank you jim well there's the headwind and a nice breeze coming out of the north straight into my face [Music] [Music] we well i had my heart set on a large order of french fries and a coke but uh stage stop is closed and sign says they open at noon which is in 45 minutes but uh i don't think i want to just sit around for 45 minutes because then it's gonna take another 45 to eat and yeah it's gonna keep rolling all right well i'm smiling because just as i was riding off the owner came out and hollered at me and said he'd open up the restaurant so i got my big order of fries and a coke and i'm ready to hit the road so more trail magic i guess i think this is me turning off the uh highway here headed up into the hills once again up up and away bob's nearing the end of the detour for colorado trail segment four climbing up to rejoin the colorado trail about halfway through segment five where it pops out of the wilderness area that you can't bike in and then i don't know it's probably eight miles or so and then i'll be at the beginning of segment six which is where it really starts to climb and it's going to get up almost to 12 000 feet at the high point so uh yeah it's gonna get real now still on the detour for section four getting close to the end though [Music] so beautiful out here nice breeze warm though so i'm headed off into those mountains off in the distance i guess that big mountain there is the 12 000 foot part of the trail but somewhere beyond there is breckenridge and that's where i'm headed [Music] hey 1.2 miles to the end of this detour and it's been a hell of a detour okay at the rock creek trailhead [Music] [Music] [Music] well i'm working my way toward the end of section five it's the gorgeous view up here it's kind of cruising along in my lowest gear on it seems like pretty flat terrain so that's any indication there's a lot of walking in store okay let's rocks oh this is uh kenosha pass 10 000 feet and uh yeah it's uh 339 gone 35 miles been riding for about five hours and 41 minutes i think i'm gonna try and go in a little ways to the first uh campsite i find with some water maybe call it a day now just starting section four not sure if i even got a mile yet plan is to go in here about three miles and there should be a campsite there so stay there maybe i feel super motivated i'll go a little farther on another one close to five miles in yay look at that view holy smokes that's amazing okay making some progress come on donkey [Music] [Music] well didn't want to lose all this elevation but you got to do [Music] so uh welcome to day four of the colorado trail i think that's where i'm on now yes so heading into bracket range today i have a big climb first time i'm gonna be up uh at 12 000 feet or i think it's just below 12 maybe and yeah see how it goes i'll be pushing my bike a lot today and that's [Music] just part of part of the game bike packing in the mountains so hike a bike is the theme for today and uh just getting ready to make some breakfast and uh get my bike packed up feeling like i'm at a deluxe camping facility since i'm at a car camp here today no bear boxes though so ended up hanging my food up between these trees okay starting day four heading up section six colorado trail just a few clouds on the horizon starting to get a little gray already hope that won't be a factor later today wow this is cool so the hike bike has begun on uh segment six colorado trail heading up to georgia pass hey bikeable here we go all right what i'm talking about two miles 25 minutes huh only climb 413 feet at 10 430 right now okay only another 1600 feet to go for the first pass of the day feeling those legs can't really oh hello tree here really too much more than this crazy no power come on lungs [Applause] well i'm uh just over 11 000 feet now and i've noticed that the trees are starting to get a lot shorter more stunted so apparently approaching the tree line making my way up to georgia pass starting to see some rio mountains up here on the left it's crazy to be fishing my bike up a trail that would be a piece of cake down at sea level but man over 11 000 now it's got no no power all i can manage is the really low gradient stretches like i'm gonna try and ride this once it gets past a certain point this feels like it's using less energy to just push whoo fantastic well i do believe i am rolling into georgia pass barely rolling in butt rolling whew i think it's time for a cliff bar i think i've earned it single track yeehaw oh yeah that's what i'm talking about so nice so nice ah fun's over yikes well i have been descending now for what seems like a ridiculously long time i have dropped over a thousand feet in elevation i'm now at 10 650. poor brakes i don't think i've ever used my brakes that much in my life basically just been riding my brakes for the last i don't know 25 minutes half hour it's been a rocky rough descent too millions of tree roots well it hurts to have to walk your bike downhill but this is unrideable walking my bike downhill through stuff like this for the last i don't know 15 minutes at least it's painful having to walk your bike downhill nice so all right next stop breckenridge and a much anticipated and needed uh motel room last big climb let's get into breck oh man i'm mostly walking it this stretch can barely ride my lowest skier huh oh at 10 725 again just mostly pushing my way up this last big climb at least there's some shade it's pretty warm today okay well i think i'm on the uh final descent down into breckenridge i think there's a couple little short uphill sections but pretty sure that's breckenridge off in the distance there and it sure looks like a ski resort on the other side of the valley so looking forward to not pushing my bike for a while oh oh smokes wow [Music] that was so much fun [Music] yeah getting close to the end of uh section six now then i'm gonna ride into breckenridge supposedly there's a bike path so it'll probably be uphill how it goes right i'm so beat okay now this isn't quite the ending i was expecting pretty dramatic okay section six i'm calling it it's in the bag holy smokes i kicked my ass what a day i'm gonna see if i can't catch a boss in a town i understand that's a possibility so okay day five falling out of the trail just checked out of my hotel i'm gonna swing by the market and get a few things and keep riding down to the section seven trailhead which is about four miles from here okay it's about uh 10 15. just stocked up with some extra food i'm on the bikeway back to the trailhead and yeah hopefully be there in 10-15 minutes start uh section seven great day here in breckenridge okay this is the start of colorado trail section seven leaving breckenridge up and over that ridge line in the distance down to copper mountain another climb up and over 12 000 feet today oh not feeling very strong at all so i think it's going to be mostly pushing this bike up the hill today oh so so hike a bike oh so a brief interview of riding my bike as opposed to hiking it okay shade up ahead three well gone 10.79 miles three hours and nine minutes it's 1 19 p.m and i'm at 11 289 i guess i'm headed up to that pass over there uh which should be around 12. okay this is probably the steepest section of hika bike i've encountered yet here on section seven gnarly whew the housers that is practically vertical now i am almost at the the pass here i'm at 11 660. i need to go up another 400 feet or so um but yeah look at the view from up here holy smokes i'm having sierra mountaineering flashbacks where are my friends oh hey i'm almost to the past all i see is blue sky in front of me so whew that was the steepest hike a bike i've ever done holy smackers oh yeah look at this worth it oh and it keeps climbing yeah all right so we're not quite at the high point but pretty darn close okay i have died and gone to single track heaven folks is what it's all about right here rolling along at 12 000 feet on some alpine single track just keep it upright uh my celebration of being at the top was premature false summit i still have another 500 feet of climbing oh i guess i should have checked the map maybe the only way to do this is for me just to lie to myself not how much elevation gain there is left hello pine tree 12 251 feet and climbing come on donkey here not even going to try and ride this nice work harder yeah yeah i mean there's on this trail there's a couple other spots that are that hard but you just nailed like one of the hardest okay well now i have finally made it to the high point of section seven and uh yeah i just talked to some guys that uh just rode off down that way you can probably still see him off the distance they gave me a few pointers for camping this past copper mountain see how motivated i feel but the idea is just to camp a little bit past copper mountain at this point we'll see how i feel when i get there just supposedly really good camping um maybe four miles five miles past copper with climbing so i don't know if my legs will deal with that or not we'll see but wow pretty amazing okay here we go the real descent into copper mountain oh so so oh a brake burner um [Music] so yikes a little rowdy i had a dropper post [Music] we [Music] oh that felt good okay well getting to the end of uh segment seven here coming into copper mountain it's been a crazy experience nothing like it i've ever ridden straight up and straight down okay colorado trail section eight here we go it's uh 9931 feet we have gone up 3763 feet today and descended 3412. and it's 4 26 p.m and 17.7 miles 6 hours and 16 minutes of ride the base of copper mountain it's weird mountain biking across ski runs here's another seems like a golf team [Music] so still rolling through copper mountain this must be like the 10th 11th ski run i've crossed a lot of them have little bridges which is cool it's getting to be that time of evening when my ass is dragging and i wish i were at camp i think i'm almost there though all right well this is a beautiful end to day five i found a gorgeous campsite it's a couple other people that are camped nearby slightly downhill from me um you can hear the sound of the streams flowing very pleasant i'm gonna put my tent right here and go to bed have dinner go to bed oh so tired okay this is day number six of colorado trail and i am just a few miles into section eight right now and i'm gonna stop here and get some water and then have another big climb today up to 12 500 feet just like yesterday although i think this should be more rideable than yesterday fingers crossed cold night last night you can still see some frost on the bridge there um yeah sun feels good well getting warmed up this morning play some hike a bike not nearly as horrible as yesterday though so far huh uh so so okay well goodbye trees at the tree line right now 11 545 feet only another thousand feet to go eleven thousand seven hundred feet looking down in the vat tour of the valley i just came up and it's copper mountain way off at the end of that valley can't really even see it anymore and i don't know exactly where i'm headed somewhere up that way on the map something called janet's cabin and that's it looks pretty darn nice i was expecting some kind of a old ruin but uh wow that's pretty cool looks like a first class cabin i guess people can i don't know if you can come up here in the winter or not but maybe you could snowshoe up to it [Applause] all right onward and upward whoo all right well i'm picking my way through the talus here at eleven thousand nine eighty two i think this saddle up here is around twelve and unfortunately i have to descend a little bit go through some undulating terrain up and down up and down and then climb up to the final pass at twelve thousand five hundred okay it's uh 11 15 a.m i'm at 1254 feet made it up the first big climb of the day that's the uh copper mountain area behind me and i'm headed down that way towards camp hale old uh world war ii base where they train the 10th mountain division so be interesting to ride through there check that out all right back to it smooth single track that i like smooth and not too steep this is an unexpected surprise [Music] [Music] covering some ground now ew it's stuff that's quite the cairn pretty cool okay this is the highest point of the day for me 12 500. just had a snack something to drink it's about uh 20 after 12. and headed that way toward leadville eventually it's my destination tonight so yeah it's been an awesome day so far hopefully stays that way okay looking forward to getting some pizza or some such thing in leadville here there's a really good place called high mountain pies go check that out [Music] oh my god okay i'm at kokomo pass i just like the sound of that sounds like it's uh hawaiian or something doesn't feel like hawaii up here though a little chilly but uh headed down that way now down toward camp hale see you down there hello sheep don't be afraid just me this mr mountain biker coming through [Applause] got some poop hanging on your back there buddy hey guys might be time to move oh yeah sounds like switzerland oh i made a new friend i think or he's just gonna head about me in a second but i think that's an alpaca not exactly sure anyway just rode through a whole flock of sheep and managed to fling sheep poop all over myself coming up off my tires so i smelled bad before and now i smell even worse all right well all the way down at 9 600 feet now it's a lot warmer down here but i was back up oops up there way up there it was a really steep descent and uh in just a few miles i dropped 2500 feet so it's going to be a little more downhill and then i have to climb up to tennessee pass which i think isn't too bad of a climb less than a thousand feet i think so all right back on the donkey warm down here in the low country [Music] pretty flowers okay well that concludes the single track for a while nothing but gravel for a while looks like much better okay i just made a little bit of a wrong turn fortunately i only went like a thousand yards past the turn off there wasn't really any signage there and i was just zoning out on that gravel road so we're going to take this little double track over into the trees and then it should be a single track yay okay just pushing up some of the steeper sections here on the way up to tennessee pass thank you shade a bunch of trail runners just past me going a direction okay coming to the end of section 8 at tennessee pass 10 000 feet oh oh can't do this entire section because it enters the wilderness so i'll end up detouring back onto that highway i just crossed all right okay so i was incorrect that highway crossing there is not tennessee pass tennessee pass is still up ahead so i'm still on section eight there we go again jump in the gun somebody really must want some pizza for dinner okay now it's officially done section eight in the bag tennessee pass [Applause] now spine section nine it's here on the right just riding along section nine right now for a little while longer until i have to get off and detour through that deal no power left in the legs for the hills not today oh we this is the end of the line for section 9 for me i believe from here on in it's uh wilderness or shortly thereafter it turns to wilderness so uh i gotta take this gravel road down to the highway now headed into leadville eight and a half miles to town [Music] so [Music] all right it's about 9 45 in the morning just left leadville and headed over to twin lakes it's a chance for uh likely that it's gonna rain this afternoon so i just want to try to get over to twin lakes which is about 20 miles from here set up camp just make a short day of it and then get down to buena vista tomorrow that's the plan so i think right in front of me is one of colorado's 14ers called mount albert i'm headed to mount albert campground where i'm gonna reconnect with the colorado trail it's been riding along a beautiful creek it's called half moon creek pretty much just one continuous dispersed camping zone along this road lots of really nice sights along this creek okay here we are okay i believe i'm getting back on section 10 of the colorado trail i had to detour around part of nine and part of ten here we go let the let the walking begin okay well first uh climb of the day and the biggest one is out of the way just kind of rolling down headed toward twin lakes supposed to be kind of a up and down section coming up so it's gonna be some more climbing for sure then it culminates with a nice big downhill all the way to the twin lakes so should be great looking forward to it so well i think i've uh come across my first uh honest-to-goodness beaver pond i think that's their lodge right there you can see on the far end of the pond all the sticks and logs they've piled up to make a dam pretty cool i think i just stumbled upon the kingdom of the beavers here i thought there was just one beaver pond but it just kept going and going and going in fact the first pond had gotten so big it started to um cover the trail the beavers had literally just dammed up built up a little mud dike right across the trail i had to kind of push my bike through a little bit of water and over a mound of sticks and mud so cool rolling down to twin lakes i had a little bit of a navigational snafu back there at the beaver ponds but i got to see some cool beaver ponds and i didn't go too far astray smells so nice right now i think the rain is making everything fragrant amazing totally different climate zone now back in the sagebrush [Music] [Applause] okay starting the uh colorado trail section 11. woohoo i've been looking forward to this all day this is kind of ridiculous that i have this oh it's even kind of warm this is what storing it in a black bag will do so in leadville last night the pizza place i wanted to go to was closed so i ordered a pizza hut delivered to my room and i couldn't finish the whole large pizza so i brought it with me oh man [Applause] so that was some tasty pizza and the only thing better than tasty pizza is tasty brownie yep so the pizza hat would not deliver my order um unless it was over 15 or something like that and surprisingly my large pizza didn't come to 15 so i said what else can you toss in to kick it over the minimum and they're like well we offer fresh baked brownies so i said hell yeah i'll take some of those and uh this is like one quarter of it the order it was like i don't know a 10 by 10 square or something like that it was a massive plate of brownie anyway ate what i could but i still have a quarter of it left so i'm going to wolf this down before i get mugged by a bear good morning well it's day eight on the colorado trail and i'm just climbing up away from twin lakes so whoops [Music] great getting breezy out [Music] [Music] [Music] oh that was a fun descent ew okay time to get out my blinking red light so well i can see why they call it buena vista i am a few miles north of buena vista it's just been an amazing ride amazingly beautiful but also crazy that it's all been downhill that's been pretty amazing so i made great time um yeah it's only 12 15 right now i've already gone almost 20 miles tunnels oh rolling into town quarter to one we need to find some lunch good morning it's day number nine of the colorado trail and i just got everything loaded up on the donkey and getting ready to ride out of the uh snowy peaks rv resort where i pitched my tent last night had a hot shower and charged up my battery so all good to go see you on the trail it's about 9 00 a.m and get about nine miles to ride on this county road to pick up the uh colorado trail again had to detour through buena vista yesterday to avoid some wilderness area so anyway it's all good had a good night's sleep and excited to get back on the trail today well i just started section 13 and started out at a little lake and i think this stream is running out of the lake down toward buena vista so still climbing it's uh 9 700 feet right now a little more climbing to do then i think still uphill to 10 000 but the grade is supposed to ease so hopefully i could ride more of it just got to the top of the first big climb supposed to go on up to 10 i'm at 98 right now oh this is the paved road part of the colorado trail there's a hot springs coming up and i was talking with uh another hiker who said that they um have food there for sale so i'm gonna go uh check it out if you have a late lunch there before continuing on to section 14. so so all right well this was a pleasant surprise i just stopped at uh mount princeton hot springs resort had some slices of pizza and coke for lunch a little picnic on the lawn over there and uh it's three o'clock now and i'm gonna head out on start on section 14 and see how go maybe five miles or so there's supposed to be some uh camping along the trail and you're near a couple creeks so that's the plan maybe ride for another two hours really pretty uh valley i'm going up right now lakes on my left all right i've arrived at the chalk creek trailhead start of section 14. pretty rough going here on the start of section 14 my storm alarm is going off even though it's not supposed to be any precipitation today not sure what's that what that's all about but uh whoo it's hot in the sun this lower elevation yikes hope this is over soon well i just did one of the most ridiculous rocky switchback ski climbs in a while and glad to be back on some downhill rideable single tracks so [Music] pretty cool okay i think i reached my campsite and water source for the evening supposed to be some campsite south of this bridge well uh day eight is drawing to a close it's uh been a pretty good day mileage wise it started out in um buena vista and rode 33 miles today 10 on pavement just to get from buena vista out to the trailhead and then another 22 23 miles and then i got down to [Music] this really cool hot springs um princeton hot springs and uh had some pizza had a late lunch of pizza and coke and just lay on the lawn there at the hot springs in the shade on their nice cool grass uh took a short nap and then got back on my bike and rode from about 3 30 to 5 15 or 5 30 something like that got another six miles in um to get to where i am now which is a great little campsite that uh got all to myself just off the trail right over there is the trail right there's a mosquito anyway yeah so i'm just waiting for my uh mushroom risotto to reconstitute so it's almost ready so dinner time okay this is day 10 colorado trail uh currently in the middle of section 14. maybe about a third of the way down actually at a nice campsite last night unfortunately i dropped my sunglasses right before i got to camp and didn't realize it and when i went back this morning to the spot where i had actually caught them on film falling out um they were gone so someone took them last night because there were several groups of hikers that came past my campsite so it's my own fault i don't know what i was thinking i must have been tired but live and learn also poor tui fell mountain biking and something that was just a fluke accident and broke her collarbone so um yeah not great news but making the best of it i wish i were there with her right now to help but i'm going to stay in the present right now and not think about that and worry about that well that's it for that for now love so so you so yeah nice creek here gotta check to see how much water i have maybe i'll get some more here so green it's like a park [Music] it smells like sheep cows cows ahoy hello cows light meadow i think i've been hearing uh some bulls braying since i got into camp last night i wasn't sure what it was when i first heard it and i was like huh do bears make that sound i don't think so maybe hello so so oh glad i'm in the shade very steep climb first part of it was also steep and really rocky at least now the rocks are gone it'll stay that way i believe this is the last big climb before i drop down to us highway 50 which i will detour on into poncha springs so i'm warding upward well just a few more miles and i'll be at the end of section 14. just finished the heinous push up a really steep hill last one of the day well actually i think there's a tiny little one coming up but nothing serious it's just nice to be able to cruise food forest not even downhill just flat like this great pond with uh moose i believe that's a moose mahogany yeah bridge okay coming to the end of section 14. let's see us 50 right in front of me down there in the valley that's what i'm going to take back to concha springs almost missed my turn hey i'm on county road 20 heading into poncha springs parallel so this will get me most of the way the podcast breaks and i have to get back on highway 50 again you

Channel: Jaeson Greer

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Length: 138min 47sec (8327 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 11 2021