Summer 2007 Westcliffe Colorado / Sangre De Christo and Wet Mountain Ranges.
From Ride Forum:
Short rundown, pictures and full report to follow (by somebody else!)
Monday:
Hermit Pass 4WD road to 13k feet. Picked up RBT at base of Hermit and rode south for quite a ways on RBT. Probably too far as we were exhausted by the time we exited the RBT.
Tuesday:
Continued south on RBT to Medano Pass road, took Medano Pass up and over SDC Mts into GSDNP. Lots of sand! Lots of fun for some. Back over Medano, out to highway, Gardner Road up and through Wet Mts, Puma Canyon gravel back to Westcliffe.
Wednesday:
Gravel up through Wet Mts to Can(y)on City, rafted Royal Gorge, returned via different gravel route. Lots of elk out as it was nearly dark. We had waited in Canon City for a couple of hours for the rain to cease before finally calling it and going.
Thursday:
Backroads to southern Wet Mts. Cisneros ATV trail. Rode up exposed switchbacks for several thousand feet elevation until we came to a very large tree across teh trail. We spent an hour clearing a path with a folding saw. As we finished the lightning and hail and cold rain started. Didn't let up for a few hours. We rode on as we were getting cold and we were already exposed at 10k feet. Got through 10 miles of the Cisneros to a trunk USFS gravel road only to find it blocked in dozens of places by blown down trees. We rode over, through, under, and around these blockages for 10 miles until we hit Gardner road and headed back to the cabin. It rained the entire time and we were at 10k - 11k feet elevation for most of it. An adventure. I spotted a black bear while leading, right at a blockage that took us into the woods to get around. The same woods the bear had run into.
Friday:
Middle Wet Mts, Troy led a ride on some really good USFS secondary 4WD trails/roads. My clutch cable broke at 1030am, just as we came out onto Gardner Rd. As my spare was at the cabin, I left the group and rode home on gravel. The three amigos apparently found some great ATV trails after I left them.
Excellent trip. Want to go back and explore some more.
Great wrap up, Mike! I would add that on day 2, we started by running up and down Music Pass--which was a blast. We picked up the RBT from Music Pass and rode it South until it turned into a Jeep Road (Muddy Creek Road?) to Medano pass.
Friday, after Mike's clutch cable broke, we toured Bishop's Castle--worth a visit. We enjoyed a lunch of MRE's at one of Bishop's picnic tables. Then we rode South about 1 mile to a forest road where we picked up 2nd Mace Trail. This entire trail system is EXCELLENT! 2nd Mace ran into Dome Rock Trail which ended up dead-ending on private property. We back-tracked to some single-track and promptly wussed out. We back-tracked about 2000 feet of the single-track and rode Dome Rock back to a junction where we picked up Silver Creek Trail. This trail ran for several miles and was WONDERFUL! It started with a very long continuous down hill. Steep, but easy. Then it opened into a beautiful meadow, ran for 1/4 mile, then back into the woods along a narrow, fast-flowing stream. It followed the stream for a mile or 2 with one very good crossing. Then back into another meadow before heading back into the woods for a very serious and long uphill to empty onto a forest road. Kyle & I both ended up laying it over during the uphill in different places. It was steep enough that getting started was difficult to do without lifting the front wheel--fun!
Using our tracks and other resources, I'm going to build a route that includes the Cisneros, St. Charles, possibly the Snow Slide, Deer Creek Trail (single track), Dome Rock, and Silver Creek trails. You could make a really, really excellent loop out of this stuff with a visit to Bishop's Castle in the middle if you wanted.
All four of us have all the photos, but Sean, I'll get some online for you soon. We'll eventually have a good video to share!
Mike's photos are below.
Troy's photos.
Daryl's photos.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 5:
