Trip Report Summary: Mountain biking this section of trail is a flowy and fun way to spend a day on your mountain bike near Buena Vista, Colorado. This is an intermediate ride and does not take very much logistical planning and only requires a few hours of time to complete it.

I am going to discuss this route as I would ride it, as an out-and-back starting from the north. If you are using the Mountain Bike Project route as a reference, I will be skipping the start and finish of that route. If you are doing a through-bike or are trying to complete every mile of the Colorado Trail (CT), you will want to follow the recommended route by Mtb Project, but if you are looking for the highest quality day ride on this stretch, I can’t recommend this route enough.

Difficulty: 6/10
Length: 14.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,150 feet
Estimated Ride Time: 2 to 3 hours
Would I recommend? Oh hellz yeah

The Riding:

This mountain bike ride in central Colorado is dynamic with the two miles closest to CR 343 being pretty chunky and technical and the rest of the ride being mostly flowy and fast.

The character of the first two miles on the way out is not what I would consider to be my favorite riding. It is chunky and steep with several spots where I usually must do a short hike-a-bike. That being said, the hike-a-bikes are very short and just remind yourself that you get to descend it at the end!

From the top of the climb, you get five miles of top-notch mountain flow. On your way out, you will get one continuous 500-foot descent, but otherwise this part of the ride is mostly characterized by intermittent descents and climbs. This section of trail is ridiculously fun in both directions but maybe slightly better on the way out. There are a couple streams that always flow in this stretch so don’t forget to bring your filter if you don’t want to carry all of your water. I would classify this entire stretch as an intermediate (blue) difficulty overall although there are two 25-yard long expert stretches near a couple of the creeks that you’ll cross.

The painful climb that you started with is stupendous on the way back. You get to cap off the ride with a ripping 1,000-foot descent back to the car. These last two miles are the most technical miles of descent that you will do, so make sure you save some energy for this stretch. All of it is rideable for an intermediate rider like me and I would classify it as an intermediate/advanced (blue/black) difficulty.

Alternate Climb Option:

Instead of parking at the junction of the CT and CR 343, you have the option of climbing CR 345 to nearly the top of Bald Mountain where there is a spur trail that will connect you back to the single track. This option eliminates the chunky climb from CR 343 and alternatively, you climb up a relatively well-maintained dirt road. The downside (or positive if you want some more vert) is you add an additional 400 feet of climbing and a few miles on to your ride. So pick you poison I guess. This option I’d say is a little bit more physically taxing although less frustrating than the chunky ascent from 343.

If you take this option, on your return ride, take a right onto CR 343 and follow that until it meets CR 306. Then take the paved CR 306 back to where you started.

Why You Should Crop the Ride:

Per the Mountain Bike Project route, you will start at the Avalanche Trailhead and take the CT southeast until you reach CR 322 at which point you descend the 4x4 road until you reach pavement at which point you take paved county roads to the Chalk Creek Trailhead.

I crop the last six miles of the ride because even though ripping steep 4x4 roads is fun, this one is very narrow, very busy, and very not easy to climb back up. I prefer sticking to the single track than descending the road.

I crop the beginning three miles of the ride because the mountain biking quality here is much lower quality and because the closer you get to CR 306 (Avalanche Trailhead) the busier the trail is. I have never done the 3 miles to the southeast from 306 without running into at least a half dozen people. Conversely, the 7 miles between CR 343 and CR 322 gets significantly less traffic and is much higher quality riding.

My recommendation then is to start at where the CT crosses CR 343 (approximately mile 3 per Mtb Project) and don’t go further than CR 322 (approximately mile 10 per Mtb Project). CR 343 does not have great parking options where the trail crosses it, so be ready to park on the side of the road.

Conclusion

Overall, this ride is rad, especially for its proximity to town. You may not be really “out there” but you get high-quality mountain riding not 15 minutes from BV. Bang for your buck, this is definitely one of the top rides in the area. If you are looking for an awesome evening, summer ride while the days are long, this is a great option.

If you have extra time and are looking for more of an adventure ride, read our trip report for the Monarch Crest ride and of the Alpine Tunnel Loop rides.

Recommendations

• Ride it out-and-back starting from the North – the climb from the south is much busier and much less rewarding on the way back down.

• Bring your satellite communication device – Service is mostly decent, but still not a bad idea to have

• The season for this ride is pretty long! It isn’t at crazy high elevations, so it dries out relatively early and stays dry well into the fall.

• Ride in when the leaves are changing to catch some of the Aspens in full color

Gear Used

• Marin Rift Zone 2 Mountain Bike

  • Amazingly affordable bike for what you get

• Osprey Raptor 14 hydration pack

  • Great storage and 3L of water is more than you need on almost all rides

  • Kind of big for this ride. Would recommend something smaller for a daily driver back pack but overall it did the trick.

  • Buckles have broken on me. Buckles on the Osprey packs seem to consistently be poorly built.

• Katadyn BeFree Replacement Filter along with the Seeker 2L Hydrapak Collapsible Water Bottle

  • The Katadyn BeFree 1.0L soft sided bottle is pretty flimsy and I’ve broken two of them already. Get the BeFree Replacement Filter and attach it to the much more durable Seeker 2L bottle

• Spot Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger

  • Very minimal and relatively affordable GPS communication device. The Garmin InReach series offers some more functionally capable devices that I would recommend although they can be expensive.