So I'll be acting as shuttle for my wife on this ride. I plan on driving up Brush Creek and subsequent 4WD roads as far as possible, since this is a good chunk of the climb (or so I understand). Then we do the singletrack into Gothic, bike back into town, then I go bike around Mt CB and up Brush Creek to get the truck.

Anyone have any advice? How far up can I take a Dodge Dakota with good clearance and 4WD?

I perform a similar shuttle for Trail 401, driving my wife and myself within a couple hundred yards of the snowdrift, bike up to the high point, then back down to the midpoint. My wife follows the road back down to Gothic, while I bike up the road to get the vehicle.

Is my potential shuttle of Deer Creek any tougher than my shuttle of 401?

Thanks...

The shuttle I think would be really easy, you can basically drive up the actual trailhead with a sedan (which I have done). You do still have to ride up a 4 wheel drive road to get to the actual trailhead but its not too far. I am not sure if the 4 wheel drive road allows vehicles, that might be a pretty tough four wheel adventure, but I've never tried it.

but rode from Crested Butte all the way around, with Upper Trail as warm up....you should have no problem getting up to the gate in most any vehicle, your truck no problem, but you still have some hefty climbing after that on the single track, altho I think this is better than doing it clockwise as I did last year...have fun, trail's in awesome condition...