Searle Pass, Colorado Trail. (I've come full circle.)

[anthonys]

So about 4 years ago i pulled up stakes and moved to Colorado. Since then so much has changed in my life that I sometimes wonder if I'm the same person.

But.


That's not the point.

The point is: About 3 days after I moved here, I pulled out the singlespeed and met up with JD and Scorcher Seb in Dillon and did a little Searle Pass ride.

http://www.anthonysloan.com/Searle_Pass.html

(^Manky old pictures.)

I've been a lot of places since then, but until yesterday I have not been back up thataway.

So Saturday a few of us headed up to Copper and ground our way up the trail.



I feel compelled to insert an editorial comment here. Why, oh why, oh why does Intrawest, in their infinite wisdom feel compelled to run their horseback riding concdession on the Colorado Trail? Rain or shine? It makes for a completely nasty experience. It has all of the joy of riding through a stable that hasn't been mucked out in quite some time.

Further...Why did they reroute the CT through Copper in the first place?

OK, enough. These are bigger questions than this space has answers for.

Once free of the reeking, filthy, sucking quagmire that is the CT within the confines of Copper Mountain, we hit relatively pristine singletrack. I shoulda taken a picture of the quagmire for comparison's sake.









Didja ever ride down a trail and feel watched?



I did too, and not by those festive members of the asteracea family, t'was one of our goofy forest friends hanging out by the beaver dam.





Busting out of treeline. It is an abrupt transition here, hardly any krummholz at all.





I wish my jersey matched my bike that well too...



The top. Sandwich time.







And then it was all descent, back down to and through the stinking, reeking, sucking, fetid, filthy, fusty, repugnant, loathsome, detestable quagmire that is the Colorado Trail at Copper Mountain.

[Mountain Medic]

beautiful

[icegeek]

Originally Posted by anthonys

...

If only that was mud on our bikes...

[zzsean]

i love that ride - great pics as usual!

[slocaus]

You've learned a thing or two about photography, and gears.....

Unwrap the sandwich before the photo next time - it will look edible!

Captured the feel for us low(land)lifes. Thanks!

[Indiefab]

Thanks anthony. I'll be arriving in Copper for a weeklong stay next Sunday and I've got that exact route planned. It was the 2003 photos from your website that clued me into the route. From there I ordered the Summit Co trail map for further details. Did you take the clockwise route and return via the paved sidewalk?

For anyone who wants a sweet 3-D trail map of the Searle/Kokomo/Ptarmigan Pass route, download this file and open it with Google Earth. Be sure to use the tilt and rotate functions to virtually "fly" over the entire route. A nice armchair ride. (Ok, that didn't work. Just check out this pic instead. Copper is in the lower left, next to the compass which shows this is not a North-South perspective.)

[jenamin]

Originally Posted by icegeek

If only that was mud on our bikes...

eeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

(but the rest of the day looks to be stellar!

jj

[Kanga]

Thanks for sharing.... that's sacrilege that you haven't ridden in four years when it is so close (compared to me in California, at least). It brought back some great visions of this time last year, when I was doing the CT end to end. We posted a daily report on the otbmbc.com/epics web site. Your pics brought it all back....

It was a great trip, and many sections I'd love to go back and do as one-day rides. We had some serious weather to contend with through the 15 days, but July 28, 2006, the day we did Searle/Kokomo (yes, exactly one year ago yesterday!) was the clearest weather of our entire trip.

Here's the ride report of that day, one year ago: http://otbmbc.com/epics/2006-CT/day8.shtml

Thanks again for reminding me where I was a year ago, and for sharing your great photos.

[crisillo]

great pics, Anthony!

it looks like an awesome ride!

[SlowerThenSnot]

Cool stuff A!

[anthonys]

Originally Posted by Kanga

that's sacrilege that you haven't ridden in four years when it is so close .

I know. i really need to get out more.

[NuMexJoe]

What, no marmots? Just remembering Scrubbie trying to get close-ups at RMH05. That fugly green Ventana must've scared them back into the rocks. That's a sweet ride, Searle Pass is - thanks for the pics. And vent away on the horse folk. They seasonally ruin Molas-Coal Bank with their post holes.
- Joe

[zrm]

A couple of things about the horse situation at Copper:

The stables are not operated by Interwest; Copper Stables is a seperate business. The trail was re-routed out of the bottom of Copper for several reasons: First, the trail was totaly trashed by the horse operation and it impacting in a riparian area. The FS also wanted the trail out of lower Guller because Guller is an important wildlife cooridor and since it lower Guller is a lot narrower than upper Guller, there is less room for people and wildlife in the creek bottom. Lastly, the CT foundation never liked having to use the bike path as part of the CT and always wanted to get the trail up onto Copper mountian.
Also, if you ride the whole trail from Hwy 91 to Guller, only about 1/2 mile of more the four is used by Copper Stables and the part that isn't nasty from the horse traffic is actually a lot of fun.
Write or call the Dillon Ranger District and let them know Copper Stables should not be using the CT for their commercial operation, they should use their own closed trail system. The CT was built by volunteers for mostly the non commercial use of the public. It's ironic that the trail was re-routed parially because of the damage caused to the old trail allingment and the same horse operation is doing the same damage to the new tral allingment. I know the folks at the CT foundation hate what is going on and would love to have the horse operation off that section of trail,

[icegeek]

just two:


What's hip in Fall '07? AS shows off a lovely light gray and charcoal ensemble, accessorized with a touch of blue. (jb, ever the sessioner, heading back for a 2nd try)

[jasonb]

Fun afternoon guys...

[KRob]

Simply beautiful. This one really does it for me. Sorry about the horse trash. I'm totally with you on that one.
The essence of high alpine mountain biking exquisitely captured. Nice.

[SlowSSer]

positively amazing pictures. thanks.

[poppy]

Nery nice pics
Great trails even with the "other thing" .

[Zignzag]

Nice pics, beautiful place.

Last summer we shuttled cars and rode from Copper, over Searle Pass, to the Cooper ski area near Leadville. We also rode from Breckenridge to Copper and Commando Run from Vail Pass to Minturn. All great rides.

[slocaus]

Ouch! The burdens of a photographer! What AnthonyS, about 15 extra pounds?

[SHIVER ME TIMBERS]

amazing....wish we had the green and tacky trails

[athalliah]

AS - going backpacking somewhere?

[3sigma]

Can you still access the Searle Pass trail from the the bike path? I usually access the trail a couple miles west of Copper Mtn on the bike path (under the highway overpass), ride to the top of Searle Pass, turn around, and return the same route.
It sounds like riders are now accessing the trail from the Copper Mtn resort.

[Zignzag]

Originally Posted by 3sigma

Can you still access the Searle Pass trail from the the bike path? I usually access the trail a couple miles west of Copper Mtn on the bike path (under the highway overpass), ride to the top of Searle Pass, turn around, and return the same route.
It sounds like riders are now accessing the trail from the Copper Mtn resort.

We started at the ski resort.

[BunnV]

Those pictures truly capture the essence of why we ride mountian bikes!

How do you post so many hi-res pics at once? I can't post more than 5 at a time...

[Evil Patrick]

This is some high-elevation stuff! I was hyperventilating while just looking at the photos!

[anthonys]

Originally Posted by 3sigma

Can you still access the Searle Pass trail from the the bike path? I usually access the trail a couple miles west of Copper Mtn on the bike path (under the highway overpass), ride to the top of Searle Pass, turn around, and return the same route.
It sounds like riders are now accessing the trail from the Copper Mtn resort.

The CT has been completely rerouted and the link from the bike path up Guller is gone.

Originally Posted by athalliah

AS - going backpacking somewhere?

Aren't you just a little bit curious about what could be in that pack?

Originally Posted by BunnV

How do you post so many hi-res pics at once? I can't post more than 5 at a time...

Two things: 1) They are not attachments, but rather, links to images stored on my website. Because it doesn't have to run through MTBR there are less limitations. 2) They are not really all that hi-rez. Only 72 pixels/inch.

[athalliah]

Originally Posted by anthonys

Aren't you just a little bit curious about what could be in that pack?

A croquet set?

[anthonys]

Originally Posted by athalliah

A croquet set?

I like the way you think.

[slocaus]

When I still lived in Idaho, my home state, we had a huge meadow that we used to hike into about 5 miles, carrying hammocks, beer, food, hibachis, and a croquet set. The wickets were about 1/2 mile apart, and there was a small steam meandering through the "lawn".

God what fun! Mountain croquet. That was 35+ years ago, but what crazy memories and laughter.

[J]

Nice hair.

[aword4you]

Amazing photos, as always.

[cycljunkie]

Awesome pics... Epic beyond epic! Thanks for sharing.

[zrm]

Originally Posted by 3sigma

Can you still access the Searle Pass trail from the the bike path? I usually access the trail a couple miles west of Copper Mtn on the bike path (under the highway overpass), ride to the top of Searle Pass, turn around, and return the same route.
It sounds like riders are now accessing the trail from the Copper Mtn resort.

There are a couple ways to get on the trail from the ski area. The easiest way is from the Burning Stones plaza where the flyer and ummm, what is that lift called... anyway the main base area. The trail drops down to the bottom of the ski area right there. You can also get to the trail by riding up the access the trail via the ski area service road at Union Creek.

You cannot get on the trail from the bike path anymore. That was closed down 6 years ago and all the bridges across the creek are gone and the trail has been slashed/ripped.

[MrMountainHop]

I really want to ride that trail. Perhaps on a dry day, so a bike cleaning won't be quite so... mandatory.

Killer!

[Mrwhlr]

Originally Posted by athalliah

A croquet set?

Distilling equipment to prepare Dave's lunch?

[anthonys]

punq. Ain't you s'posded to be heading out this way?