Crested Butte Therapy Volume I

We typically get the Redstone posse together in March/April for an annual pilgramige to the desert. This year, I was unable to go due to the birth of our second daughter so the promise of a good summer trip was made early on. The last weekend of August was the time - time to pay homage to the legendary trail fairies of Crested Butte. I shut the bike shop down for the weekend so we could roll out early Friday and get 3 solid days of riding.

I snapped a couple of shots of the rooftop setup as we stopped for a pee break on our way up to Fremont Pass. It's a beautiful thing, these fine 3 clean bikes:

And Chris said I had to throw this one in as payment for driving...


The plan was to camp in the Cement Creek area and do all of our riding South of town. We had no plans to go into CB proper. We lucked out and got a great spot near the bottom of Cement Creek Road. Sights like this are all over in the mountains. Makes you wonder what life was like back when this baby was brand new.

Once we found our spot, it was time to lay claim to all the tent spots. Melis, always the innovator, used this broom to clear the area for his tent. That big truck with bikes on top? It's great for creating broomsticks...


The plan was to get in early afternoon Friday, set up camp, then ride. The ride did not dissapoint. We started off with a bang. Riding from camp, we explored the northern side of the Cement Creek drainage. A short jaunt up Walrod Gulch led us to the very steep but very fine 412. The bottom was a hike, but it turned into a fantastic leg burning climb. Here's Hippy Dave showing fine form, doing a good job of holding back the pain. Next is Melis rolling out of sight into the shrubbery.




We kept climbing on 412 until we got to an intersection with Double Top. We headed in a westerly direction on Double Top, to roll back and close the loop back in Cement Creek. Holy crap that route was fun. We did a little out -

and back -
to check out the views to the north. Then it was time to get serious about descending. If anyone asks, descending Double Top to 409 is certainly an ass behind the saddle affair, complete with rocks, surprises, and huge moto whoop sections. Fun indeed. We contemplated the goods before dropping in.


Instead of descending all the way directly to Cement Creek, we opted for the rolling, traversing descent back to the Walrod Gulch trail head. This last picture isn't that great if you blow it up, but you get this gist. Excellent sidehill action on some non run of the mill CB tourist trails.
From here, we rolled back to camp to saddle up on some dinner and contemplating about Saturday's epic to come. We had no idea of the epic proportions that would be unfolded the following day.