Video: Seth // Edit: Curtis // Words: Daniel
If you’re looking to do a bucket-list trip, then Crested Butte, Colorado, should certainly be on your short list of places to choose from. Crested Butte in the fall, as the aspens are glowing, should narrow it down a little more. And if you could somehow predict and choose one of the last weeks of incredible riding conditions before the snow really starts falling, but get lucky with a bit of snow to tame the dust, then get to ride some of the most incredible dirt one could imagine…well, you’d be asking for something really special. And that’s exactly what we got.
In mid-September, Seth and I went out to Crested Butte to meet up with our good friend Eric Porter and ride some of the most epic and iconic higher-elevation singletrack that exists in Colorado. While I had ridden a bit in Crested Butte before, it was in 2008. A lot has changed since then, and on that trip, I was merely stopping through on the way to the Pacific Northwest. This time, I was going to get to stay, hang out, and ride for multiple days in an area I had always been fascinated by. Not only that, it was fall - the Aspens were said to be glowing, and the weather was looking fantastic, with cool mornings and mild afternoons.
Getting to Crested Butte isn’t quite as easy as flying into a major city, but the Gunnison airport, just a short drive away, was a real pleasure to arrive at and depart from. The small terminal made it quite easy to get in and out without issue and saved several hours of driving that we would have been committed to otherwise, giving us, essentially, an extra day of riding on the trip. Little did we know we were going to need it.
Seth and I made it to town a day before Eric and got right to planning and getting acclimated. If someone were on vacation, it would make a lot of sense to acclimate lower down by riding some of the trails in Gunnison first, but we didn’t have time for that and we needed to figure out exactly what we were doing for the video. So, we built up our bikes and headed out in the afternoon to ride the Lupine and Lower Loop trails right from town. While these are a bit of a warm-up for some of the larger rides, they’re incredible rides in and of themselves. With Eric arriving later in the evening and us needing to conserve energy for the ride the next day, we called it good after a couple of hours on the trail and exploring the town and made it home to get some rest and make sure we were ready for the next day.
Our goal was to do a few of the iconic rides in the area and, in doing so, see whether Seth still had asthma and unscientifically validate whether his newfound diet was as good as he thought it was or if he would still need his inhaler. Nothing could prove this more effectively than a 2,500’ climb up above 11,000 feet in elevation. The higher you get in elevation, the less oxygen there is available to breathe due to the lower air pressure, so it was a good test to see what may happen. I can say with certainty that had this been last year, the inhaler would have been necessary.
As it turns out, there was no hacking or wheezing — no inhaler needing to be used at all. Seth seemed to be cured, but we were only halfway up the climb. It was already painful. And we had another 1,000 feet up in elevation to go. One local we ran into said, “You should be good until 2 pm…” referring to the storm that was slated to roll in that afternoon. Luckily, we were doing great on time for a ride. However, we were stopping, filming, and before we knew it, the clouds started to build, and the sky became increasingly ominous.
As we neared what we thought was the top of the Teocalli Mountain trail and the end of the climbing, a guy on an eMTB passed us and said, “Good luck staying dry!” before quickly continuing on his way. As we turned onto the Teocalli Ridge trail, after a challenging climb, made more challenging by the elevation, the wind picked up, and we heard a clap of thunder. Eric, also known as “Captain Safety,” and I were quickly more concerned and knew that it was time to get moving. Not to say that Seth wasn’t also concerned, but he is always up for an adventure. While we are as well, we’ve both had some near misses with lightning, and on a ridge at 11,000 feet is one of the last places you want to be in a storm.
We stepped up the pace to the actual top and were met with gusty winds, more thunder and lightning, along with some frozen precipitation. We were all prepared, with warmer layers, food, etc., as anyone should be when heading into the backcountry, but ideally, we would get back down before the storm really hit. As we started descending, Captain Safety reminded us that given the conditions, our location, and the time of day, it was best to ride at a comfortable yet conservative pace. A crash requiring outside assistance would be less than ideal, especially with inclement weather closing in and snow on the way.
Down we went, on one of the better descents I’ve ever experienced. Amidst a building storm, we rode some incredible ridgeline singletrack, ducking back into the aspens and flowing through turn after turn. As we came back out of the aspens at the bottom of Teocalli Ridge, we found ourselves on the new trail built by the local trail advocacy organization, Teo Happy Ending. This was an awesome bonus and a good way to tie the ride together. Sufficiently tired and confident Seth was cured, we cleaned up and found some good food in town.
While out at dinner, it dumped snow, and we woke up the next morning to an idyllic setting. While we had planned to do another big ride with Eric, we decided to hold off and scout things out. It’s best to give the trails time to dry out a bit, as it’s better for them and the bikes. Plus, trudging through a few inches of mud and snow sounded less than fun after a long day. So, instead of riding, we went out exploring in the rental car and figuring out what the next ride was going to be. I’ll leave that ride for Porter to share, but it was an epic to say the least, and it pushed all of us in a way we hadn’t pushed in a long time. That’s what big dumb rides are for!
We came home just before Hurricane Helene hit and have been fully consumed by the disaster that has been ongoing in western North Carolina since then. If you’ve seen the videos, you know what’s been going on. I’ll say that it was really nice to revisit this trip and take a mental break from everything that’s been happening here. Thanks to the Gunnison-Crested Butte team for helping make this incredible trip happen!
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