I could not ride for 6 days in Crested Butte and not hit Trail 401! It always comes up whenever I read an article about mountain biking in Crested Butte. I considered it a must for this trip!
Trail 401 is a bit longer in distance than Teocalli Ridge, but the elevation gain is about the same. The difference is that it’s split into two climbs on Trail 401. I knew it’d be another tough climb, regardless. I live in flat lands 500 or so feet above sea level, so being over 11,000 feet at the peak of these trails after climbing roughly 2,000 feet was going to be difficult no matter what!
It’s a little over 6.5 miles from the parking area to the start of the downhill, and most of it is on the road. This road climb wasn’t too bad. I was actually able to pedal the majority of it. At one point I passed a couple who were driving up the road and stopping to take in views along the way. The guy asked me, “is that fun?” I replied, “Not yet!”
Even if it was just a workout at this point, the views were spectacular. I think that’s really the case no matter what trail you ride in Crested Butte!
Once you enter the singletrack, it really starts to go up. I had to walk a lot on this section. After venturing into the forest, with the wind picking up, and my body drenched in sweat from all the exertion, I started to get quite chilly! I’d take my jacket off to try to dry up some of the sweat, but I really needed the jacket on to cut that chilly breeze. I was also a little paranoid. It was very quiet. I was all alone. There are bears and mountain lions in this area. My head was on a swivel. Suddenly, my heart skipped a few beats as I heard a loud cracking & crashing, ending with a low-pitched thud! A tree had fallen nearby! I didn’t see it, but it couldn’t have been too far away. As if I wasn’t paranoid enough about animals that could eat me, now I had to worry about trees falling on me!
Needless to say, despite my gasping for oxygen-depleted air, and rubber-like thighs, I continued to pedal as much of this singletrack as I could. At this point I was getting mad at the fact this climb wasn’t over yet! But a little anger is always a good thing when you need to push yourself physically!
There was no rain in the forecast on this day, but as I approached the top, there was clearly rain off to my west. I better hurry up, I thought. I wasn’t too worried about it once I got going downhill, as I’d be going fast, and I’d be moving away from the dark clouds. Luckily I was soon starting the descent, and I never looked back.
The descent starts on a lot of straight trail, but it’s fast, and has some great views of the valley! In the summer, this part of the trail is lined with wildflowers, but in the autumn they have all turned brown and lost their will to stand up straight.
After kindly asking a couple cows to remove themselves from the trail, I got into a bit more flowy section with loamy hero dirt! I was really working on my cornering all week, focusing on leaning the bike, while keeping my torso upright and fighting the urge to squeeze the brake levers. I felt really good out there on Trail 401! The primo dirt conditions certainly didn’t hurt matters.
I made it down the initial downhill in a hurry! As a matter of fact, close to the top 10% on Strava! Well, I’m sure most people stop a million times to take in the views and snap a few photos, so take that with a grain of salt. Though I do think at this point in the week I had already gotten faster than I was on day 1.
On the second climb I came across one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve seen looking over toward Gothic Mountain. Goodness! Just look at it!
Do you smell that? Oh wait, I can’t send smell through blogs. Dang it! I really wish I could. The wonderful aroma of the pine forest is one of my favorite scents! You won’t hear this from many people, but… I must say, Trail 401 smells great!
The rest of the downhill was more great cornering practice, with a few more rocks thrown in for good measure. It was over a little too fast, and then it was back to the car park, as the Brits would say. My bike had enough mud splattered on the frame to certify this as a legit mountain bike ride!
I had that runners high feeling after completing that trail! Yeah, I mountain biked it, I didn’t run, but I never hear people talking about a mountain bikers high. Why is that? Actually, a mountain bikers high is much higher than a runners high. At least for me. Screw running.
Anyway, check out the video, if you will:
#LiveTheAdventure
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