Colorado high country offers challenging rides for bike enthusiasts

By Ted Alan Stedman
Special to the Denver Rocky Mountain News

Colorado long ago earned its stripes as a mountain biking Mecca, with a patchwork of thousands of miles of trails and dirt roads that crisscross the state's high country.

The vast majority of these are one-day trips, usually out-and-back or loop rides where climbs, descents and riding over tricky terrain are attractions in their own right.

But like many things, mountain biking has another dimension. In the case of Colorado, there's a select league of public land routes that out-distance and out-climb the rank-and-file trails used by most mountain bike day-trippers. These trails are epic in the true sense, providing off-road bikers possibilities for extended, multi-day trips.

The rides listed here are among the pinnacle of Colorado's long-distance bike routes. Each puts riders miles from the nearest towns. More likely than not, cell phones won't work. And it goes without saying that careful planning is required. So are intermediate-or-above bike handling skills, and experience with bike repairs and basic medical emergencies.

If you can swing the considerable logistics, these Fab 4 bike tours will give any rider a heightened sense of what real backcountry two-wheeled travel is all about in Colorado.

Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

Hikers have the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails, fabled long-distance routes that are trophies for intrepid trekkers. And since its completion in 1997, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route offers mountain bikers a two-wheeled version of the same prize.

The 2,465-mile GDMBR is the unsurpassed monarch of mountain bike trails, the longest designated off-route route in the world, according to Montana-based Adventure Cycling, the non-profit association that conceived and mapped the trail. It roughly traces the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico as it passes through five Western states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico).

Colorado's leg of the GDMBR measures 548 miles and holds some of the route's most scenic stretches of Rocky Mountain terrain. But it's the state's elevation that gets the most attention. A typical day might begin on a gentle country road in a lush valley that eventually gives way to an arduous, lung-searing climb across one or more mountain passes. In fact, the GDMBR's highest point - 11,910 feet - is reached in Colorado at Indiana Pass, about 23 miles southwest of Del Norte.

The rhythm of climbing steep passes and negotiating rocky descents dictates the distance you can comfortably cover in a day, which usually averages about 50 miles for the fully loaded bikepacker. If you follow the daily mileage outlined in the GDMBR's official guide book, riding from Wyoming to New Mexico takes 11 days.

Steamboat Springs, Kremmling, Breckenridge, Silverthorne, Salida, Del Norte and Platoro are the larger towns en route where riders can find lodging and a decent offering of supplies. Sprinkled in between are small towns and off-the-map general stores, so riders are never more than a couple days away from civilization and supplies.

Colorado Trail

Cutting a swath across the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Durango, the 471-mile Colorado Trail is a wild, daunting, epic undertaking for mountain bike touring. And it's probably the most scenic - and technical - multi-day ride offered in the southern Rockies.

Seven national forests, six wilderness areas, eight mountain ranges and five major river systems are traversed by the trail that owes its existence to volunteers and leaders who envisioned a recreational corridor linking existing trails with numerous access points.

In 1973, the Colorado Mountain Trail Foundation was created to shepherd the project along. When funding hit a snag, the Colorado Mountain Club's Gudy Gaskill stepped forward to continue organizing volunteer efforts and gain public support. Gaskill's efforts prevailed, and the Colorado Trail was officially christened in 1987. In the years since, it's become a rite of passage for serious Colorado hikers, who make up the majority of trail users, and a growing contingency of mountain bikers.

Mountain biking is allowed on most all segments of the trail, but it's prohibited from designated wilderness areas. The detour routes steer riders to four-wheel-drive roads and occasional paved routes that skirt around the wilderness areas. There's also a handful of suggested optional detours that loaded bike tourers should heed. Several sections of extremely rough terrain make it almost impossible to ride a loaded bike, which usually forces riders to haul their bikes along.

The Colorado Trail is a wild trail that's not so developed that you can't get lost. Side loops and trail splits demand good map reading skills. And unlike other trails, the Colorado Trail often keeps you remote for days on end. The Cochetopa Hills section southwest from Marshall Pass, for instance, has no convenient supply point. Saguache, the closest town, is 33 miles away. The area also hugs the Continental Divide, making access to water a concern. In short, you plan ahead and don't overestimate your ability on any section of the trail.

If you go Order Great Divide Mountain Bike Route maps through Adventure Cycling, (800) 721-8719, www.adv-cycling.org. Cycling The Great Divide by Michael McCoy, The Mountaineers, (800) 553-4453, www.mountaineersbooks.org, provides complete trail descriptions. The Colorado Trail, the Official Guidebook, by Randy Jacobs, Westcliffe Publishers, (800) 523-3692, www.westcliffepublishers.com, has trail descriptions of the entire trail, including mountain bike detours. The series of 29 topographical trail maps can be ordered through the Colorado Trail Foundation, (303) 384-3720, www.coloradotrail.org. The San Juan Hut System requires advanced payment to use the hut facilities. Mountain bike season runs June 1 to Oct. 1. Contact (970) 728-6935 or www.sanjuanhuts.com, or write San Juan Hut Systems, P.O. Box 1663, Telluride, CO 81435. Two good ride guides are Colorado Hut to Hut by Brian Litz, Westcliffe Publishers, (800) 523-3692, www.westcliffepublishers.com, and Mountain Bike America: Colorado, by Stephen Hlawaty, The Globe Pequot Press, (800) 962-0973, www.globe-pequot.com. The definitive guidebook for Tabeguache is Bill Harris' Cycling the Uncompahgre Plateau, Wayfinder Press, P.O. Box 217, Ridgeway, CO 81432; www.copmoba.com.

San Juan Hut System

Roughly retracing the getaway route of gunslinger Butch Cassidy's gang after they robbed a Telluride bank in 1889, the San Juan Hut System's 206-mile Telluride to Moab tour transports riders from Colorado's cool alpine mountaintops to the fiery deserts and redrock canyons of Utah's Moab.

Besides the obvious history and geography lessons, the system is special for its six wooden huts that serve as backcounty shelters for fat-tire tourers. The fully outfitted huts relieve riders of the necessity of carrying tents, main meals, campstoves, cookwear and sleeping bags. The only catch, if you can even call it that, is riders must pay $395 each (up to eight allowed) for the privilege of six nights of food and lodging - a good deal for an adventure of this caliber.

Because the huts are destinations in themselves, riders might have to hustle to make each nightly appointment. That's not only because of the energy-sapping altitude (average hut elevation is 9,000 feet), but from the fact that the alpine meadows are choked with all manner of blooming wildflowers, which beckon repeated picture-taking. With the cloud-piercing, snowcapped San Juans to the south, and the desiccated expanse of the approaching Colorado Plateau to the west, the contrasting landforms are uniquely spectacular and offer non-stop panoramas during the entire six-day trek.

The first day's ride to Last Dollar Hut - a fancy plywood cabin - is just 15 miles, the shortest day ride in the system. But in those few miles there's 2,800 feet of climbing to Last Dollar's lofty 11,000-foot San Juan perch. Riders winded by what's probably the easiest of days should know that the distances grow to an average of 35 miles between huts, and the fifth day's ride encompasses a colossal 4,400-foot climb.

By then, the ride has entered the transitional territory that gives way from cool high-country to desert. And it's likely the lower-elevation midday temperatures will be a good 20 degrees warmer than previous days. The rule says carry as much water as you think you'll need, then double the amount.

Tabeguache Trail

The first challenge of the Tabeguache Trail is to pronounce it (say tab-a-watch). The second is to resist the temptation to turn around and repeat the 144-mile ride that by many accounts is the epitome of western Colorado bike routes.

Coursing across valleys, mesas, pinon-juniper forests and remote BLM range lands, the Tabeguache is a snippet of classic Colorado. The trail got its start in 1988, when a fledgling group of resource-savvy mountain bikers calling themselves the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Association dedicated the elbow grease to create a contiguous link between Montrose and Grand Junction. By connecting existing dirt roads and ATV trails with 11 miles of newly built singletrack, the Tabeguache was born.

Like you'd expect from any long-distance route, this wild and woolly ride requires excellent map reading skills. The bike association has placed strategic trail markers, but between extreme weather, pot-shotting cowboys and toothy critters, many of the markers are illegible. Generally, you can find water in most of the many drainages the trail transects, or atop the vast Uncompahgre Plateau. But later in summer, or after a dry spell, water can be scarce at lower elevations.

Most fit bikers can hammer out the Tabeguache in four days. But there's no need to hurry. The route meanders through at least four distinct eco zones, including desert, woodlands, montane and subalpine zones, each with requisite flora such as scrub oak, pinon-juniper, ponderosa pine, aspen, spruce and fir. Because the Tabeguache tops out at 9,500 feet, lingering snowfields can hamper upper elevations until mid-June.

The region has what wildlife officials believe is possibly the largest population of bears and mountain lions in Colorado, due in large part to the sparse human population and rough character of the land. On that note, the association discourages riding during the fall hunting season, when hunters descend in droves. If there's any doubt, riders should wear blaze orange tops to visually announce their presence to hunters.