Bikepacking The CT: Retrospective

I guess I've really been writing this for myself so I can come back here,  relive this, and refresh my memories of this stuff once they start to fade. However, on the chance that somebody else is reading this and considering The CT ride here's my advice for what it's worth. Do it - BUT - this one should not be your first bikepacking trek. Even if you are in touring mode and know what you're doing, this can be a monster ride physically and mentally. I would schedule extra time, a rest day, know where you'll be able to get a motel room and keep a couple thousand calories of food on hand at all times. Do not even think about putting yourself on a 4 or 5 day schedule unless you've done this before and/or are an elite rider with extensive experience and are willing to accept the risk of riding extreme exposure at night when weak and hallucinating a long way from any kind of help.

One of the things I regret not doing on this ride was taking the time to photograph the people we met along the ride. There was our fellow bikepacker Reid from Durango, the three dog girl, the alpaca couple, the horsepacking man from Missouri, the day rider from Denver and others. I also had a momentary encounter with Jesse Jakomait and he gave me words of encouragement as we passed. Wow, a whole new level of respect for the people racing this trail.

Would I do it again? I am undecided about that. There's a lot of hike-a-bike. Maybe in the other direction. The first time Jesse Jakomait rode this route he vowed he would never come back. Then, this year on his 5th attempt he set the course record. I think it's unlikely I'll be back as a thru rider because there are so many other routes out there I have not yet done, and I'm closing on 60.

By the end I was schooled by the CT & mother nature and acutely aware of my own human frailties. I had to fallback on civilization; car rentals, motels and restaurants to get to my goal, but that's OK. I rode and walked hundreds of kilometers of the CT. I ate and slept on the CT. There was a little blood,  lots of sweat, and a few tears. I did it all with my son and we still ride together. I'm proud that I can say that.

Bikepackng The CT: Montrose, Ouray, Silverton, Durango

The morning of Tuesday July 28th we were at the Econolodge Motel in Gunnison Colorado after having pulled the plug on the ride yesterday. Our plan now was to drive to Durango and get some trail riding in before it was time to fly out. After making a few phone calls, I rode over to the airport and rented a Kia Sportage. We checked out Double Shot Cycles and the sporting goods store where James picked up some running shoes (I had my flip flops) and then considered a side trip up to Crested Butte but decided we better just head to Durango.

Main Street Silverton

We stopped in Montrose at the DQ for a snack then drove on to Ouray, a small town nestled between steep mountain slopes which was hosting a jeep jamboree. It was a long, steep, winding road up out of Ouray before we reached the pass and drove down to Silverton. A train runs between Silverton and Durango so a challenging adventure might be to take the train to Silverton then ride the CT back to Durango. We got to Durango with time enough to do some reconnaissance while we had the car. We located The Spanish Trail Motel, our accomodations for Friday and The Mail Print & Copy Centre which we hoped would ship our bikes. Pizza for dinner then we navigated to the Junction Creek camp ground near the CT trailhead and paid $20 to pitch our tents beside an outhouse. It was smelly but convenient for nature breaks  compared to camping wild.

Junction Creek Campground

July 29th - Got up at 7:00am and drove to the Durango Diner for steak-n-eggs. Tried to find  a Hertz office and ended up at the airport seventeen miles south of Durango to return the rental. Put the bikes together and hung out at the airport to drink coffee, use the WiFi, and plot a route back to Durango. We ended up on the Black Canyon Trail System, then after stopping at a coffee shop in town found Velorution Cycles were we reserved bike boxes - cool shop. Picked up some beer then back up the five mile hill to Junction Creek, had a campfire and scoped out trail riding for tomorrow.

Black Canyon Trails Durango

July 30th - From Junction Creek we rode the CT and did the Hoffeheins Dry Gulch loop. Later we rode down to Durango and checked out another bike store, an outdoors store and the Durango Brewing Co. Camped at Junction Creek again this day.

Gudy's Rest

July 31st - after breakfast got the bike boxes at Velorution and walked them over to the shipping office. Breaking down the bikes and packing them for shipping turned into a marathon effort to get the boxes to the optimal size for the best shipping rates. After this we walked from downtown Durango to the Spanish Trails Motel and got some food at the grocery store across the street. I arranged a ride to the airport with the desk clerk.
The next day I left the motel early to catch a flight to Denver, James was flying out later in the day bound for Vancouver. Not the best way to end our trip, so it goes.

Bikepacking The CT: Sargents Mesa, Hwy 114, Gunnison

 Rose shortly after sunrise on Monday July 27th to another sunny day in the high country. The hikers that were camped nearby at Tank Seven Creek were already gone. This was day nine on the trail and the established routine was filter water, make breakfast and coffee, wash pack and then try to turn circles with the legs.

Sargents Mesa

One thousand feet of climbing  in the first five miles doesn't even seem noteworthy so I guess the first point of interest this day was Sargents Mesa, a grassy plateau at about 11,300ft that looked like it would be a good place for grazing elk.

Flowers near Baldy Lake

Further down the trail we came to the turn to Baldy Lake but we were good for water so didn't want to detour down to the lake. Continuing on we passed from the San Juan National Forest to the Gunnison National Forest and encountered a herd of cows while descending a jeep road to Highway 114.

Gunnison National Forest

At highway 114 we stopped for coffee and a map check.
We had seen Jesse Jakomait pass earlier in the day and now a second competitor in the Colorado Trail Race passed. For them to be at this point meant they had to be riding all nite on this terrain with maybe one hour of sleep. Ouch!

Highway 114 descending through Cotchetopah Canyon.

We agreed that based on the way things were going at this point, we would most likely not make it to Durango on time for our flight out. We were looking at The La Garita Detour of fifty miles before we could resupply at Lake City and then a monster climb up to Coney at 13,200ft if we tried to stick to the original plan. We needed an alternate plan so we decided to ride down to Gunnison, take a motel room, rent a car in the morning and drive to Durango. This would give us a couple days to ride the trails around Durango and figure out how to get our bikes shipped home.

Everything fit in the Kia Sportage no problem.

The next thirty miles were descending on Hwy 114 through Cotchetopah Canyon with almost no traffic. After the turn towards Gunnison we rode with a cyclotourist from the UK who had started in Virginia. At Gunnison we turned in at McDonalds and I think James had two meal combos an extra large coke and a McFlurry then we checked into the Econolodge had a shower, raided the vendng machines and used the WiFi.

Bikepacking The CT: Princeton Hot Springs, Foos, Tank 7.

July 25th started on segment 13 at Cottonwood Pass.

Passed the trailhead to 14r Mount Shavano near the highway 240 crossing.

Our ride started with a steep 1000ft of climbing then we quickly dropped 2000ft descending into Princeton Hot Springs where we had ice cream and resupplied. I was a little disappointed as this place struck me as more of a tourist trap then a place where I could soak tired legs. After Princeton there was another quite steep rocky hike-a-bike and the rest of segment 14 was a lot of up and down on rocky rough trail. A camping place near Cree Creek not far from highway 50 is as far as we got today.

Cree Creek camp dinner.

We met a group ride coming the other way today. They had support vehicles meeting them at the segment trailheads and so only had to carry a little food and water. 

Reid caught up to us today and his father rode out and did part of the trail with him.

This was a very tough day for me. We had single digit low temperatures overnight and my summer sleeping bag was not good for this. I put on everything i had and was still too cold to sleep. Next time I will have a better bag and down middle layer.  Today my eyes had puffed up and I was hurting from the start which just got worse as the day progressed. By the days end the body was starting to shut down and I was worried about falling but luckily had only one minor tipover. Hopefully tomorrow will be better as it starts with a 3000ft climb up to Foos.

Top of Fooses Creek Trail

July 26th - Cree Creek to Tank Seven.
Followed Fooses Creek Trail for nine miles ascending 3000ft on nice trail up to the last mile which was super steep on loose aggregate. It was five miles to Marshall Pass and then on to segment 16. We rode as far as Tank Seven Creek and camped.
We met Reid twice today. The first time  at Marshall Pass where I bought two freeze dried packets from him and then again nine miles later. We noticed that he had dropped his stormshell on one of the descents. James picked it up and we returned it to him a few miles later where he had stopped to camp. I think he was pretty happy about that.

An eroded section near Marshall where motorized vehicles use the trail 

Bikepacking The CT: Copper, Leadville, Buena Vista

On the morning of Thursday July 23rd once again I crawled out of my sleeping bag at sunrise after a well earned sleep. We packed up the sleeping stuff and rode down to the Copper Mountain Ski Resort hoping to find a place to get breakfast. Somebody, I forget who, had told us about a Coffee Bar in the Copper Mountain Sports building so this is what I had in mind. After a little riding around we found the coffee bar which also had breakfast sandwiches and other stuff as well as a place to charge the phones, nice washrooms, and only a few golfers this time of day. Jackpot.
Our next resupply point would be Leadville. We found the trailhead and ended up traversing the ski runs passing under a couple of lifts and then back up to 12,000ft to Searle Pass then Kokamo Pass, Camp Hale, Tennessee Pass, and on to The Holy Cross Detour which took us around the Holy Cross and Mount Massive Wilderness areas and down to the town of Leadville at about 10,200ft. I think it was this afternoon that we passed the Lama Lady. Not actually sure whether they were Alpacas or Lamas but they were carrying all her gear.

After cruising down the main street of Leadville and checking out a couple motels we decided to take a room at The Silver King Motel. Yay, we can cleanup, use the WiFi, get dinner at Pizza Hut across the street and resupply at Safeway. We didn't know it at the time, but Leadville was world famous for silver mining in the late 1800s, had a population of 30,000 fortune hunters and made many fabulously wealthy including H. Tabor whose nickname was The Silver King.
The next morning we took full advantage of the Continental breakfast at The Silver King. Waffles, bagels, eggs, OJ, Coffee etc. We met Reid from Durango this morning. He had also started in Denver and was riding the CT home to Durango. We rode togethor through Twin Lakes to Buena Vista. I picked up my care package at the Buena Vista Post Office which was a nice moral boost then we found a burger place as we were craving greasy food and had burg fries and coke in the park. Later we rode on to Segment 11 and camped at Cottonwood Creek.





Train tunnels along the road beside the Arkansas River approaching Buena Vista.

Bikepacking The CT: Kenosha Pass, Georgia Pass, Ten Mile Range.

We started out this misty morning with breakfast at the Tarryall Reservoir Picnic area and I noticed what looked very much like a public washroom at the camping area on the other side of the reservoir. Yay! 

This was the third day on the trail, Tuesday July 21st 2015. We finished The Lost Creek Wilderness Detour, got back onto the CT on segment 5 and headed to Kenosha Pass.


 Along the way I stopped to photograph some wildflowers in a sunny alpine meadow and a short time later got caught in a hailstorm descending buff singletrack through a glade of quaking aspen. By the time we got to Kenosha pass it was warm and sunny once again and during our eight mile detour to Jefferson to resupply the weather alternated between rain and sun several times.

Columbine

Continuing on Segment 6 we got some pretty spectacular views of what looked like Ten Mile Range in the distance. We went as far as the foot of the climb to Georgia Pass and found a nice camping spot with water, an outhouse, and a flat area for the tents.  There were other campers here. My guess is some sort of Christian youth group, as we were serenaded by Christian song accompanied by guitar this evening.

The next day, July 22nd, was looking like the biggest climbing day of the tour with over 6,000 feet of climbing to get over Georgia Pass and then Ten Mile Range. The high point on Ten Mile Range being at an altitude of about 12,200 feet. The only time I've been that high is in a commercial airline. I finally conceded my small gear was to big. I needed smaller gears. I was walking stuff that I should have been riding and it was slowing us down.  At the pass we met another rider who offered to take our photo. He volunteered that he wasn't a big fan of the route because of all the hike-a-bike and rode off on some double track in a different direction.

Georgia Pass

The ascent to Ten Mile Range was a heartbreaker. Soooo much hike-a-bike that I was now starting to have problems with my feet. I had my Sidi XC MTB shoes. What's needed here is more hikeable footwear that you can ride in. I would get it a half size larger and use superfeet because like long distance hiking your feet swell up doing this. At one point (where I was hoping I was near the top - but wasn't) James came back to me on the trail and pulled my bike up. I think I shed a little tear there. The altitude was definitely affecting me and a little later I started to get a headache and took an Advil.

Top of the climb up to Ten Mile Range

Being on Ten Mile Range was a surreal experience my photographs just don't convey but simply remind me of the feeling.  Pretty barren, but there is wildlife here, we saw marmot and ptarmigan. We met another day rider on Ten Mile and learned that there is a series of cabins used by back country skiers in the winter. He pointed out the snow bowl where there is great alpine skiing if you can skin up there. The sun was getting low in the sky and we needed to be off Ten Mile before dark so we were now trying to make time and eventually, with some somewhat hairy descending, made it to within sight of the lights of Copper and camped.

Looking down Ten Mile Range to the snow bowl

Bikepacking The CT: Lost Creek Wilderness Detour

Started the second day on the trail feeling pretty good and it wasn't long before we came across the three dog girl from Manitoba. I couldn't help but think that taking care of three dogs, for a thru hiker, on this trail might be a little over ambitious. One of her dogs was not doing too good so she had left him with a local hiker. She was planning to walk to Durango and then back to Denver and would retrieve her dog on the way back.  The cultural vibe of this place was starting to become more evident to me now. It was almost west coast culture like but different.

This day was to be all about The Lost Creek Wilderness Detour. Five miles of The CT passes through an area that's designated as "Wilderness" and bikes are not permitted. Our detour around this area was about 70 miles of primarily forest service roads. Ouch! The detour passes through an area devastated  by the largest wildfire in Colorado history. The Hayman wildfire in 2002 affected more than 137,000 acres. 

The detour started with seven climbs, each about 500' in elevation, as a warmup. By noon it was around 30 celsius and now there was almost no shade for about 137,000 acres. We had lunch by a lone pine tree. The turkey vultures waited patiently nearby. We carried on and found some water. The mid afternoon storm clouds rolled in. We made  it to highway 77 and it started to rain.

I was thinking we might be able to resupply at Tarryall but there was nothing there. The rain was starting to come down heavy so we took cover under the canopy at the front entrance to an unmanned fire station and had coffee.  Once the rain slowed down to a sprinkle we packed up and rode on as far as the Tarryall Reservoir before running out of daylight. We camped at the picnic area shelter.

The original plan was to be through the detour on this day and positioned for an assault on Georgia Pass.  Didn't make it but we're writing it off as a rain delay. Hopefully better weather tomorrow.

Tarryall Reservoir Picnic Shelter

Bikepacking The CT: Littleton to Buffaloe Creek

From downtown Denver we rode down 16th street then jumped on the southbound lightrail with our bikes. Our destination for today was to be The Essex House Motel. Once we figured we were in Littleton, a suburb of Denver, we got off the train then realized we were to far south. After following the bike path along the Platte River in a northerly direction for a few miles we located the Motel. It was a bit of a dive but the price was right so this was home base for now. We had pizza and beer, rode to REI for freeze dried meal packets and got soaked in a late afternoon downpour which we had not yet realized was to become a regular thing.

We didn't sleep Friday night so Saturday night we had a good sleep. Sunday morning July 19th we packed up  and navigated the bike paths for about ten miles to the trailhead at the north end of The Colorado Trail near the entrance to Waterton Canyon.  We had made it to the start.

There were lots of walkers, hikers and bikers on the dirt road through Waterton Canyon but the Bighorn Sheep didn't seem to mind. We didn't see any bears but on August 28th, about six weeks after we were there, Waterton Canyon was closed to people for about two months because of foraging bears and too many people going there to get selfies with bears in the background. And they think we're crazy.
Once we got to The Strontia Dam our route became singletrack, climbing for about six miles to a lookout point where we met the dayrider from Denver.

Strontia Dam

This was followed by a wicked switchback descent down to the South Platte river where we filtered some water and met the dayrider from Denver again. He offered us some grapes, which we gladly accepted. Next was a challenging seven switchback climb to start the ascent to Raleigh Peak which was kind of a desolate place with the remains of an old mining operation and then miles of bare hills, the result of a wildfire. Later in the day we caught up to a couple on horseback from Missouri with two pack horses carrying their stuff. We had lunch at a campground at Little Scraggy Trailhead with a through hiker then went as far as mile eight of segment three and camped at Buffaloe Creek. Not bad for our first day on the trail.

Bikepacking The Colorado Trail: July 18th to August 1st 2015

I  felt like everything I had done up to now was directly or indirectly preparation for this adventure. There was no tour guide, no sag wagon, no emergency contact to come to collect us if things went badly. Our own preparation, skills, and adaptability would see us through; or not.

One of the first things I did after deciding on the CT was go to coloradotrail.org and order The Guide Book, The Data Book and The Trail Map. I read The Guide Book and left it at home. I carried The Trail Map as a backup to my GPS but did not have to reference it. The Data Book was kept easily accessible and was referred to often while out riding. It was very handy for deciding where to find water, where to resupply with food, and where to camp. 


Another great resource that I kept going back to leading up to this  ride was bikepackersmagazine.com . 
As part of our preparation we did a few overnighters to test our equipment and help decide what would be worth carrying for 800 kilometers along the continental divide.  This was good practice with a couple of significant differences between here and there being that bugs were not an issue in Colorado but the altitude was. 

Just getting to Denver with our bikes and then getting home again from Durango was an adventure in itself. We had decided to drive to Toronto in order to get a direct flight to Denver so that we didn't risk losing our bikes enroute. This meant driving out of Ottawa at close to midnite to catch an early morning flight out of TO then assembling our bikes at the Denver RTD bus terminal and riding to south Denver to a motel. No sleep this day.

Project Bike: Rear Triangle, Braze-ons, Finishing Touches

I went back to the landscaping job last summer so the bike project got put on hold until fall. The frame work had stalled at the point where I was trying to decide how to fix the rear triangle for brazing. Richard Talbot had used a wheel and a string for alignment and brazed his rear triangle without a fixture, I was not feeling confident enough to try that. Tim Paterek had generously provided detailed plans for a nice fixture which could be manufactured in a machine shop. Since I didn't have access to a machine shop I kept looking for another solution.

Rear Triangle

I had a little cash on hand but not enough for a professional fixture so I settled for the Jiggernaut, a fixture made from MDF by a company in Minnesota. It took awhile to setup and all measurements had to be carefully checked, but it worked. After brazing the jig was only lightly charred.

Rear Triangle Fixture

As far as I can recall, the order of operations for this part of the frame construction went like this. I crimped the chain stays for a little extra tire clearance then brazed the plugs into the seat stays. The seat stays where checked for length against the drawing. The dropouts were brazed into the chain stays, then the seat stays. You then end up with two V shaped pieces which are relatively easy to cold set if necessary.
The Jiggernaut kept the frame in alignment while I tacked the chain stays at the bottom bracket sockets. I double checked the setup with a known good rear wheel. The rim has to be centered between the stays. I have vertical dropouts so there isn't much room for error at this point. If the dropouts are off by 1 mm then the rim is off center by about 3 mm. More brazing and double checking. The cantilever bosses were added in a fashion similar to what was done on the forks except the rear bosses are double beveled. I added a chain stay bridge made from left over tubing I ovalized and mitered. For the seat stay bridge, a brake bridge I had purchased was used. Next time I think I'll look into re-enforcements where the bridges join the stays.

Braze-ons

In order to stay true to the original concept there was still a few bits that had to be brazed onto the frameset. I wanted to be able to mount fenders, lights, racks, etc. and did not want any zip ties or clamps on the frame for the finished build. To accomplish this I used the following braze-ons....

WATER BOTTLE BOSS          4

CANTILEVER BRAKE BOSS    4
CABLE HOUSING STOP          3
SHIFT LEVER BOSS               2
REAR RACK BOSS                 2
CHAIN HANGAR                  1

I had also considered adding brake cable hangars, a pump peg, low rider bosses, and a front derailleur mount, but decided against these.

This made for sixteen more brazes. There is the potential to trash the frameset at this point if you accidentally burn through a tube, but this is the order of operations used by inexperienced builders. Now that I'm at this point of the construction I understand how to get the braze-ons in the right place before the frame is joined togethor. In any case heat control is paramount and there can be no clamping or pressure on any of the bits while brazing.

Canti Boss

Cable Housing Stop

Finishing Touches

I'm not prepared to get into painting right now and there's a powder coating business near my place so it was just a matter of deciding on the color. My first decent road bike was a blue Bertrand, I still have it. Also, I had in mind Toyota racing blue to match the new Tacoma on my wish list.   Soooo... blue it is. I simply picked the blue swatch closest to the blue of my minds eye.
My final roadblock was the cost of the cutting tools needed to face, chase and ream the frame in preparation for installing the equipment group. They are simply out of reach for me so this was done by my local bike shop. Support your LBS!
As for racks, I have a Blackburn which fits nicely, but I would like to construct one from chrome moly tubing, customized for this bike. I rarely do anything the easy way.
Hopefully my next blog will outline the pros and cons of this bike, if it is even rideable. Cheers....njc