Anyone done it? I hiked the first segment last weekend and saw a handful of guys on MTBs. I will have 4 weeks off and I am debating whether to do something along the lines of this or really focusing on a May 70.3.
I’ve never ridden a mountain bike and I’ve never camped. I’ve been racing triathlons for 5 years and consider myself a FOP AGer on the bike.
Awesome or good way to end my life?
May might be a little early for bikepacking. U hike the Durango or Waterton start. I would think bikepacking it would be very hard if u have never mountain biked or camped. Heck, even if u were used to both.
Hiked some of it. Be aware that you can’t bike the wilderness areas, so you’ll need detour routes.
I don’t think it’s really an appropriate first choice of routes if you’ve never mountain-bike before. I’m not talking about fitness. Just about the hundreds of little skills, like how to fix things on a mountain bike when they break. Bunny-hopping over big rocks, etc.
I’d do something shorter and easier first to build that skill set. Don’t extrapolate from that first segment you did through the whole thing. Once you get up in the San Juan mountains shit gets real. Very unimproved (no real trail at times). Very unforgiving if you get in trouble.
Late June is probably the earliest I’d consider going because of snow.
Someone mentioned that it’s not really a smart idea for someone with no MTBing experience or camping experience. I’d share a different view–it’s definitely a bold idea, but if you have four weeks to do it, you’ll have plenty of time to learn. It’s NBD if you only make it 10-20 miles the first few days. And it’s NBD if you don’t complete it. You just decide to get an AirBNB in Crested Butte and ride singletrack everyday.
If you don’t have any of the gear, it’s also an expensive idea that will take a lot of research and smart decisions to get the right gear. Thankfully, there are plenty of great resources and packing lists online that will be useful.
A satellite texting device like the Delorme makes potential worst-case scenarios much easier to resolve. You could still get injured (severely) but at least people can find you. The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue card is a great idea.
If May
I’d share a different view–it’s definitely a bold idea,
I’d share a different view–it’s definitely a bold idea,
This is how I make life decisions.
That’s sick! Had no idea something like that existed.
much of the trail will be under several feet of snow now…
“Snow is the biggest factor on deciding when to attempt the CT. Most years the snow has melted by early July”
http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/bikepacking-the-colorado-trail/
lower elevations and easier routes might be a better bet for a first bikepacking experience,
http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/grand-staircase-loop/
http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/kokopelli-trail-bikepacking-route/
I bikepacked it in 2016 and it was absolutely the best and hardest thing I’ve ever completed. If you’ve never mountain biked or done any significant camping it would not be a good choice for testing those waters. You need a pretty refined setup that can handle a lot of situations, you need to know your bike well and how to fix it, and you need to know how to handle a variety of legitimately dangerous situations. June/July is the time to do it, winter conditions would add a crazy difficulty factor, I’d be surprised if many people were doing the full route by bike this time of year. We well prepared and had picture perfect conditions and still figured that we pushed our bikes uphill for around 80 miles. Man just thinking about that trip makes me want to do it again.
I’ve also done the san juan hut trip from Durango to Moab and the very similar hut to hut setup around Mt Hood, those are a much better way to try out off road touring. The San Juan trip has a much more ‘out there’ feeling to it but the Mt Hood route has much better trail riding. Just thinking of those trips makes me want to do them again too, nothing but great memories from all of them.
Yeah, my June/July is going to be filled, so early May is my only option to do something fun.