I found a route on Gravelmap.com called The Arkansas Valley Mining Loop that starts and ends in Buena Vista, CO (~150 miles w/ a fair amount of climbing along the way). The only section on this loop that feels like there may be some extended hike-a-bike sections is Alpine Tunnel Rd between Pitkin and Hancock which will be ~110 miles into the ride. I go out to the BV/Twin Lakes area every July and want to try this loop, fully knowing this is going to be a really long day in the saddle (15+ hours most likely). Does anyone have input on how technical this road/trail is at the higher elevations?
For perspective, we do the Lville 100 MTB Columbine climb up Quail Mtn when we’re out there (the friend’s property is 10 minutes away by bike) and on road bikes we do the Independence Pass and Cottonwood Pass climbs on off/recovery days when not summitting 14ers. Those road climbs are very manageable when dosing the effort. But some of those high elevation MTB/4WD trails get sketchy (ex Mosquito Pass), so I’m just trying to frame expectations up front. I do plan on heading out early and reconning this section riding from St. Elmo to Pitkin and back to see how bad/rough the “roads”/trails are, but hoping to get some advance guidance from others too.
I start to feel pretty underbiked on 40mm tires on the alpine forest roads in CO, but they’re still doable. They tend to be rocky and washed out. If you have something with a bit of suspension or wider tires it helps. I don’t know that exact road but it does look pretty well traversed on strava’s heatmap.
Nick, when I talked to my friend about doing this route, he asked which bike I was considering - MTB or gravel? To your point about being underbiked, I’m leaning towards the MTB to the very points you mention - wider tires and suspension.
To be fair right now I’m on an CX bike cosplaying as a gravel bike. Its great on 80% of the roads, uphill especially, but downhill and rocky gets me sore from being bounced around. I think if I had a checkpoint or a diverge with 45s or 50s it would be fine, especially if you add something like the redshift stem or the new rudy gravel fork.
I am thinking about getting an XC bike specifically to do some rides like this, but honestly the new Trek backpacking bike would be perfect because I love drop bars (if it wasn’t 9k).
Hey TadT,
Admin here for TP, but also the guy who added that route to Gravelmap.
I bikepacked the route on 45s on a Why Cycles R+ adventure bike. The only real hike-a-bike is from the south side of Alpine Tunnel to the north side. It’s steep on both sides. About half a mile. The rest is pretty rideable. There are a couple brief sections on Aspen Alley that are fairly rough, but I never walked and was fully loaded. The road from Pitkin to Alpine is in pretty good shape, but I would NOT go over Hancock Pass on a gravel bike. It’s super steep and so rocky on the north side that I had to walk my bike a ton on the talus. I’ve ridden almost every dirt track in that area suitable for a gravel bike. If you need more beta, you can message me on Instagram @joshualawton.
Josh, great intel…Thank you!! It looks like a great loop! Watching various YouTube videos, I got the same impression about NOT riding Hancock Pass. While it’s a shorter route from Pitkin to Hancock, it looked pretty rough.
We are planning on doing the route on full suspension MTB’s so I’m thinking we won’t be underbiked for some of this type of terrain. It won’t be as fast vs. riding a gravel rig for many sections, but we’re not trying to rip it either. Thank you!!!