Mountain Biking
Green Trail Loop / Colorado Trail Loop
Front Range, Pike National Forest, Colorado, near Denver
A rider with many excuses, a trail network with none
By Dana Farnsworth, www.outdoortravels.com
Thankfully Bicycle Doctor in Denver (who rented us mountain bikes) gave us a great trail recommendation and even loaned us their shop copy guidebook to the area. Matt, the owner suggested we ride the Lunar Trail Loop on the Colorado Trail. Its profile was sea level lung-friendly with nice undulations and no giant climbs. It looked perfect for two riders from the swampy low lands of Tampa Bay, Florida. Most trails in the Front Range are at or higher than 7,000 feet above sea level making it very difficult for those not acclimated to the elevation to perform anywhere near their normal capacity. Take note that the review here isn’t for this trail – can you sense excuses number one and two?
Hit the road Jack
I’ve never seen so many bikes on top of cars before. It seemed as though every other car we saw on our hour-and-a-half drive from downtown Denver was proudly displaying a crown of bikes. I am impressed with the enthusiasm for two wheeled non-motorized vehicles in Colorado!
Soon enough we arrived at our trailhead. Our guidebook called it the “Colorado Trail Trailhead” when in actuality; it is called “Little Scraggy Trailhead”. Little Scraggy? Wasn’t he in Scooby Doo? Anyway, we found a nice large trailhead with restroom facilities. Being a Friday, we had the whole place to ourselves.
After gearing up and mounting our well-maintained GT I-drive rental steeds we were off, rolling along on flowy hard pack. The trail surface wouldn’t change much if at all. It’s an odd surface that does demand a certain level of respect. The hard packed nature made me want to go pedal to the metal fast, while the thin layer of tiny loose gravel on the top dared me to try. A turn too steep, a brake too hard, a tiny loss of concentration and it’s possible to find yourself skidding to the curb or worse yet, over a hill. Our directions looked easy, the Lunar Trail Loop is a lollypop loop – a single trail leads out to a loop and then back again on the same trail you rode in. Sounds easy enough, right? Well it should have been. Here comes excuse number three…. After coming upon our first sign, we chose not to check our guidebook and continue to the Colorado Trail; and so begins the accidental partial review of The Green Trail / Colorado Trail Loop.
Some time would pass before we realized we were not on the trail we had planned, but for the moment, we were too busy enjoying some seriously nice trail. Twists, turns, small climbs, small rolling descents, banked turns, and generally blissful trail surrounded by beautiful views were ours to explore! Our planned route was approximately 10-11 miles long and included no major climbs. After enjoying a nice rocky technical section, it was with a bit of surprise that we began a rather long slog uphill. I kept telling myself that the climb really wouldn’t be a big deal if I had my mountain lungs or my personal (lighter) mountain bike. That may be just another excuse or two that I seemed to be full of on this ride. But hey, my rear shock WAS set REALLY mushy which made climbing tough. Damn! There’s another excuse. Sorry about that. I can’t control myself.
I reasoned that I must be imagining that the climb was bigger than it looked on the profile map. Still – I didn’t remember anything that looked this strenuous on the map. I did have wider tires than I was used to. (I hope you’ve stopped counting the compiling excuses by now.) Being the morale officer for my wife, I couldn’t let her see my doubt. What goes up eventually goes down, and I couldn’t wait for the law of gravity to kick in. Not too soon enough I was speeding down a nice hard packed ultra-fast dirt runway and loving every second of it. I did yield for a hiker and accidentally scared the living crap out of another biker (sorry). Reaching the bottom, I dismounted to wait on my wife and catch a breather. It was about that time, that I propped my bike against a sign that made no sense to me at all. It must be out of place. Or perhaps we were.
One more excuse on rye, hold the mayo
When my wife arrived (with a giant grin on her face) I retrieved the guidebook from her pack to discover, that it was apparent that we could lose a navigating contest to two directionally impaired blind people if they had a brail map. We certainly had paid little to no attention to our map, although I think I had some dust in my eye when we looked at the map for the first time. Other than the large climb (that we were now on the opposite side of, it hardly mattered that we had inadvertently chosen the wrong trail. This one was fun. There were a couple of small problems though. We were already about six miles in, and we still had one very strenuous five mile loop to ride plus the six miles we had just rode to complete the trail. Dark afternoon thunderstorm clouds gathered and muffled thunder rolled in the near distance as we debated a new plan of action. Excuses flew like poo in a monkey cage; it was going to rain hard soon, we had only planned on riding around 10 miles, there was one GIANT climb left in the loop and we were already getting tired and of course, there were cold Tecates in the car. In the end, we didn’t ride the last portion of the trail (which is reported to be fabulous) but we did enjoy the ride back to the trailhead. It was just as entertaining (except for the grade we had just went down and now had to climb) as it was on the way there. 12 miles total, an elk, many squirrels, beautiful scenery, great trail and plenty of excuses later, we were back at the trailhead enjoying a cold one or five.
Overall, the trail that I experienced in this area of the Front Range was not very technical but was some of the most enjoyable trail for flow that I’ve ever ridden. Throw in mountain scenery and tons of trail options and you have a good recipe for mountain biking fun. I would have ridden the whole trail loop had I packed a snack and more water.
Snapshot
Trail(s): 16 miles
Surface: Mixed - hard packed with thin layer of small gravel
Difficulty: moderate – difficult (for those not acclimated to the elevation)
Outdoor Travels Rating: 3.75 out of 5 nice for a fast flow ride with a little climbing
Thumbs Up:
- Scenery is outstanding
- Fast packed surface
- Flow is excellent
- Great for those who are less technically inclined but still entertaining for more advanced riders
- Tons of other nearby trail options
- Well marked
Thumbs Down:
- Elevation should be considered for lowland riders
- Extreme downhill riders will leave less than satisfied
Nuts & Bolts
Location: 50 miles southwest of Denver near Buffalo Creek in the Pike National Forest.
Directions to Park: From Denver 25 miles souyh on US Highway 285 to Pine Junction. Turn left on County Road 126 and drive 13.2 miles souyh, through Buffalo Creek to Forest Road 550 and make a right onto 550. Scraggy Creek trailhead is on the right.
Activities: Biking, walking, backpacking, trail jogging
Admission: none
Bike Rental:
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 831-7228
Maps and Stuff
Trail Map
Photos
