Crested Butte (pronounced 'Bute', which I was informed after calling it 'Butt' for a long time, oops) lived up to our expectations. As a huge ski resort in winter, it was well set up for mountain bikers in summer. We are discovering that a lot of towns here in Colorado are self-described as 'mt bike meccas' – makes us feel like we have to visit everywhere!! I like this state; it is truly beautiful, clean, rugged and full of adventure.
Camped in a free camping spot next to the FREEZING cold Slate River, but with glorious views of the Elk Mt range. Noticed that most of
our camping neighbours had mountain bikes, which is a good start! Made friends pretty quickly. We talk the same language :-) Within 1 hour of being there, sirens could be heard in the distance, and before you knew it, about 10 vehicles with flashing lights came tearing up the shingle road. Turns out that a kayaker was stuck up a nearby creek (called 'Oh Be Joyful Creek' oddly enough). He had 'pitoned' whilst going down a grade 5 waterfall – meaning his kayak was stuck nose-down in the rocks at the base of the falls. The emergency vehicles had to cross the Slate River in order to get up to him quickly – which was a sight in itself, as the river was flippin' high!! Made us flinch watching the vehicles drop in to the fast flowing river, that's for sure, but all 4WD vehicles made it. We were told it was likely he'd be dead, but found out the next day that the kayaker was very fortunate. He was stuck under water for 25 mins in freezing conditions, but he had an air pocket around his head, due to the position he was in – and survived. No doubt a bit worse for wear though. Have to say that kayaking white water really scares me – and this incident definitely confirms that!! Was very pleased to hear he was ok. Another reminder that we aren't invincible.
Went for a mammoth bike ride the following day with our campsite neighbour, Jay. He was from the US Air Force (on unpaid extended leave as they've had huge military budget cuts here – trillions & trillions, down to just trillions – the US economy is up sh!t-creek), and looked young & fit. He demonstrated this to us on the first hill climb. I thought I was having an asthma attack – gasping for oxygen at high altitude! Rode the 2 legendary tracks in
Crested Butte, called 401 and Snodgrass. Ended up being about 30 miles (50 kms) on some pretty lush single track. Rode up to 11,260 feet, which is our record so far. Traversed some snow pockets too which was fun, although made it slow-going in places. Brent made a good go of riding on slippery snow. Tricky! 5 hours later, we made it back to Albert, shattered & ready for a hot shower ($5 in local hostel, best money spent EVER! The closest we got to a shower in the campground was a 3.5 second micro-dip in the river before our toes turned blue. Refreshing).
Checked out the quaint and historic town centre of Crested Butte - another old mining town which has an air of 'Wild West' about it too. Visited their museum & MTB Hall of Fame which was interesting, albeit a little dusty. Slept like a log that night after a big cook-up!!
Went for a walk up the 'Oh Be Joyful' creek this morning to see if we could work out where the kayaker got stuck – but to be honest, the whole stretch of river looked so utterly knarly and full of continuous white water, we couldn't work it out. Those kayakers are nuts!! Will stick to bikes, thanks.
Left beautiful Crested Butte this morning, and drove 2 hours south east to Salida, Colorado. Just booked in for a shuttle ride tomorrow to go on the legendary Monarch Crest Ride. It's been labelled as one of the top 10 rides in the US. Shuttle up to 11,300 ft at the Rockies Continental Divide...ride up to 12,000 ft – and then 40 miles (67kms - ish) of single track back down to 7,000 ft altitude where Alby will be waiting for us. Think it'll be epic. Hope y'all are keeping warm and well...be back on here again soon...
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