401

So I had a major decision to make last night. My Dad met up with Julie and I last week and we were able to stay in his RV / tour bus. This thing is huge, plenty of room for all three of us and his varmint. He skipped town today and Julie flew back to DSM last Saturday. So I had to choose between staying in Durango by myself, or maybe drive up to Silverthorne and hang with Andy. I didn’t really feel like hangin’ out by myself and I hadn’t seen Andy in quite a while. We were long overdue for a beat down ride, so I hooked up with him in Crested Butte with the goal of riding the legendary 401 trail.
I made it to CB shortly after 11 and Andy rolled up on his bike about five minutes after I got there. There were a lot of heavy looking clouds hanging around and as we pondered the weather a lightning bolt flashed near the top of Mt. Crested Butte. Shortly thereafter, were heard the sound of thunder echoing off of the surrounding mountains…pretty cool, unless you’re looking to get a ride in. We sat around and shot the shyte for about an hour and finally decided to drive up to the trailhead. We made it up to the trailhead, got out of our cars, looked up to the heavens and saw that God was smiling upon us with several patches of blue sky within the clouds.
We unloaded the bikes, suited up and made our way up to the upper trailhead at Schofield Pass. No sooner did we start our ride and Andy decided that he wanted to cross swords with me. I heard Phil Ligget say that during the TDF coverage when Lance was talking to another rider during the race. I thought it was funny and thought I’d give it a try on the Rassy Blog, however I don’t think it worked out as well. Anyway, he was warm, I was cold. He went forward and it seemed as though I was going backwards…punk kids. About halfway up to Schofield Pass, I finally felt as though I was ready for a little more effort and returned the favor by applying my own brand of heat.
We made it to the upper trailhead and continued our quest for mountain biking bliss. We still had to do quite a bit more climbing, however it was all on singletrack, so it was all good. When the trail pointed downward, the big smile on my face became even bigger as we rocketed down the trail. I can see why the 401 gets so much press. If you like fast, flowy, serpentine singletrack that threads its’ way through Aspen groves, high altitude meadows full of beautiful, handle bar high flowers complete with spectacular views from top to bottom, this trail has your name all over it. The only problem with the trail…the entire loop only took us 90 minutes…way too short!


This is what the big dawgs look like when they win a big UCI race. Yep, I'm a poser.



This is what the big dawgs look like when they don't win a big UCI race.