401

Well the campground here in Gunnison CO is most excellent. There are lots of tall trees for shade and things are a little more spread out than most of the RV parks we have been too. Its only 2.5 miles from town so its not even a bad bike ride in. The mosquitoes are a bit of a pain but that seems pretty much par for the course with camping out here.

The cast of characters now stands still with Howie and I, along with his son David and new additions Paul, howie’s brother in law, Alex, howie’s nephew (Paul’s son), and the Meeker Madness, who we actually were on the original RV tour of Colorado a number of years ago with.

The ride today was the Crested Butte Classic know as 401. Its starts past Crested Butte, up a dirt road about 8 miles just outside a place know as Gothic which from the signs and all the people crawling around the meadows is some sort of biological study center with a dozen or so small buildings that I would assume house the researchers. At that point we were at about 9600 feet. Once on the bikes we continued up the dirt road about 5 miles and 1000 feet of climbing or so to Schofield Pass at the top of the valley. The trail starts there and climbs up another 500 feet or so over the next couple miles, with the first mile being pretty steep.

After the climb you head back down the valley on bench cut single track with amazing views of the valley all the way back to Mt Crested Butte. After 3 or 4 miles of that fun you get back down close to the road then head back up away from the road then back down for another 4 miles, ending up where you parked. Total is only about 14 miles, but a good ride for all the new guys’ first day at altitude.