Colorado Front Range TT ride???

[Thumpleupagus]

Do you guys have any good ideas on a "TT Ride" in Colorado? I'm thinking somewhere near the front range area since that is where the bulk of the riders are probably closest... Although I know there is much better riding elsewhere.

I'm at a loss for areas that are big enough and biker friendly to accommodate a large group. Rampart's probably too crowded already-what else is accessible to lots of people? camping, hotels, other attractions? The west coast TT Ride shouldn't be the only one...

[jwriott]

I'd be in for it. Depending on a couple of things like number of riders, number of days, etc.

Webster Pass/Red Cone Peak is very open and not crowded and could easily handle a lot of riders.

Taylor Park has a lot of trails and lodging near Buena Vista

I assume you are thinking about this when the weather warms up?

John

[JADENHYRUM]

Have you ever checked out Ouray? THeir are some great rides their. Lots of history and cool old mining areas, 13000ft passes ect... The town itself is really cool, plenty of places to eat,stay,shopping for the wifes ect... You can ride from Ouray to Silverton, To Telluride, and back to Ouray. Check it out, If you plan this I would love to come, The Utah Trail Machine Assoc. Goes their every year, Check out their pictures of this ride at utma.com(i think) or just do a search for utma.

[Thumpleupagus]

Definitely when the weather warms up... I know Buena Vista has a lot of great areas and all around Ouray is great as well. To be honest there are a bunch of areas that aren't particularly near the front range, I just thought that from a planning perspective that was my best bet. I'd totally be up for heading somewhere else in CO, just wouldn't be able to participate much in the planning of it. Anybody else that lives in extremely "rider-friendly" areas care to pony up their time to get something going???

Just a thought... I mean, why should EGO and his west coast buddies have all the fun???

?

[racemile]

I am sure pumpkin head and I would be interested, and I dont think we need to limit it to the front range either. I would love to ride with some people who know some areas IU have never been too. I would even go to crested butte.

I will help if I can.

Racemile

[Merfman]

I put together a "Ride the Divide Spodefest '99" back in 1999 in Divide.

If you're familiar with usenet, you probably recognize RMD.

Anyway, if you're thinking summer, yea, Rampart would be way too crowded.,

unless you're talking 20-30 folks. There's a lot of good riding around the

Walden area but finding trail guides might be a little hard and it's a bit of a

drive for some. Steamboat falls in that same category.

Good question, hard answer.

Merf

[jwriott]

It also depends on what type of riding people want to do. You can ride the Webster/Red Cone area in a day and get in over 100 miles and it's only an hour outside of Denver. Primarily rocky, 4x4 trails above timberline with lots of old mine sites and incredible views. This area is very wide open and as long as people had a SA and OHV sticker, nobody would bother us.

We could always test an area like this just to see how many people are interested.

[Thumpleupagus]

Merf, was your ride in the town of Divide or along the Cont. Divide? I grew up in Woodland Pk (but never rode then), so I know there are lots of areas around. I'm definitely up for somewhere other than front range, just not sure how tough it would be to find "locals" that know what's up and guide, etc...

I guess you're right, good question, tough answer. Maye we should just have 5 or 6 rides and hope to up the participation each time... ?

I just hink it would be cool to have a really big one, there have to be a lot of people that would be interested-at least I would think so...

Maybe we should all just go to Berthoud and race!

[Merfman]

Thump,

We actually rode out of Divide, off Cedar Mountain Road. About 1/2 that area burned to the

ground thanks to... well, never mind, you know the story. We had 50 riders from 10 states

show up. T-shirts and stickers were made, contingencies awarded..etc. I busted ass on that ride,

and we had a blast. It rained EVERY night (and I mean BUCKETS) so maybe I should do another. ?

It made for some un-fun camping but the riding was pretty unbelievable. If you grew up in WP,

then you know you can't have too much water on decomposed granite. It was like riding

on velcro.

As far as racing Berthoud, I've been trying to make every race, but something always

comes up. If you're interested, a few of us are riding Aztec on Saturday, so c'mon down.

If anyone shows up, I'll be in the beige Tundra with the black and gray Haulmark

trailer. No numbers on the bike, just look for the guy with black handguards who

is getting smoked by the water truck.

As far as a TT ride, just pick a place and see who shows up. If you try to accomodate

everyone, it will never get scheduled... trust me on this one. Pick a non-race weekend

sometime in the early summer, late spring and go for it!

Merf

[cnacc]

I would be up for it ?!

[Dodger]

I'd be up for something, and really the area north of Breck (Webster, Red Cone) may be the best bet depending upon the total number of riders. Around Boulder here it's real tough. Just not enough area to support more than a small group. I could lead us from Ned, up over the divide to some sweet single track outside of Winter Park, it's a very cool ride, but again just not something for a big group.

Let me know, the Western slope would most likely be better suited.

Let's all meet out at Moab, now that would be a BLAST!!

Late

Dodger ?

[Wicked_Crash]

I would vote for Taylor Park. There are plenty of loops there, long or short, and you could spend as many days as you like there. As long as the scheduling would work, I would be in for the ride, I could maybe even get some routes set up. Scheduling is a bitch ?

[Wayward Son]

im in!redcone may be the best for a large group.not very technical,but should be good for a wide range of ability.

keep us informed! ?

[F6dood]

Hey Guys, This is exactly what I am looking for. Silverton, Ourey is where I saw the Colorado 500 group flow through and that looked like a howl. I am very interested in participating. What months would this most likely take place. Hoping that your open to out of state'rs.

[brebro]

Merf is that really you? The only man that can hit a tree and have it fall on you also! ( not to say that there was 50 people watching it happen)

[huskyrider]

F6dude,

I've always wanted to go to Colorado to ride.

If this pans out em or pm me and maybe we could hook up and split a ride (mine or yours, I'm flexible).

If I remember right your the new 426 owner down in Spring.

Send me an Email kelly@atlantispoolco.com or a private message and we'll get together and ride. We're coming into excellent weather real soon and I've healed from my accident.

Needless to say, I'm ready to ride!

[Merfman]

> Merf is that really you? The only man that can hit a tree and have it fall on you also! ( not to say that there was 50 people watching it happen)

Yup, is me, the Sierra Club poster boy. ?

Whodat?

Merf

PS, for whoever it was that asked, the Colorado 500 is Sept 7-12/2003

[Thumpleupagus]

So it sounds like there may be some interest if something like this were to happen. I guess the kicker will be where and when...

I would imagine if it were near Webster/Red Cone we're looking at July/August timeframe because of snow, and probably the same with Ouray area. I would think Taylor Park would be less restricting due to weather (hopefully all these places will be accessible and not under fire shutdown).

Does anyone know where there are trail maps on-line (or can be PDF'd) that people can look at (or pictures) of the areas discussed?

This could end up beig a pretty good time-let's keep thinking about places and times and get this thing more concrete as spring/summer starts rolling around...

And I think the more out of staters the better (as long as you don't move here permanently) ?

[endurodog]

Count me in, if its on a nonrace weekend (for the RMEC). Taylor park would get a big vote from me, but its about 4 hour drive from Denver, not bad if your spending the weekend though.

[Thumpleupagus]

Maybe all you racers (I don't race) could post what dates do (or don't) work for the ride. So if we get this thing organized, we can try to work around the race schedules...

Although, if we schedule it when there is a big race, maybe us slow guys will appear faster because the racers won't be around... hmmmmm..... ?