As some of you may know…. if you have read my other posts, we, team cero maricoteo (yes thats how we call ourselves), try to make at least one trip to the mountains each year, so we can get away from our hectic city lives…. This year I decided to go and repeat Colorado (I’ve been here 4 times in the last couple Years for at least one week each time and I think I haven’t even covered 5% of what I want to know, this state is just amazing)… Remember my friend from team Cero Maricoteo quit his job in Miami, packed all his stuff in his 2005 tacoma and had a 3 months road trip biking all over the states and finally ended in Colorado… thats why we have chosen Colorado for the last two years.. we have a free guide. So I went Boulder for a couple days until my friend Enric could get out of work and we could drive down to Crested Butte for some epic MTB ridding. In the meantime while in Boulder my friend Shebo and I hit the roads with our road bikes for the first 3 days.
A-Lodge at Boulder Vs. Mulberry Gap
Since Mulberry Gap (click here to read what I have to say about mulberry) has made such a big impact in our “outdoor and biking experiences” we always try to find similar places wherever we go. This time we kinda did! Just 5km away from boulder’s downtown, we stayed at Adventure Lodge/A-Lodge. Its a pretty nice terrain with suites, a hostal, camping sites, jacuzzi, swimming pool and even a slack line park. Initially I was going to go by myself, so I had booked the camping site for the first three days, but at last minute Shebo decided to join me while in Boulder and we change it to take the hostal instead (big mistake….. why? let me just say that we are already 30 years old, no more sharing rooms with strangers and smelling their farts – on the last day I moved to the camping site, couldn’t take it anymore!). Next time keeping my camping site without a doubt! Anywho, the facilities are pretty nice, but I believe the hostal and the camping spots are definitely are overprice… $40 for the campsite and $53 for hostal bed…. both give you access to showers and jacuzzi/pool, but still both are way over price in my opinion. But again, Boulder is quite expensive, so… waiting to see what people have to say about this.
A-Lodge is located really close to Boulder, and Boulder has way too many things to offer so you can explore. I believe thats why the Mulberry concept wouldn’t be successful here. Mulberry is in the middle of nowhere, so they have to find a way to keep you entertain and happy all the time, thats why the family/home environment work so well in mulberry. They both offer running hot water for showering, hot tubs, pool (only in A-lodge), green beautiful common areas. Mulberry in one hand has a pretty fun mini bike park/track while A-lodge has a slack line park. They both have a creek passing by the middle of property… It is definitely a tough choice, but if I had to choose, I would choose Mulberry Gap… We went there 6 times in less than a year, the place has a spot in my heart for sure.
Boulder.
We landed in Denver on Monday at around 11am. We immediately jumped on the Green Bus Shuttle and they left us right in front of our “Hostal” (for 30$ one way trip). Let me tell you that Boulder is a dream town for any active person…. I honestly couldn’t believe that a place like this could exist. It is like a Disneyland for Active/Outdoorsy people. In a matter of 20 minutes you can drive everywhere in the city to do activities ranging from climbing, rafting, road cycling, mountain biking, trailrunnning, hiking, swimming…. you name it! Boulder has it all!!
We rode our bikes down (through a small dirt path through boulder canyon by the beautiful river) to Rapha. This became a daily routine for us… first because of the cyclist atmosphere Rapha has to offer and second because of their rice bowl and coffee which became a must fuel before each ride.
NOTE: Before the trip we bought this awesome camera strap made by Mettle which lets you take pictures with your professional camera while ridding.. and honestly it doesn’t even bother to carry it while sprinting or climbing. – Look at the first picture!
On our first ride we left Rapha and headed to climb “Lefthand”…. did a loop around boulder, passing by boulder reservoir and through some farm lands. The views where beautiful and the climbs where very steep, I believe that at one point my garmin was showing a 14% incline. We stopped a few/several times to acknowledge nature and to take in the views… thing we usually never do in Miami since its mainly cars, buildings and houses (although we do have some beautiful sunrises/sunsets along the ocean – can’t complaint). At the end of the day we rode for 63K, and ended up in Boulder downtown for some pizzas at Pizzeria Locale in front of Rapha. We ate outside in a little terrace and the atmosphere was pretty nice. Definitely recommend it. Strava Ride Day #1
For our second day, we decided to climb Sugarloaf, with long beautiful miles of the famous Boulder Gravel/Dirt roads. Obviously after our rice bowl at Rapha, we started what was going to be the longest road ride on this trip… and let me tell you something, it was steep, long, cold and painful… but worth the suffering because at the end the views where nothing but amazing. Not to mention the descend through sunshine canyon… At the end it added almost 1900 of gain elevation in 73kms and 5 hours on the bike (stopping every 20 mins to take some pictures). So I rode – Boulder – Boulder Canyon – Sugarloaf – Peak to Peak Hgwy – Gold Hill Rd – Sunshine. A good and cool spot to end any ride in Boulder would be to stop by for a coffee and live music at the laughing goat. Every day after 7:00pm I believe they have live bands. (Tip: Take enough snacks and water if you decided to do this ride, there is no where to park to refuel once you leave boulder). Strava Ride Day #2
For day three I decided to ride with rapha for their “Hump Ride”, which is to climb up to the middle flagstaff. Hump ride is only around one hour fifteen so that people who need to get to work have time to get back early. The planned ride is to get half way to flagstaff up to the amphitheater, but the group divided into two and I got left behind in the middle of both groups, so when it was time to turn around I had nobody in front nor behind me…. I just kept on climbing and completed Flagstaff all the way to the mail boxes. I wasn’t intending to climb it all the way, but boyyy it was worthit! Also now I can compare my climbing time to anybody on strata (honestly this time I didn’t stop even once to take any pictures…. just stopped at the top to photograph the mailboxes and then on the way down on the first switchback). FLAGSTAFF IS A MUST WHEN IN BOULDER. I had lunch with Shebo that day at Mountain Sun Pub and we had a delicious burger. Shebo didn’t wake up for the Hump ride, so he decided to bike the flat lands of boulder instead. To end the day I went up to Mount Sanitas for some breathtaking views of the city. Try running through the outside of the mountain and make the descend the long way through the inside of the mountain… this way you can compete with your strava segments with other people.. or at least compare yourself to others… I did it the other way around, but when going down realize that a lot of people time their way up (just like in Savas Nieves all the way up to the Paralelas). To end that day I had a cheap but good sushi at Bentoria… I actually bought it for take away and ate it by the river.
For my last day in boulder I wanted to swim in the famous Boulder Reservoir. Before that, I fueled up for breakfast at “Dot Dinner” (place I saw from Emma Corburn IG’s page as one of her favorites places in Boulder to get Breakfast). It was the typical American breakfast at a really old-school looking diner. Then I grabbed my bike and got to the Reservoir at around noon; its like a 30 mins bike ride from downtown. I ran the loop around the reservoir (9kms) and jumped in the reservoir to swim a bit, but was way to cold for me, so I only swam 500mts. Better place to run than to swim! Loved the run!!! Ended my stay in Boulder by stopping by Avery Brewery (according to yelp is a must when in Boulder) and it didn’t disappoint… Great chicken sandwich and great beers! My stay in Boulder ended this night, when Enric picked me up from Alodge that night. Strava Run Day #4
We drove 5 hours straight from Boulder to Crested Butte and let me tell you that it is very scary and creepy drive…. not only you know you are in the middle of nowhere, like literally in the wild Wild West or something like that, but there are absolutely no lights in the highways and every now and then you see a random weird shape government building with no signs at all and also they show at maps. So not only you are going over huuuuge mountain passes with no lights at all, but you also have to be aware of deers and animals crossing the highway (we had a really close encounter or close call between a group of deers on one side and an 18-wheller on the other).
We arrived at midnight to set camp at “Oh be joyful campground” and it was one of the most beautiful campgrounds I’ve ever camped at. Other than the fact that when we got there a #$%^^@ redneck yelled from his tent “Turn the fucking lights off” the place was breathtaking (we didn’t know that until the next day, because obviously there were no lights at all).
Note Aside—- I don’t really understand what people like this are doing out in nature. Like honestly dude, if you are going to be out in such a magical and sacred place as the mountains are, CHILL THE FUCK OUT. This obviously was one fucking redneck who doesn’t belong nor fit in…. But it really threw me off… I can’t remember when was the las time I encountered someone with a bad vibe in the mountains. Mountains are a place where you go to disconnect from everything that is bothering you…. where you let go all the extras in your life and where you just need the basics. You become one with nature and nature becomes one with you… (Touche with the the campsite name “Oh be joyful …..) With all the hectic live we as society have going on now a days in cities, the last thing you want to do is drive 5 hours into the middle of nowhere to disconnect from reality to find a mofo like this.
But any who, enough with the bad vibes…. we woke up the next morning and woke up to this… (Picture above) talked to our other neighbor for a while, and exchanged camping and hiking stories like for an hour or so. He had driven all the way from New Hampshire or New Jersey and was waiting for his wife to land by plane. They usually take a two month road trip to camp and connect with nature once a year. This is what I would call a very Wise Man.
While in Crested Butte you must have breakfast at Paradise cafe. It became our breakfast place for the next two days. Then we drove straight to the trailhead so we could begin the must fun part of the trip and the real reason why we travel to the mountains….. to get some MTB riding done. We decided to have a LONG day on the saddle… doing the RENO/FLAG/BEAR/DEADMANS GULCH loop, which added 32k of riding with a gain elevation of 1000 meters. It took us close to 5 hours in the saddle, but we took it slow…. stopping often to get some pictures, to refuel, to rest and admire how perfect nature is. We even herd cattle in the middle of our ride… that felt like the epic MTB movie “Unreal” (but not really haha). Strava Ride Day #5
We had dinner at Brick Oven Pizzeria and Pub that night at their nice terrace where I guess half of town gathers together in the afternoons. We had the fries with bacon which where delicious and a pizza, then headed straight back to camp to take a shower in the freezing river and get some sleep… we would need it for the next day.
Woke up next day, had breakfast in the same cafe and drove directly the the trailhead to ride the Famous “401 Trail”. Thats the real reason why I truly wanted to come to Crested Butte…. There is this famous pictures from Pinkbike where you have the rider descending through the middle of some Aspens….. thats the picture I had always dreamt of, and thats what we would get.
Today wasn’t going to be as long as yesterday, since we had to drive 5 hours back to Denver for me to catch my plane. So the 401 Trail was the perfect 3 hour ride. It is also the MOST ride in Crested Butte. You begin climbing again, with a 7.5 mile climb most of it being a dirt road and at the end it converts to a 2 mile single track. Schofield pass is breathtaking (see the post picture). We realize you can also camp by the lake, this will be our next campsite for when we return without a doubt. But then, the singletrack downhill begins….. Let me tell you this…. BEST DAY ON A BIKE EVER!!!!! no more words needed….. Strava Ride Day #6
MiBiCi Adventures 