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WELCOME! If you arrived at this page directly, you may want to read the introductory page: Roger's Favorite Singletrack Mountain Bike Rides
Please realize that I am an older, intermediate mountainbiker with a passion for singletracks and am suggesting these trails to others such as myself. Please do not rely totally on my descriptions -- get maps and trail guides locally. Note that I live in California, but ride frequently in Colorado.
Suggestions for minimizing trail damage:
-do not let your tires slide when climbing, descending, or
turning.
-ride over water bars, not around them.
-avoid riding on wet trails.
-carry your bike over or around deep mud.
-ride under control so that you do not run off the edge of the
trail.
This point to point trail is about 20 miles long, about 1/2 old
dirt road/doubletrack, and 1/2 singletrack. It has good scenery (Mt.
Sopris and Capitol Peak) and passes through beautiful Aspen groves
and flower-filled meadows and several streams. The singletrack varies
from technical to smooth and fast, with a grand finale through an
Aspen Grove. It took us about 2 and 1/2 hours to ride, plus another
hour to get back to the car. (We made a loop out of it, but most
people shuttle cars back and forth!) It is best ridden from the north
end to the south end.
I cannot recommend Sloane Peak for most intermediate riders, but in case you are looking for a ride that is LONG and climbs FOREVER and is EXHAUSTING, and contains some killer singletracks, than this is it!!!
My son Garth had always wanted to ride up Sloane Peak from Basalt. We also saw a singletrack loop on a map on the far side of the peak and wanted to throw it in too. We knew that it would be a hard trip because Basalt is 6500 feet and Sloane Peak is 10,500 feet, but we had NO idea just how hard it would be...
Most of the ride up Sloane Peak is on an old dirt road that is being quietly sucked up by mother nature. The first two miles were extremely steep (Garth rode, I pushed!), but led to the top of a more gradual ridge with great views of the Elk Range and Maroon Bells. The dirt road ended at an old mine. A singletrack took off from there UP through a Douglas Fir forest. (Garth rode, I pushed!) Then we reached a part of the trail that was supposed to traverse across the face of the ridge to a saddle. It did, but was BARELY visible, was slanted, exposed, loose, and steep. (Garth carried his bike some, I carried my bike a lot!) At one point I even did a summer-salt down through the bushes... but crawled back up to the trail unhurt. We FINALLY made it through this section and the trail became better and more used (We actually began to see tire tracks!)
According to the map, we were supposed to travel up the Arbaney Kittle Trail for about 8 miles uphill, turn onto trail 2186 for about 5 miles downhill, turn onto trail 1933 for about 3 miles downhill and 4 miles uphill, and turn onto jeep road 534 for about 5 miles to head back down to the valley, and turn onto a paved bike path for about 8 miles back to the car. It sounded simple, BUT not one trail was marked!! No trail signs, no trail numbers, more trails than were included on the map, AND one trail dissolved into nothingness for awhile!! Luckily we turned correctly every time, found some GREAT singletracks on trails 2186 and 1933, and didn't get lost when trail 1933 dissolved. (We went astray for awhile, but it became obvious that we were on an Elk trail rather than a people trail, so we went back to the drainage with Aspens and followed it UP.)
BUT there was MUCH more climbing than expected -- perhaps as much as 7000 feet! AND it took us much longer than we had expected -- about 9 hours of nonstop riding/pushing/carrying. We both ran out of water. I filled up from a stream (wish me luck!), Garth waited it out.
All-in-all, it is a GREAT adventure with some GREAT riding, but requires a good map and map skills and LOTS of luck and endurance!
if you do a ride and enjoy it, please let the land manager know that you did enjoy it and that the existence of single-track trails is important to you! A small donation for trail maintenance and development might also be helpful!
Minimizing Trail Conflicts On Singletrack Trails
Minimizing Trail Impact On Singletrack Trails
Hints For Beginning Singletrackers
Back to Roger's Favorite Singletrack Mountain Bike Rides