True free will is getting over a week ahead on schoolwork to justify a weekend camping trip to one of Colorado's many places you could call paradise: Crested Butte. Sitting just about 6 hours away from CSU, this mountain town is known for two big things: skiing and aspens.
September is the month to go look at the famous Trembling Aspen turn from luscious green to shimmering gold and orange. Week three of September is peak for the lower-central portion of the state, so we knew we would be in for something special. On Friday after our last classes of the day wrapped up at noon, Finn and I strapped our mountain bikes onto the back of his car, hopped in, and began making our way south and west. After what felt like only a few minutes, we found ourselves at the top of Cottonwood Pass with light fading quickly, a truly gorgeous part of Gunnison county. Taylor Park Reservoir, below the pass, sits in this incredible bowl of alpine peaks, and sadly would be our last pleasing view of the day.
North of Crested Butte is the quaint, tiny town called Gothic, sitting under the massively looming Gothic Peak. Gothic is quite nice as it has a few campgrounds. Once set up for the night, a glance up at the clear night sky showed a perfectly clear view of the Milky Way perfectly lined up with the gaps in the trees above our tent. A really great way to end the day and to start the weekend.
Bright and early Saturday morning, we woke up to a ridiculously amazing view of aspen lined mountains, iron-rich rocky peaks, and a gorgeous sunrise. Thanks to Finn’s expert trip-planning skills, our bike ride for the morning would have us hopping on a trail (the road) literally 10 feet from our campsite, so around 8:00 am we rolled out and began the 1400+ foot ascent up County Road 317 to the beginning of the 401 trail. Once at the trailhead, we still had about 600 feet of climbing left to do, and at 10,000+ feet, it honestly wasn’t super fun… All of that went away pretty quickly when we stumbled across a male Dusky Grouse right in the middle of the trail just below the top! Once we reached the alpine, a bag of cookies that Grandma mailed to me got devoured a little too quickly to a view of Maroon Peak and some other stunning rugged Uncompahgre mountains. The descent was perfect. The first ⅔ were flowy, solid, and speedy. A few crazy drops into sketchy, loose washes had us walking briefly, and some loose soil on a turn I went into a little too fast had me flying off the trail; thankfully it wasn’t a sheer drop off there! Back down below treeline, the trail became a little more technical with larger rocks and some small root gardens needing to be navigated through. Techy trails are something I’m becoming a lot more comfortable with, and I’m feeling more at home sending myself over parts of the trail I would’ve very likely walked about a year ago. Sadly, my bike is a little lackluster when it comes to these gorgeous trails, and it doesn’t keep up with the demands of speedy downhills into hairpin turns, right back into techy rocks and roots… After only a couple of miles of downhill, I needed to cool my rear brake down every few minutes as it was completely torched. In addition, my plastic, pegless pedals had me clenching my teeth at every root and rock hoping to not send my feet flying off (leading to another broken tailbone). Nonetheless, it was a gorgeous ride, and a lot of fun overall.
After all that, we made the mistake of satiating our hunger with a lot of snacks at the campsite, which turned into us searching for a covered picnic shelter in Crested Butte to make dinner while cold rain poured down on the region. We enjoyed our Quinoa, then headed back to camp just in time for the rain to turn to heavy snow. We knew for a fact that our already incredible view from our tent was going to get better, so we hopped into our sleeping bags early, ready to fall asleep. Not very long after getting all cozy, we realized that a massive herd of cows had wandered into the campground. Dozens and dozens of cows mooing and stomping around isn’t exactly the most pleasing thing to try to fall asleep to, so we threw snowballs at them to try to get them to go away. Eventually they meandered away and we finally went to sleep.
Sunday morning we were treated to the most perfectly diffused soft light illuminating a freshly snow-covered valley, making the aspens glow even more than they already had been. Low clouds blanketed the mountains, giving Finn and I a plethora of opportunities to take a lot of really cool photos. A quick stop at Taylor Park Reservoir again gave us some epic views of a mama Moose and her calf, along with some decent birding. Cottonwood Pass was unreal as well, solidifying our comments about the whole morning’s experience being as close to a winter wonderland as you can get in Colorado. Because it rained on Saturday and snowed over more than half the state overnight, our plans to do some climbing at Staunton State Park were foiled. Thankfully our plan to eat dinner at Sherpa House, a Nepalese restaurant in Golden, was still on, so we passed some time before they opened for dinner climbing at a fun little crag in Clear Creek Canyon. Half of the routes actively had water seeping down them, but there were a few we were able to hop on for me to lead. A spicy but very fun 5.9 was my favorite, with a nice and steep roof pull, and some techy crack/face climbing up to the anchors. I never have opportunities to crack climb, so it was especially interesting for me leading it with minor runouts and worry that my poor hand jams were going to slip. Dinner at Sherpa House was nothing short of food for our souls, it was just unbelievably good. I, of course, got Chicken Tikka Masala, my all-time favorite food, and I can say with certainty that it is the best iteration of it that I’ve ever had.
All in all, it was a really nice weekend. I enjoy action packed trips that aren’t stressful at all, trips where you’re on the go quite a bit, but never rushing from place to place. Until next time Crested Butte!
