Muddy Pass Gravel

The loop. Stats came out to 57 miles, 5,200 ft.

With summer dwindling, the Colonol and I wanted to get in a solid gravel ride. Ben wanted to see what this whole gravel bike craze was all about, so I lent him my Trek Domane for his virgin drop bar ride – might as well start out with a 57 mile, 5200 foot outing right? A 30 second test ride around his neighborhood in sandals the evening before was all he needed apparently. “I know how to ride a bike” was his justification as he sped through the street in fading light.

Usually when I make a visit to Hotel Conners, no matter how hard we try, numerous libations are enjoyed and outings the next day hurt more than they need to. This go around we finally learned and only had a few while watching US Open. Maybe the ATP is getting that boring, maybe we’re actually using our wisdom – who knows but I’ll take it.

The plan was to start/end from Hotel Conners and do a long gravel loop that wasn’t overly complicated. I went on the Strava mapping tool and started drawing lines and eventually devised a plan to basically do a Tour de Forest Service Rd 700, known locally as Muddy Pass to Piney Lake.

Started the day taking the bike path along Route 6, which takes you all the way to Edwards, where it eventually fizzles out. Route 6 had a decent enough bike shoulder and no close calls. Around the Eagle Springs GC Ben ran over a damn staple and got an introduction in to how sensitive tube tires can be. I meant to switch to tubeless before this ride, but never got around to it. Fortunately I packed 4 spares for the day and that would be our only setback luckily.

“I’m feelin’ okay this mornin’, And you know, We’re on a road to paradise, Here we go, here we go”

We came overly prepared with 4 spares.

We met our buddy Parker who came from Eagle at the turnoff to FS 700 and the gravel crunching officially commenced. The beginning of FS 700 is a long, gradual ascending climb to a fence boundary where we were granted our first views of the Gores. The valley along CO-131 is quite scenic, with a surprising amount of public land to get away from the masses. Not many venture in to these parts other than Eagle County locals. FS 700 is generally a pretty popular jeep road, but given it was post-Labor Day, road traffic wasn’t that bad at all and we were the only bikes of the day. Piney Lake Road was a different story, more on that later.

Let the slog begin

Me with the CO-131 valley behind. Lots of flowers still out.

The Grizl and the Gores

The second half of the climb got pretty brutal, it kept going up and up and up with little to no reprieve. I actually got off the bike at one point and walked for a few hundred yards as it was faster to walk than continuing to pedal at a sea turtles pace.

“We’re on a ride to nowhere Come on inside Takin’ that ride to nowhere We’ll take that ride”

The big climbing finally relented right around the FS 700/FS 734 junction. FS 734 is the turnoff for Red and White Mountain Rd, but we continued down 700 which was a series of mostly down hills, with a few climbs, but nothing significant. For reference, I was pretty exhausted by the time we reached the junction but was able to motor on for the remainder of the day without much trouble. The views of the Gores and Ripsaw Ridge helped maintain my high spirits.

Longest snack break of the day. This was basically the halfway point

The campsites along this section of the loop were pretty incredible. Each one seemed to have an IMAX panoramic view of the Ripsaw. I made multiple waypoints for future outings. With Parker on his hardtail with beefy tires, he made quick work of the road, which never got all that rough, but did require some manuevering on a gravel. Ben and I switched bikes at one point to test out the difference between a Trek Domane with 36mm tires and my Canyon Grizl with 47mm tires. Definitely more stability, but all in all, not a massive difference to be honest.

Eagle’s Nest -> Powell -> Pk. C

It was amazing how green this loop was. Not surprising though. The red dirt contrasted well with it.

We popped out on the Piney Road directly at the Lost Lake TH and it was there we made our goodbyes with Parker, who was braving the Red and White Rd back to Muddy, which added something like 2,000′ to his day. Ahh, to be in your early 30’s again. But after watching Parker bust up Murphy’s Hogback, the steepest section of the White Rim last year, I figured the added vert was nothing for him.

Ben and I continued on down the much higher traffic’d Piney Rd and leap frogged a few mouth breathers, but I digress.

“we’re on a road to nowhere”

Home is just down that way

The last couple miles of Piney/700 is relatively washboarded but manageable. It was beer:30 so we had a unique motivation. Once we hit pavement, its basically entirely a gradual downhill all the way back to Ben’s front door where we had these waiting for us……

King of Beers

All in all a very solid loop. If I lived in the valley, I’d do this multiple times a summer. The road is perfect for a gravel bike, probably not all that exciting for a full suspension mountain. Parker had a carbon hardtail with big tires so he did a lot better on most of the downhills. Being Ben’s maiden voyage on a gravel, he was a fan and now sees the benefits of them. Through his awakening, I too was reminded of their place in the bike quiver. It certainly opens up a world of possibilities the road slicks simply cannot provide. Most of the vert on the loop is stacked on the front end, but the second half of the day is more or less a breeze. Had I known that, I would’ve paced myself accordingly on the brutal ascent. Always so much adventure to be had in this state.

Till next time my lord…