Pictures from the Colorado Trail

Had the privilege of riding the Colorado Trail August 2 – 13 (12 days). I still have a lot of pictures to go through, but here is my first pass of my favorites. The trail was amazing, and we lucked out with weather! For anyone who watches my channel, I should have a video for this trip coming out in the next several months! (I have about 4-5 videos in the queue before this one though!)

For those who are thinking of doing the Colorado Trail, I'll give you some thoughts and impressions…

LOGISTICS:

We flew into Denver, rented a truck, rented an Air BnB for a week, worked out of the Air BnB for the week. On Saturday and were able to ride to Waterton Canyon (Start of the trail). When we got to Durango, we got some bike boxes at 2nd Ave Sports for free (Awesome bike shop with really friendly staff), then hired a shuttle for $50 to take us with our bikes to the Durango airport.

ABOUT MY BIKE AND GEAR:

I ended up riding my El Jefe with 120mm front suspension. I chose this only to ride a hardtail in solidarity with a friend. If I were doing it again, I would DEFINITELY take my full suspension! I wouldn't even contemplate doing the route on a fully rigid bike.

For tires I went Exo + casing, 2.4 Rekon in the back and a 2.4. Forekaster in the front. I was happy with this tire combination. For racks/bags, I used a MICA rack in the rear which allowed me to fully utilize my dropper. Rack worked flawlessly! In the front I ordered the new tailfin rack! This also worked out flawlessly.

I ended up bringing several things I didn't end up using but some I would probably still bring again, specifically, rain gloves and pants. I brought two powerbanks when and a lot of extra camera batteries when I only needed one powerbank. I brought a fishing pole which I used a handful of times… I did catch two fish… but honestly it was kind of silly to bring the pole on the trip. While there are a reasonable amount of fishing opportunities, you have to be very intentional about your pace and expectations if you actually expect to fish.

ABOUT OUR PACE:

We went into this aiming to finish between 11-14 days. We finished in 12. We had a full nights sleep every night, had time to quickly break out the fishing pole once and a while, and do some filming. That said, the days were full and for my level of fitness 12 days was tough!

HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS:

Highlight for me was the sections after Silverton – Stunning scenery and beautiful singletrack.

Lowlights for me was Sargents Mesa – This section was hard and slow going due to rocky trail conditions. Lots of pushing and energy sucking.

AZT (Arizona Trail) vs. OTT (Oregon Timber Trail) vs. CT (Colorado Trail) from a weekend warriors perspective….

I've got to say that the CT is unmatched in terms of long stretches of quality singletrack. I think it is the most visually beautiful too (subjective, but I love the mountains.)

AZT and CT are both epics and are very difficult in their own ways. The CT has so much elevation gain and hike a bike, it wore me down and there was a cumulative fatigue. That coupled with the high elevation and the fact that we all got a little bit sick, I was probably the most tired I have ever been on Sargent Mesa day. We lucked out and had NO BAD WEATHER!!! This is obviously another critical factor in the difficulty of the CT. Lastly, the mountain biking is far more technical on the CT. After a long day with a lot of climbing, your descent isn't a gimmie. I would advise that you need to be a reasonable mountain biker (can ride some black trails) before dong the CT. E.g., descending Georgia pass was a pretty chunky mess…. you could walk it, but that would be really slow going. Resupply's are reasonable and water is abundant.

I did the AZT in 2023, I think it took 20 days. The AZT is longer and you have two really big bosses, the Grand Canyon portage and the Lemon Push. These two challenges are quite physically demanding, but the stretches inbetween allow you to recover more. Of course this all depends on your pace… The other difficulty with the AZT is the water scarcity and the heat! You've got to plan accordingly and stay on top of your water. While there is hike a bike on the AZT, from my recollection, it didn't feel as significant as the CT.

I did the OTT in 2024 in 11 days, but I did have to skip some of the challenging bits due to wildfires, specifically, the climb up bunchgrass and the pyramids. I think bunchgrass would have been a full day hike a bike and pyramids would have added half a day. With those things aside, I think the first four days of the OTT are quite challenging, but it gets quite a bit easier. The difficulty comes from, lack of resupply, water scarcity, and blowdowns / unmaintained trail. You end up doing a lot of hike a bike and lifting your bike over blowdowns. The second half of the route gets easier, good resupplies, better maintained trails so things are ridable!

They are all incredible in their own ways, and I feel lucky to have been able to ride all three! I hope this is helpful for someone thinking about doing these. Please let me know if you have any questions!