[Dr.Faustus]

Due to a sudden change of plans (someone turned off the Chama River!) I'm going to be up in Durango for the weekend. Since I've never gotten around to it before, I'll be riding the Hermosa Creek Trail (I know, I'm a slacker).

Anyhow, in the trail reviews I came across this loop variation on Hermosa that sounded good:
Climb Jones Creek, Left onto Pinkerton-Flagstaff, descend Dutch Creek, descend Hermosa and back to the trailhead.

So, the questions are:
- Is there a better loop or variation on Hermosa that I should try?
- Should I forget Hermosa and hit something else? (I've ridden the CT, most of Telegraph and Horse Gulch, and other trails in and near town).
- Anyone up for an 8-9am ride on Sunday?

Hasta,
Dr.(I'll be the skinny XC geek on the red/white/blue Strong hardtail)Faustus

 

[bulC]

do what you listed, you'll love it

Due to a sudden change of plans (someone turned off the Chama River!) I'm going to be up in Durango for the weekend. Since I've never gotten around to it before, I'll be riding the Hermosa Creek Trail (I know, I'm a slacker).

Anyhow, in the trail reviews I came across this loop variation on Hermosa that sounded good:
Climb Jones Creek, Left onto Pinkerton-Flagstaff, descend Dutch Creek, descend Hermosa and back to the trailhead.
Pretty steady climbing on Jones, but no real gutbuster stuff, I do it in a 32/32 except for maybe one or two spots where I use granny.
There's a sign in the meadow up Jones where it joins PinkieFlag, long as you don't go right up a short climb up to the ridge where you can look down at highway 550, you've gone the correct way. There's some hikeabike climbing when you start up Pinkie, but stick with it, it gets better. Check out the cool fence, and the little cabin downslope to the right. That's also an emergency bailout back to the highway if you're crawling with a busted femur or something. Long crawl. Just before you hook up with Dutch you'll start getting some nice ridgetop views off to the right with 3 14ers, then a rooty rutty descent where you'll want to use care to avoid bigtime endos. Dutch is fairly technical in spots, though nothing I haven't ridden full rigid. One final climb at the end thru a sweet aspen grove then bust out onto the Hermosa Highway. It'll seem like a highway after what you just rode.
Take rain gear, on and off monsoons, though Sunday's s'posed to be better than the last few. This time of year I like to be on the dirt by 7ish just in case.
Take a water filter and you can tank up anywhere along Dutch Creek. Cattle piss in the little rivlet in the meadow where Pinkie veers off Jones, but that's early in the day. So you only need to hump enough water up Jones to get you to Dutch, not all the way back, save a few pounds that way.

yeah there's other probably even better more epic stuff up the same way, but harder to explain, like Jones Pinkie then UP Dutch instead of down to connect to Little Elk which dumps back into Hermosa a few miles further north of where Dutch joins it. But route finding between upper dutch and Lil Elk is hard to explain and if you go wrong, Hello Purgatory ski area. If JonesPinkieDutch doesn't kill you, come back next time and do Lil Elk option.

 

[Dr.Faustus]

Gracias

Thanks for the beta!

Great ride, great weather, much climbing, more cows, even more fun. Touristy photos posted on Passion - because Durango doesn't have enough tourists .

Hasta,
Dr.F.

 

[forkboy]

Ride Hermosa

Ride Hermosa - if you've never done it, you gotta do it.

The other route is a blast, but not riding Hermosa is kinda like going to Moab and not riding Slickrock.

There is a reason they are famous.

I've got a race on Saturday, so I don't know how Sunday is looking - probably a long easy road ride for me.

 

[Dr.Faustus]

Whoops

Ride Hermosa - if you've never done it, you gotta do it.
...
I've got a race on Saturday, so I don't know how Sunday is looking - probably a long easy road ride for me.

I DID ride it - yesterday! Probably should have mentioned the date, 08/08/04 . Good luck with your race.

Hasta,
Dr.F.