If you have not gotten the memo yet, I love to ride most anything with 2 wheels, including mountain bikes. Recently I set out on my annual summer trip to the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Denver, Colorado for my logistics business. Since the expo is in the direction of general epic single-track and mountain radness I try and take advantage along the way.
First stop is generally mountain biking and crested butte. Crested Butte and the neighboring town of Gunnison, affectionately referred to as “Gunny” has some 750 miles of epic single-track for mountain biking in colorado. Surprising, most of these amazing trails can also be riding on dirt bike, making dirt biking in Colorado pretty fricking epic also.
Coming from living in California most of my life, I almost feel bad riding on the beautiful ribbons of mountain single-track on my KTM 500 exc. However, since I ride mountain bikes and enduro dirt bikes. I feel like I have a healthy level of respect and appreciation, for how awesome these trails are. So to have the freedom to ride or hike most any of these fantastic trails however you enjoy is pretty awesome!
Some of my favorite towns for mountain biking in Colorado include: Crested Butte, Gunnison, Salida, Steam Boat, Fruita Colorado, and tons of trails I learned to ride on around Boulder Colorado. Recently though, my favorites have been mountain biking in crested butte, due to the sheer amount of trails and vibrantly green, river-filled trail ways of this high Colorado territory.
While mountain biking in crested butte some of my favorite trails have become teocalli ridge, 401 trail, strand hill trail, and dr park trail network. For dirt biking in Colorado some of my favorites in Crested Butte/Gunnison area are Lily Pond trail, dr park trail, star trail, and rattlesnake in Gunnison/ Hartman rocks area.
Generally, after I am done at the outdoor retailer summer market “ the actually reason for the trip! 😊” I head up into Wyoming to visit my old stomping ground of Jackson Wyoming and the evolving single-track trail network of Jackson hole mountain biking. While I think there are much better mountain biking towns, Jackson is a magically mountain town in many ways. Not only is it home to the fabled Jackson Hole Mountain Resorts where I used to be a liftie scum bag many winters ago. But generally, this compact western town has an overwhelming amount of killer live music shows, outdoor movie screenings, and great bar venues like the million dollar cowboy bar, Mangy Moose, Wart Hotel , and the stagecoach bar in Wilson Wyoming.
Once I finished up visiting my favorite cousin Grant and his family and riding some single track laps in Jackson. It was off to Lake Tahoe for some more Nor Cal mountain biking. Now Lake Tahoe Mountain Biking is arguable some of the best single-track anywhere. Or maybe it's closer and I am partial, but the trails are still rad, the scenery is beyond epic, and I don’t have to drive 3 states away to kill it! This might be why we are looking to build our next 4 plex community for my other company www.villageredevelopment.com in the truckee area of north lake tahoe.
Some of my favorite lake tahoe mountain biking trails include Western States trails up to Watson Lake Area, Armstrong trail into Mr Toads Wild Ride, and Jack Ass to Donkey Town Trail right out of Truckee CA area. Besides being an awesome place to ride, and epic sierra Nevada scenery its generally a pretty fun place to hang out. Floating the Truckee river, hitting the bridge tender bar, and seeing some live shows and summer concerts in this great North Lake Tahoe town.
2000 or so miles later and several killer single-track mountain towns late,r its time to head back to San Diego. Thankfully, the water is warm and we are on to summer longboard surfing season which is always fun. Stay stoked out their friends and give us feedback on any of our designs and ideas inspired by epic trips and outdoor sports activities we love.
Yours in building and spreading stoke!
Jeremy Curran
President /Founder
Stoked Clothing Company
