Snodgrass to Deer Creek

Well we ended up not riding Monday as the weather was not looking great and howie and I needed a rest day anyways. Scott went and checked out Black Canyon on the Gunnison National Park.
For Tuesday we wanted to show Scott the Deer Creek ride but we didn't feel like dealing with the climb we did especially all the stupid deer flies. We also wanted to check out another trail, Snodgrass, that runs between Washington Gultch and the drainage Deer Creek ends in. The plan was to park in Crested Butte, ride out Washington Gultch about 5 miles, pick up Snodgrass, take that over to the "end" of the Deer Creek trail and do an out n back on that.
Snodgrass is a no motorcycle trail so its in really good shape winding in and out of the Aspen and as we rode it, finishes up down a dirt road just above Mt Crested Butte.
A couple miles out Gothic road and we were at the trailhead, already with about 12 miles and 1200 feet or so of climbing in.
Deer Creek's tread is also in really good shape due to no moto's on it either. Going this way it starts with a climb through a tall grass meadow, tall being about handlebar height for the most part. We hit the aspen and kept climbing from about 9400 to 9900 feet where the trail levels out and follows that contour for a mile or so, a welcome break. Up through more open field and aspen to about 10,200 and again levels out for a bit, going by some stock ponds. There was a couple hundred foot decent down to a creek crossing with the matching climb on the other side. At one point Howie did manage to fall over in a muddy creek crossing, just picture pig pen from the Peanuts cartoon. The final climb took us up to about 10,600 just past what is pictured below



2 hours after we started the climb we were at the top. We didn't spend too much time there as the deer flies started to congregate so we ate some fluffer nutters and then headed back down, this being our first big view. We all agreed the ride down was a lot more fun, although still requiring some work. I also managed to find a tombstone with my front wheel going around a turn that sent me into the weeds, but just a little rock rash on my leg. Scott decided to forgo the bonus mileage at the end, that being Upper trail and Tony's trail so we opted for the easier bike path from Mt Crested Butte down to the truck in Crested Butte. Total of about 6 hours, 35 miles, and 4200 feet of climbing.
Howie dropped his bike at the Alpineer outdoor and bike shop to get his rear brake bled then we walked over to get a little pizza at the Brick Oven before heading back to camp