Aspen Ridge Bikepacking Trip Report

This past weekend, I did the Bikepacking.com Family Bikepacking on Aspen Ridge loop with the Front Range Bikepacking meetup group. It was a blast, and we had a ton of fun! This post is going to give our ride impressions and some tips to have the most fun on this adventure.

The Crew

If you haven't done a Bikepacking.com route before, the difficulty of 6 isn't something you want to underestimate. It's hard! The ride starts with a 15 mile climb on steep, loose, and rocky gravel and jeep roads. It's super exposed and hot for the first part, though you do eventually get into the trees.

Check out the whole photo album here.

The Route

Here's my impressions of the route:

• 0-12: pavement transitions to relatively gentle gravel, and ending with a bit more chunky rocks and sandy sections. Exposed. A hell of a climb.
• 12-18: The climb gets pretty chunky and rocky. At around mile 16 it tapers off, and you start getting a really nice combination of rolling descents and climbs.
• 18-28: Nice gravel, flowy, some climbs but mostly level and descent.
• 28-34: Somewhat sandy and loose.
• 35-40: Gentle gravel and a steep climb.
• 40-end: Get ready for a fun as hell descent on excellent gravel and pavement!

Water

The route posted on the website doesn't have the water spots marked. I've made a copy of the route with the water spots marked. The quarry gulch at mile 10 had good water that was easy to fill up on. Cottonwood Creek had water, but it's a cow pasture, so bring a real good filter. My phone didn't have service and I failed to download offline maps for the area, so I wasn't able to find the Bassam guard station for water, and I can't report on how good it was. The next few creeks were dry. Mud Spring was inaccessible on private property, and IIRC the pond was dry. There was a full pond before mile 38. That's the last water, but it's also right before the huge descent into town, so you won't need to fill up too much.

Quarry Gulch Water

I had a 3L water bladder and three 24oz water bottles. After refilling at Cottonwood Creek and camping, I was able to make it to town without running out, but only barely.

Cottonwood Creek can be easy to miss

Bikes and Tires

There were six of us on the trip, with the following bikes/gear:

• Salsa Warbird, 700c x 40mm Maxxis Rambler tires
• Specialized hardtail, 29x2" Ground Control tires
• Salsa Mukluk, 29x2.35 Ikon rear and 29x2.6 Rekon front tires
• Salsa Timberjack hardtail with 27.5x2.8" WTB Ranger tires
• Salsa Mukluk with RockShox Bluto and 27.5x3 Framed tires
• Surly Krampus with 29x3 Surly Dirt Wizard tires

29er Mukluk

I was on the Mukluk with 29er wheels, and I had a blast. There were a few sections where I wanted chunkier tires for traction on some of the looser/sandier bits, but I felt like the tires I had handled the rocky parts pretty well. All told, I felt like I was on the perfect bike 95% of the time.

29+ Surly Krampus

27.5+ Salsa Timberjack

27.5+ Salsa Mukluk

The 2.8" and 3" crew had a great time. The suspension forks were overkill on these guys, with the 29x3 Krampus crushing it with efficiency on the uphills and handling the rocky descents with ease.

Mr Warbird

The Warbird handled the gravel and smooth stuff excellently. It had trouble on the rocky parts, and washed out a lot with the sandier parts of the trail. I'd estimate it was perfectly suited for about 70% of the ride, but the remaining 30% was hard. I wasn't riding it, but I have done part of the route on a Fuji Jari gravel bike with 40mm WTB Nanos, and I did regret that choice.

Specialized

The Specialized rider hadn't been on a bike in 3 years, and managed to pull it off well. He didn't have any complaints about his tires or suspension.

Storms

We did the ride in late July. July is stormy in Colorado, and we took a break to take cover to avoid a storm. Fortunately it didn't get nasty, but there were thunderbolts and lightning (very very frightening) and a bit of hail. Definitely take cover that you can quickly deploy if you do this in the summer, or, more intelligently, depart early in the morning (or later in the afternoon) to avoid the storms entirely.

Always bring a tarp and rain jacket!

Camping

For most of this ride, you're going to be in national forest land, and you can pretty much camp wherever you want. There's a beautiful campsite at the 15 mile point with an incredible view.

A nice way to finish the climb

However, you may want to continue to the next water source to refill for the night if you're running low from the quarry. You won't be missing out on any views. These photos are from our campsite around mile 22.

The sky is on fire

This was the first time i've setup my tent in the light, would recommend

We chose this campsite for the views. To be honest, there was a nicer campsite at the bottom of the hill, with soft grass and a firepit. Who remembers the bad sleep when these photos last forever?