CTR 2013 Planning

[Woodland]

Was just in Copper. Sandwich shop open 11-7 and gas station store open til 8. Also a donut/coffee shop there...

Always good to confirm this type of info...

[Matt]

The trail passes just by a convenience store at the base of Copper Mountain ski resort which is last relatively close resupply before Waterton.  Hours are somewhat limited so that is something to be aware of.  There are rumors of food options on Tarryall but none seem reliable.

As soon as you get onto the paved section of the Tarryall detour there will be store on your right. It has very basic gas station type snacks. Although I dont know the exact hours they are open, they were open both times we rode by it earlier this spring. FYI.

[THE LONG RANGER]

Also, with Tarryall a part of the route now, does that make Leadville the last resupply before the finish?

There's Copper Village, as well as a convenient store, SE of the entrance to the Peaks Trail - wanna say it's 24hrs.

There's some resources on HW9 with limited hours near the other side of the Peaks Trail (and 24hr stuff in Frisco/Breck - including a Safeway, if you wanna go all that way ~6 miles either to the one in Breck, or the one in Frisco). Interesting Bailey is completely out. Hell of a run!

[DanHickstein]

Yeah, with Bailey out of the mix, it does make resupply a little trickier. The "McCoy's Mountain Market" in Copper mountain is very close to the CO trail. It's pretty small, but has most of the food and candy bar options that you can ask for. Lithium batteries as well, if I recall correctly. It's open from 9am to 8pm: http://www.copperchamber.com/member-directory/shopping/mccoys-mountain-market?type=directory&w=new
There is a Conoco near I-70, but it's only 7am to 8pm: http://www.copperchamber.com/member-directory/shopping/conoco
The 7-eleven on the north side of Breck is only 3 miles down the bikepath. They don't list their hours, but most 7-elevens are 24 hours. Though the City Market is 6am to 11 pm and only a few blocks south of the 7-eleven. Frisco is more like 6 miles, so I would go to Breck rather than Frisco.

[dream4est]

Still looking for a ride from the Denver area to the start on 7/19 or 7/20. Will pay gas money. Maybe give you a Geronimo Pain Cream as well!
Willing to share course details and water/food info as this is my 6th time racing or ITT'ing the route. PM or call me and we will work out the details.

Mark
720-635-sevenfour29

[joeydurango]

This is what the view from Kennebec Pass area looked like two days ago:



That's not rain making the Rockies look like the Great Smokies... that's smoke.  We've had it bad the last week or so.  Today seems to be better, but... I'm sure wondering what the CT will look like overall, since it's 80% downwind from the big fires here.  Anyone been riding in Sargents, Salida, BV, Leadville area?

Took that photo while headed out for a three-day trip.  Had to bail after only six hours of riding... couldn't breathe properly.  Same thing happened during the Durango Dirty Century last week.  Finished, but slowly - my legs/lungs/head just wouldn't work - a pretty miserable day on the bike, even though I love the DDC course!  Between the smoke and detours, I am having serious misgivings about taking on the CTR again, at least for 2013.  Maybe I'll pull out of the funk in the next two weeks.

FYI, from town to Kennebec, loaded, will probably take the fast guys five hours or so, and I'd think average should be about seven hours or more.  Making Silverton by store closing time will be tough!  6000+' of climbing right off the bat is a great way to start!  

[Matt Schiff]

I've been wondering how easy, having margin for error, it would be to get to the store for a "fast guy". I'm up in the air about how much food to bring from the start.

West Fork fire complex 25% contained and it seems a bunch of work has been done on the northern end of Papoose to keep it away from 149. I'm still hopeful this won't be the year of detours.

[joeydurango]

I dunno, Matt... sixteen hours is what you'll have, and I'm thinking sixteen hours is pretty damn close to what it will take even for the fastest guys (you, Jesse, Ethan, Jefe, et al).  If you had a perfect first day and felt really good, I think you could make it with a couple hours to spare.  But those couple hours could disappear pretty quickly if something happened, or if you weren't going quite as fast as normal...

[Couloirman]

According to the CTF's facebook page the CT is now 100% open!

Not good news about smoke on the trail though. Open or closed doesn't really matter to me if riding all day feels like smoking a few packs of cigarettes, or even worse...

[joeydurango]

Wow, that's awesome about 22/23.  Completely didn't expect that.  Sounds like Jerry Brown has been convincing the Rio Grande NF people of the obvious, i.e., that 22/23 are completely on the arbitrary border of the closure and are in no danger of burning.  Sweet, great job Jerry!  Thank you!

[Matt Schiff]

According to the CTF's facebook page the CT is now 100% open!

yehaw!

[Gimmearaise]

According to the CTF's facebook page the CT is now 100% open!

Not good news about smoke on the trail though. Open or closed doesn't really matter to me if riding all day feels like smoking a few packs of cigarettes, or even worse...

Great news!

[Gimmearaise]

Hey friends looking for a ride down to Durango. I'm in CB but can make it down to gunny for a pick up. Let me know if you have some room, got gas money! Stoked for another multi day race!

Thanks a mucho!

Neil

[Johnny_mtb]

Here is the flipped elevation profile for 2013 (without Tarryall).  Anyone getting excited?

[Matt Schiff]

Don't know how accurate the elevation calculation was. I have the tarryall detour adding 47 miles but only 2000 additional climbing. I think I was looking at descending. The climbing is similar since the start and finish are different elevations.

[THE LONG RANGER]

Eh, it looks about right, since you're going down from Kenosha, it's just all those little dips in between that 40 something miles. There's def. a little climbing once you start heading back N. It's a fun road, goes by the res. and Castle Mountain, I believe.

Little weirded out by the total mileage - this is from the GPX that Stefan initially posted, when asked for input on the detour - it may not be SUPER accurate!

[joeydurango]

Damn, climbing Stony Pass looks like a $#%&!

I'm sure getting excited... still not sure whether this will be race or tour for me this year, but excited nonetheless.

[DanHickstein]

In case you're wondering what the Tarryall detour does to the elevation profiles, here are the two elevation profiles plotted together. As you can see, the detour adds a few climbs, but they aren't too bad when compared to the rest of the course.


CTR-compared by danhickstein, on Flickr

And Joey, having done both, I think that riding UP Stony Pass is definitely the way to go. It's a huge climb, no doubt, but riding it this way mean that you do a less climbing and a more descending when you finally get on the singletrack.

[Gimmearaise]

And Joey, having done both, I think that riding UP Stony Pass is definitely the way to go. It's a huge climb, no doubt, but riding it this way mean that you do a less climbing and a more descending when you finally get on the singletrack.

Thats what I was thinking, sure its going to be a tough climb... but its on the road and I think 22 and 23 will be much more enjoyable this way!

[Yagi]

That's not rain making the Rockies look like the Great Smokies... that's smoke.  We've had it bad the last week or so.  Today seems to be better, but... I'm sure wondering what the CT will look like overall, since it's 80% downwind from the big fires here.  Anyone been riding in Sargents, Salida, BV, Leadville area?

I just got back from a weekend in Crested Butte, and the BV area was just a tad hazy(if at all).  If I hadn't known there were any fires going on, I probably wouldn't've even thought about it.  I don't have any pictures to back up what I saw, but we camped at the Avalanche TH on CR306 outside of BV on Thursday evening, and as much as smoke makes me seem asthmatic, I woke up feeling great.

Wishing you guys/gals the best...  Good luck!

Steve