I have been thinking of heading out over Labor Day weekend for an exploration / Overland type trip and thought I would post up here to see if anyone would be interested in coming along for the adventure. I know Radioflyer has the same idea and so do a few others so thought for cohesiveness I would throw out the initial plans I have had in my head for some time.

My initial plan is to leave friday at some point, maybe morning or late morning - return monday at some point. I do have some flexibility on either side of the weekend, thur-tue if some one wants to extend a day here or there to hit up another trail or route…

The plans below are loose. I wasn't going to have to be anywhere at any particular time with the exception of the first night I definitely wanted to stay near st elmo to do a little poking around. The maps below are poor, but I do have detailed books for most of the off road portion of the trails.. which is the majority of the trip (except 285)

Friday
Leave Denver (time unknown) travel 285 to Buena Vista and up past St. Elmo. Depending on the time of day setup camp past St. Elmo on the road up to Tin Cup Pass. If there early enough enjoy the area, there are some great little lakes up there. Maybe explore up a trail or two or just chill out and cook a great meal.







Saturday
Continue up over Tin Cup pass down into Tin Cup itself and then around Taylor Reservoir to the north end of the valley and head up over Italian Pass. This is a very scenic route and at the pass you have th option to climb up to American Flag mountain to the summit.. and take in the sights. There are a few old cabins you can explore on both sides of the pass. After some sight seeing and maybe some lunch head down toward Crested Butte and camp along cement creek road or another area near Cement creek road. Again depending on the time of day and where we are camping explore a bit take in the sights good food.

Tin Cup Pass:



Italian Creek:



Sunday
Head down Cement Creek road into crested butte. Grab some breakfast or an early lunch. Lots of options here but my initial thought was to head over Pearl Pass and either continue on to Aspen via Richmond Hill Road which takes you basically to the top of Aspen Ski Resort. Then if the road through Aspen Ski resort is open (Aspen Mountain Rd) drive down the ski resort right into town.

Cement Creek:

Pearl Pass:

Richmond Hill:

Aspen Mountain Road:



or

camp somewhere in-between aspen and crested butte, explore the area - a few trails and sights around… then head down into Aspen on monday morning..



Check out the fullsize above map here:

Monday
Kind of a pot luck day...
Head up out of aspen over independence pass and head over Mosquito pass, Weston Pass or take Lenhardy Cutoff - all of which leads to FairPlay/285 then home.

Mosquito Pass:

Weston Pass:

Lenhardy Cutoff:

None of the above is absolute or even that hard. I wanted to keep it loose and fun - If i saw something and wanted to stop or if I heard of another trail or road then maybe that could be an option. This was just a loose idea that could be a fun adventure.

I'm open to ideas and suggestions, I have been up to St Elmo (but not across the pass) and have been over Italian Creek/Pass so the rest was new to me.

Let me know your thoughts or if you want to come along - i like to wing it too but always wanted to do pearl pass into aspen

I'm 100% interested. The route I was talking about running could be done earlier in the spring and later in the fall. I haven't spend any time in this area, either, so it meets the exploring need.

My folks did a fair amount of exploring around the Crested Butte area a couple weeks ago. I know they did Pearl Pass and loved it. I can ask what else there is and how tough it was. They also dropped down into Aspen and wanted to stay a night there for a shower, until the cheapest place they found was $400/night. Sounds like a great time! Wish I could join you!

FYI - there is a nice primitive camping area just downhill of St. Elmo that is small and pretty nice. There is some descent fishing in the creek on the Aspen side of Independence Pass. Actually there is even more good fishing on the Twin Lakes side too. I might be able to get coordinates for both areas.

Justin - Medano Pass in the Spring usually means very high water crossings. Just FYI

That all looks good, a quick glance at bushducks website confirms everything is open. I've ran maybe a quarter of the trails you've listed so it'd be a lot of new experiences, which I like. Two of the trials top out at 6 on the hardness scale, one has a bypass and the other looks like a reasonable 6, but those ratings are old and you never know if they've trended easier or harder. On a trip this long that would be one of my concerns.

none of these roads/trails should be tough, they are more bumpy/rocky forest service roads in most regards

I don't think I can join you guys, but if I can I'd like to meet up in Cb when you are there. ill keep watching this as it gets planned. My truck needs more than a little TLC and I'm training an employee, there is a slim chance I'll join you.

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There is lots of camping around tin cup


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that would be great, maybe at the very least a breakfast or lunch? as it gets closer I will keep the thread updated

It's coming up! Do you guys want to try and coordinate food, gear etc? I'm not sure we need 3 stoves, for example. I'm happy to bring my big 2 burner that runs off a 7lb propane tank.

Fellas, I'm sorry but I have to say I'm not going to make this trip. My family has experienced a loss and there are a lot of unknowns at the moment, I don't want to say I may possibly make it and then cancel at the last second.

Kirk, I'm really sorry to hear that, both for your loss and the loss of your company on this trip. I've been reconsidering as well, my son is having a really hard time with the number of hours I'm working. Taking an entire long weekend to be gone is feeling selfish at the moment. We're talking about doing a single night closer to home if that interests you at all.

No worries take care of the family there will always be other times

Thanks, its appreciated. The family needs are really high at the moment.

I had another opportunity (non-bronco related) and wont be making this trip unfortunately, sorry for the late response as I have been in a work meeting most of today and JUST got out... (7pm)