Doctor Park: Best Trail I've Ridden. Ever. Anywhere. (Crested Butte Day 5 - August 2019)

Rider: David Sanderson
Film Maker: Bob Averill, aka - Boba
Rigs: Santa Cruz Bronson C 2(Boba), Santa Cruz Hightower (David)

Produced by: Retirement Xtreme, in conjunction with NeuroAdventures

So, what makes this the best trail ever? Everything.

But before I describe the features of this ride, this time I'm trying something a little different in the editing room. Instead of aiming for the MTB fanatic viewer who tend towards faster, steeper, bigger, gnarlier, this edit will be for... me, but specifically for thirty-years-from-now me -- Old Man Boba. By that time, I will be 90 years old, and probably unable to ride trails like this at the level I am riding them now (fair assumption...). But I want to remember EVERYTHING about the ride, not just the steep and gnar. So, this edit has the whole experience built into it.

On to the ride... It starts with the "hasta luego" to Ashley, our shuttle angel for the entire trip. Once again, she went above and beyond to drive David's vehicle back to a lower meeting point, so we could cut off about 1200' of boring fireroad climbing. Thanks, Ashley!!

The video next spends time on the initial barefoot creek crossing, a great way to start an epic ride by hoisting our bikes on our backs to avoid stripping away all the lube on our chains and bearings. We then had a chance to talk with Mike, a solo adventurer on the MTB trip of his life. He started from Pennsylvania, drove over 30 hours to Moab and rode there in the 100° heat on the classic trails, then drove another 4-1/2 hours after that to Crested Butte for these incredible trails. While chatting, we saw a gung-ho MTB crew shuttling their jeep across the same creek we had just waded across, bikes loaded on top and on the back. Crazy Colorado locals!

A small amount of time on the 3-mile uphill follows, because it was also part of the experience - a gradual climb in the best weather of the trip so far. Then, at the 12:30 mark, the downhill begins. Initially, we glide through a beautiful wildflower meadow on a butter-smooth straight-and-true ribbon of trail -- something we've come to expect on Crested Butte rides. Next, we got into some fast pine forest, with a few mild rock and root-studded technical sections -- also normal stuff for CB.

We had a short mid-ride climb after this, and then: the Ewok Forest downhill! This two-mile section was also butter-smooth, but had a mixed-species forest, with some pines and tons of aspens mere inches from your handlebars along a speedy, undulating singletrack. And the natural topography made for lots of high-speed launches off small kickers, with smooth landings on the backside of the jumps. Still in the Ewok Forest, we entered a rocky technical section that kept you on your toes as you tried to pick the best line, sometimes between rocks, sometimes up and over nice shale drops. The trail was also getting progressively sandier, but not a bog-you-down kind of sand. This was slightly wet, hardpacked sand with great traction, but gave your tires a really cool drift sensation as you slid a few inches in the fast turns before hooking up again -- such a free and fluid feeling, it reminded me of long, drawn out bottom turns on a surfboard.

Out of the Ewok forest, expansive vistas welcomed us, as we transitioned into a steep, packed-sand trail with lots of embedded sandstone and perfectly contoured switchbacks. This final section even had some moderate cliff exposure -- just enough to spice up the ride, but not so terrifying to induce you to throttle back much. Nice!

Rolling into the parking lot, I already knew this was the best ride of the trip. We then met the shuttle fanatics -- Bob and Mike. Turns out Bob just celebrated his 70th birthday! So cool, and something to keep in mind after rounding the big-6-0 mark.

Now, as I reflect back on all the above -- variety of terrain, breathless Rocky Mountain beauty, fun and interesting people -- it becomes clear that this really is a high-water mark of all the trails I've ridden in my 30+ years of immersing myself in this incredible sport/lifestyle.

On the NeuroAdventure scale, this one hit peak levels pretty much everywhere -- adrenaline during the rocky technical sections and high-speed jump sections, endorphin on the sustained climbs and very long down, serotonin from the alpine wonders all around, and even oxytocin from riding with and meeting like-minded fanatics chasing the same dream on this incredible planet.

See you at the next NeuroAdventure, though I'm not quite sure what to do for an encore...