We ran several trails in the Ouray area today. We set out on this trip hoping to run Black Bear Pass and Imogene Pass, expecting those trails to fill a day well. Due to closure of Imogene this week, we had to modify our plans a bit.
We started on Black Bear Pass around 8:45 and made very quick progress to the summit. The trail has few technical sections and I drove in 2 hi the entire way to the famous steps. We stopped frequently for photos, but still reached the top of the steps in under an hour. At this point our progress slowed as we bunched up behind several nervous drivers who carefully picked their ways down the swtichbacks. I found this section of trail surprisingly tame and easy considering the reputation it has as a frightening shelf road. The trail was quickly becoming congested below the one way section as hikers, cyclists, and climbers filled the turnouts with their cars.
Telluride appeared to bustling, but it was not yet lunch time so we filled up the gas tank and planned our next stops. We stopped at a scenic overlook just north of the Ophir pass road for lunch, then climbed the pass. Ophir was very enjoyable. The upper section of the west side has some long single lane sections covered with very loose scree. The eastern side of the pass has few rocks and is generally a steep graded dirt road. The terminus of Ophir pass left us between Ouray and Silverton and plenty of remaining daylight.
We next headed north to the Red Mountain Mining area. We ascended the nearly 12000ft peak on the southern half of this route where we found some of the best views of the ridgeline that Ophir and Black Bear traverse. This easy trail was not very crowded and we enjoyed it far more than we expected. Upon reaching the midpoint of the trail, we intended to continue through on the northern half of the trail but we could not find the correct trail. We probably missed an otherwise obvious turn, but gave up and took the highway north towards Ouray to the Corkscrew Gulch trailhead.
We set out eastward on Corkscrew Gulch intending to connect to California Gulch, something my GPS tracks calls Engineer 2.5, and then Mineral Creek. However, upon reaching Poughkeepsie Gulch, I convinced the crew that we should take Poughkeepsie north to Mineral Creek instead. Corkscrew offered some impressive views of red mountains (the only red mountain?) and pushed me to finally use 4lo for the first time of the day. The upper section of Corkscrew Gulch (over 11000 feet) was very steep and I needed the extra grunt of 4lo to make the final climbs comfortably as we pulled over Hurricane Pass.
Shortly after leaving Hurricane Pass we reached the southern end of Poughkeepsie Gulch. We quickly encountered some interesting technical wheeling in this area. We had no problems with any of the obstacles here, though I appreciated the spotting by a random fellow wheeler as I descended the wall obstacle. North of the wall, this trail is much less technical with long stretches of scree and boulders. The views on this trail are stunning, particularly as you reach the Mineral Creek full of pure white rocks and connect with Mineral Creek trail.
We ended our day by taking Mineral Creek trail back to the highway. We covered far more trails and trail miles than we could have hoped for today. We frequently crested 11,500 ft and spent hours above treeline. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trail day.
Photos and some videos to follow tomorrow.