Eccher Gulch - Attempt 1
Almont, Crested Butte, Colorado, mountain, bike, and trailsPrior to rolling into town during what seemed to be an unseasonably wet weekend, I had my eye on riding Doctor Park. Reading the warnings about stream traversal and always damp conditions had me bail on that idea pretty fast.
I thought I found something similar in Eccher Gulch. To access this legendary downhill is pretty involved:
- CO-135 to FS 813.2A -> 2.7 miles/500 ft up
- FS 813.2A -> 2.9 miles/835 ft up
- 1 mile/500ft down/up through stream gorge on Roaring Judy Trail 552
This will test your mental endurance. You will see no one else on this trail. You will roll through immaculate aspen groves. You might even end up lost somewhere between civilization and national forest.
Route Map
View in Google Maps to
download KMZ
RT ~7.5 miles. 8290ft to 9790ft elevation. ~4 hours including map checks, getting lost a few times, bushwhacking, and early bailing.
We were unprepared for traversing through to Eccher Gulch, we should have looped back around on FS 813.A2.
Links
- GPS Essentials for Android saved my bacon
- NOAA Point Forecast
- USGS 2013 quadrature: CO_Almont_20130809_TM_geo.pdf and CO_Cement_Mountain_20130809_TM_geo.pdf