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Myself along with Robert aka @rshadoan and a good buddy of mine Bartow from St. Louis, MO took out on the CO BDR last Monday. Robert and myself chose to take our KTM 500's which we have outfitted as ULW ADV bikes of sorts. Bartow was on his BMW 850 GSA. We condensed Days 1 and 2 into our Day 1 and rode the most important part of Day 6 at the end of our Day 4 in order to cover all but 100-ish miles of the actual BDR as laid out by Backcountry Discovery Routes. Those sections I chose to eliminate aren't notable and added unnecessary time on asphalt and miles doubling back. Keeping asphalt time to a minimum is always ideal when on small displacement enduros but even more so this trip as I was running mousses in my bike.
We cut off the four corners to Dolores section of Day 1, that saved 60-ish miles of slabbing dirt bikes on a rather boring section of mostly asphalt. After covering those miles when I ran this BDR a few years back I realized it wasn't worth wasting our time on. We rode from Dolores to Telluride via the San Juan NF to cover the remainder of Day 1, we were there before lunch and then we ran up Ophir Pass with a lunch stop in Silverton followed by Corkscrew, Hurricane, California and Cinnamon Passes into Lake City to close out day 1 totaling 160-ish miles. By the route of the BDR this covered both Days 1 and 2 in our first day. Day 2 (150 miles) was Lake City up to Buena Vista through Gunnison NF with stops in Pitkin, CO for lunch and Tin Cup, CO that afternoon for a much needed break. We tooled around in Taylor Park at the OHV area before crossing Cottonwood Pass down into BV. The highlight of this day was the single track in the hills near Sawtooth Mountain.
Day 3 took us from BV to Gypsum/Eagle with lunch in Leadville and Haggerman Pass as the highlight of the day. This day covered 140 miles and was rather brutal on my buddy riding his GSA, he incurred some damage to both his bike and his ego haha. We ended up staying to the west in the tiny community of Dotsero and took out via the River Road the next morning. Day 4 was the shortest of the trip covering only 120 miles up to Steamboat Springs of which we completed by noon after our 0730 departure. There wasn't much of anything notable or challenging on the route to SBP, mostly just scenic riding alongside of the Colorado River and around Gore Pass. After lunch in Steamboat we rode up to Hahn's Peak and back (another 80-ish miles) that afternoon to mostly complete and appease Day 6 of the CO BDR which takes you to the Wyoming border. I have done this section in my previous CO BDR travels and it's not worth your time IMHO hence why we rode up and back to the peak to suffice. If you plan to continue on into the WY BDR then you will run this section in full to finish at the border in order to start Day 1 of the WY BDR.
On the return trip to Dolores we broke it down into two days, the first of which (Day 5) covered 230 miles down to Grand Junction via the White River NF with lunch in Silt, Co along the I70 corridor. The afternoon took us to Grand Mesa past Powderhorn where we dropped into GJ via the Lands End Overlook. They looked to be setting up for an off-road race up the switchbacks of the Lands End overlook when we were on our way down, it was cool to see all of the wild off-road racers prepping at the base of the bluff. Day 6 covered 183 miles from GJ back to Dolores. We took out at 0630 to beat the heat of the high desert and popped up into the Uncompaghre Forest via the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. This was a rather fast and flowy day with lots of beautiful scenery which was a nice way to end the ride. We were back in Dolores by 1130 where we loaded up the bikes, grabbed lunch and started heading home via Santa Fe, NM.
This marked my third time to run the CO BDR and that's why I chose to condense Days 1 and 6. Thanks to my prior trips on this particular BDR I knew where we could trim the fat and save some time on sections where the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. Gypsum to Steamboat (BDR Day 5) isn't a very exciting section either and IMHO is another day that could be eliminated by those looking to cut time. I'd be inclined to run over to Grand Junction from Gypsum and cut out all of Days 5 and 6 on the BDR if short on time.
We cut off the four corners to Dolores section of Day 1, that saved 60-ish miles of slabbing dirt bikes on a rather boring section of mostly asphalt. After covering those miles when I ran this BDR a few years back I realized it wasn't worth wasting our time on. We rode from Dolores to Telluride via the San Juan NF to cover the remainder of Day 1, we were there before lunch and then we ran up Ophir Pass with a lunch stop in Silverton followed by Corkscrew, Hurricane, California and Cinnamon Passes into Lake City to close out day 1 totaling 160-ish miles. By the route of the BDR this covered both Days 1 and 2 in our first day. Day 2 (150 miles) was Lake City up to Buena Vista through Gunnison NF with stops in Pitkin, CO for lunch and Tin Cup, CO that afternoon for a much needed break. We tooled around in Taylor Park at the OHV area before crossing Cottonwood Pass down into BV. The highlight of this day was the single track in the hills near Sawtooth Mountain.
Day 3 took us from BV to Gypsum/Eagle with lunch in Leadville and Haggerman Pass as the highlight of the day. This day covered 140 miles and was rather brutal on my buddy riding his GSA, he incurred some damage to both his bike and his ego haha. We ended up staying to the west in the tiny community of Dotsero and took out via the River Road the next morning. Day 4 was the shortest of the trip covering only 120 miles up to Steamboat Springs of which we completed by noon after our 0730 departure. There wasn't much of anything notable or challenging on the route to SBP, mostly just scenic riding alongside of the Colorado River and around Gore Pass. After lunch in Steamboat we rode up to Hahn's Peak and back (another 80-ish miles) that afternoon to mostly complete and appease Day 6 of the CO BDR which takes you to the Wyoming border. I have done this section in my previous CO BDR travels and it's not worth your time IMHO hence why we rode up and back to the peak to suffice. If you plan to continue on into the WY BDR then you will run this section in full to finish at the border in order to start Day 1 of the WY BDR.
On the return trip to Dolores we broke it down into two days, the first of which (Day 5) covered 230 miles down to Grand Junction via the White River NF with lunch in Silt, Co along the I70 corridor. The afternoon took us to Grand Mesa past Powderhorn where we dropped into GJ via the Lands End Overlook. They looked to be setting up for an off-road race up the switchbacks of the Lands End overlook when we were on our way down, it was cool to see all of the wild off-road racers prepping at the base of the bluff. Day 6 covered 183 miles from GJ back to Dolores. We took out at 0630 to beat the heat of the high desert and popped up into the Uncompaghre Forest via the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. This was a rather fast and flowy day with lots of beautiful scenery which was a nice way to end the ride. We were back in Dolores by 1130 where we loaded up the bikes, grabbed lunch and started heading home via Santa Fe, NM.
This marked my third time to run the CO BDR and that's why I chose to condense Days 1 and 6. Thanks to my prior trips on this particular BDR I knew where we could trim the fat and save some time on sections where the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. Gypsum to Steamboat (BDR Day 5) isn't a very exciting section either and IMHO is another day that could be eliminated by those looking to cut time. I'd be inclined to run over to Grand Junction from Gypsum and cut out all of Days 5 and 6 on the BDR if short on time.
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