telegraph trails- durango co

Durango itself is as fine a basecamp for mtb as any mountain town Team Roughrider has run across. [FYI Much the same applies to fly fishing, however that’s a tale for another day… ;-)] Plenty of pub, grub, coffee stops; bike shops; festivals (incl Iron Horse Classic Memorial Day weekend where 500+ crazies race the Durango Silverton narrow gauge the 50 miles to Silverton); a schweet new Rec Center with indoor water park. We’ve found the rec center fits the bill for providing showers and kid fun when camping or biking in the area: they charged me but a single dollar for shower + towel this trip, can’t beat that with a stick! Compare that with say, Aspen, were Team Roughrider spent upwards of $40 just to wash the trail grime away, sheesh, woulda been cheaper to just pour Susuan B’s down the drain!

RE: camping- the nearest USFS campground is a mere 15-20 min drive from downtown Durango, offering equal access to the high country trails to the NW, Durango Joe’s coffee back in town. NE of town, 45 minutes away, lie Lemon and Vallecito reservoirs, offering basecamp options and serving as gateways to the Weminuche Wilderness (wink, wink anglers!).

Durango offers more developed trails for mtb than you could shred in a lifetime of riding. North and West await epic rides in the high country, much above 10,000ft; Molas Pass, Blackhawk Pass, Bolam Pass, Kennebeck Pass all remain the stuff of legend for yours truly- will this be the year I finally make tracks on the Colorado Trail? Southeast of town, Durango offers lower elevation riding, just right for early, late season riding when snow still clogs the high country trails.

Tel trails system lies immediately SE & adjacent to Durango, stretching from the Fort Lewis College mesa, on down to the trailheads opposite Home Depot and Wallyworld off of US 550 on south end of town. This area is literally honeycombed with trails (40+ miles and growing) of varying degrees of roughage, ergo there’s something for most everyone, from gonzo dudes to family rides with the youngsters. Latitude 40 Maps publishes a good map that includes accurate difficulty ratings.

The Byzantine nature of the Telegraph trail system can be a bit intimidating at first. While there are numerous signed intersections that keep you from becoming hopelessly lost, there are just as many unsigned and unmapped (thinking of you, Secret!) to keep things interesting. I’m usually not one to plunge blindly into a solo exploration without having a coupla Plan B-C bail options available in case of a mechanical (2009), or unmitigated exhaustion (2008). So I’ve bitten these trails off in chunks over the last coupla years, aided greatly with the addition of gps to the kit bag last year.

My 2009 explorations had me making tracks all over the frontside Horse Gulch area trails, saving the southside trails beyond Telegraph Ridge for this year, hence the focus of my riding this weekend.

A word about Telegraph Ridge: the ridgeline dominates the skyline as viewed from Horse Gulch, presenting a rather formidable challenge for newcomers. However, the climb itself remains a must-do for any ride in the trail network, to best gauge your stamina, mental fortitude, mtb handling skilz on the ascent + descent against those of the locals, most all of whom seem to have mountain goat as common lineage. I have yet to clean the ascent, the last 40 yards adding bitter insult to injury: a complete mental mind-f*** that caps the grueling climb. I’ve seen guys, gals clean it, albeit maybe 1 in 3, my turn is coming.

Most importantly, Telegraph Ridge also conveniently serves as the jumping off point for all the southward downhills, of which there is a veritable plethora to choose from. Thoughts of blasting the 3-4 mile descents on the backside may prove just enough motivation to make Telgraph’s last frontside steep forgivable, however tough on the legs, lungs. Think Potential Energy here- what goes up, must surely rip it on the downhill, schweet! Oh and the views from on top are simply stellar: the snowcapped San Juans bracket the scene north and east, while more rugged mesa country extends southwards into NM.

Once the Telegraph ridge top is gained, you’re faced with some tough decisions for your descent. Anasazi Run is the most abrupt, back down to the Horse Gulch area, a steeeep, brake-scorching run that threatens to pop your clavicle just eyeballing it from above. If you find Anasazi a bit too short (or hair raising!), continue on Telegraph up to Sidewinder. Sidewinder’s grades are more moderate, while adding in serpentine twists that give the trail its moniker. Cowboy trail intersects in about a mile, now giving you two options for the middle reaches. Cowboy itself intersects Big Canyon and South Rim, therein expanding your downhill options exponentially. Crites Connect is another renowned downhill heading off Telegraph Ridge, the map showing it as a more direct route searing plunge, down to Carbon Junction TH. All told, between Horse Gulch and Telegraph networks, there’s a good three or four solid days of riding different trail combo’s before you’ve mapped them all, figured out your favorite sequences.

This year I also benefited from the girl’s soccer tourney games hosted on the play fields of Fort Lewis College. Negotiating Powerline Trail down to Horse Gulch proved an adventure in navigation unto itself, taking two attempts to work out correctly, don’t ask. Done correctly, FLC to Horse gulch adds a coupla bonus miles to your singletrack fun, with the bonus satisfaction of traversing the entire network North to South, cool.

RE: my favorites thus far:

Horse Gulch:

• Horse Gulch to Telegraph Ridge, Anasazi down, to Stacy’s to Meadow, up Cuchillo South. Once at the top of the Gulch, opt for either Mike’s Trail (nice name, that) or Cuchillo North back to Meadow back to Horse Gulch. Cuchillo offers some nice jumps and whoopty-do’s at speed for intermediate/expert riders.
• Cautionary Note: on no account whatsoever upon exiting Anasazi, do not ever take the entrance to Secret Trail uphill to Mike’s. Secret is not on most maps, has a noticeable ‘entrance’ off Anasazi near the tail end of Mike’s, hence seems to offer ‘credible’, if confusing option to the top of the Gulch. Trust me, to enter from below will most likely turn out to be a near-hallucinogenic exercise in pain, suffering being nearly unrideable for mere mortals on the uphill. (Bring chamois butter, nuf said.) It’s best served by riding downhill, a shortish hikeabike straight up from the top of Mike’s. Secret is mostly steep and twisty, with some improved features to jump if so daring. Mike’s offers more flow at speed, has a much smaller potential death-per-turn ratio that appeals to more riders, IMHO.

Telegraph:

To date, I have yet to ride Crites Connect to Carbon Junction, understand it’s a hoot and not to be missed. Next trip, believe you me: sooo many trails, soooo little time. That said:

• Tel Ridge up to Sidewinder, down to Cowboy, to Big Canyon proved the most consistent fun: mixture of exposed slopes, twisty meadows, tight scrub oak runs that’ll impart that particular sense of flight as you meld into the bike. Maybe 4 miles downhill, 90% pure, undistilled singletrack, schweet.
• Second day I opted for Sidewinder-Cowboy-South Rim, with 2-track interruption in the middle of the mesa that was underwhelming. Studying the maps, I see I could’ve kept on Cowboy a good bit longer before intersecting South Rim. Guess that’s next trip, huh?

next up- vid and trailmaps to follow~
mjh

bartend! another round of vanilla cremes!

mjh

top of mike's trail

getting ready to rip a downhill run
mjh

death of me

 

 

Super secret trail was nearly the death of me last year, such is the fate for the unprepared.  

 

 

Not this year tho!  Reversed direction, makes for fun techy downhill. 

Booya!

top secret trail

what a killer view!  That's Horse Gulch trail network in foreground, San Juans in the background.
mjh

greetings from durango co!

view from soccer fields @ Ft Lewis College- schweet!mjh

durango or bust

Been fishing a good bit this spring already, no complaints in that dept.  But in the spirit of maintaining Balance between the Dry Fly and Fat Tire factions of this blog, and in furtherance of my commitment to providing you all with broader trail horizons, Team Roughrider is Durango bound this weekend.  Yeah Buddy!

Wait, wait, hold your applause, the luv doesn't stop there: I've asked some friends to put together a little soiree for the kids' benefit while we're there.

Whoa, I know what you're thinking- that's a lotta effort to keep the blog fans and family happy, huh?  Well you're right of course, but you know me, always a giver. ;-)

So I thought I might be able to dump the fam break away from the festivities, maybe carve some tread find some time for myself to, you know, kinda string together some schweet loops in the Telegraph Trail System spend some contemplative moments figuring how to, well, just give some more.

So here's hoping this finds you out mashing pedals or waving sticks of your own, and me not all laid out on some kray-zee downhill on the outskirts of Durango.

mjh

must. ride. here.

bryce canyon area, UT.

Thunder Mountain Snow Ride from Philip Tschersich on Vimeo.

Apparently, I need to get out more. :-P

who we are

Staked out this little corner of the interweb tubes last fall, picked up some traffic, including a bevy few coupla subscriptions along the way- thx Mom and Dad!  Being the giving person I am, I've placed a guestbook poll in the sidebar for those so inclined- you're welcome!  ;-)  Yeah Mom, you can pick more than one area of interest...

I'll leave it running til my one year anniversary, thx for playin along~

mjh

stoke

catch magazine, Issue #11

go team roughrider!

Team Roughrider tackled ABQ's Run For The Zoo 5k under sullen skies today. Race officials estimated 10,000 participants amongst the various races.

The boy placed 1st in his age group for second year, setting a personal record time. My best girl matched that effort with a personal best of her own, placing 5th. Kudos kids!

Mrs Wulff added another personal best to the team roster, luv it!

As for yours truly, I clocked pretty steady against my last race time, though I had to pull a hamstring to get it. Nice.

epilogue

Wow, what a week.  Returned from a fabulous long fishing weekend only to spend this past week sucked into veritable sh*tstorms RE: extended family and professional nature.  Not of my making, still not happy about either.

Arkansas River treated me well though, so thx for that ole friend!  Wet my first fly right at noon on Sat, having lollygagged my way up the San Luis valley.  Spent a good amount of time eyeballing the Sangre de Cristos as they spring out of the valle floor, much like the Tetons: jumping 6000 vertical feet (to over 14K) in just a few miles.  Luv that drive!

So I stopped in Arkanglers in Salida, got the skinny on the caddis hatch: stalled just above the Gorge, hmmm that's starting to sound familiar.  Not like I've never done that before: arriving ahead of the hatch only to have Mother Nature shut things down for my stay.  Weather front had just blown thru on Th-Fri, leaving the San Luis valley spitting snow, but the Ark drainage was dry as a bone, go figure.

Anyhoo, I figured to try my hand on the upper river around Salida, as the water was still coming down, and still clearing.  Found the Wellsville access to my liking, tying on tandem golden stone with BHFBPT dropper.  Fourth cast, kid you not, I was tied to the business end of nice cuttbow, 17", schweet.  5th cast yielded nice 13-14" bow, whoa gonna be my day!  Sure enough, I worked that small run over like a strip mine:  adding one smallish brown, a matching bow @ 17", and another big fish LDR'd after a downstream run.  The rest of the day proved similar: the fish were simply abusing that poor golden stone in the turbid water.  

Looking back, I lost 4 other good fish that day, the kind that nearly spool you, down and across the river in a  surging run.  All told, my best single day on the Ark in memory.  Golden stone outfished the BHFBPT 5:1; landing bows to browns @ nearly same ratio, maybe 15 fish landed for the day.  I finally broke away from the upper river around 4pm to complete the drive down to Cotopaxi, camp and to see if I could track any adult caddis in streamside environs.  Found only a smattering of Caddis at Pinacle Rock, a few loners back in camp, huh.

Sunday I attempted to repeat Saturday's glory, but you knew that couldn't happen again, huh?  Spent my morning fishing turbid water first above Cotopaxi, then just below Coaldale, mostly smallish browns kept it interesting.  Hopped back up to below Salida, found a better mix of browns, bows, but not in numbers nor  size like Saturday's silliness.







The morning's fun complete, I headed back down to Texas Creek where I found a good number of adult caddis streamside.  Round 3pm, in break of cloudy weather, adults took to the water, while a few more began hatching in the momentary sun.  I managed four quick fish on  the pupa in about 30 minutes before the clouds hid the sun, hatch was done.  But man, that was fun, if a bit of a tease.  Left me with a taste for Monday's potential allright.

My high hopes for Monday were dashed before the day even got started.  5am, and I'm listening to sugar snow splattering the tent, sheesh.  Lay awake til around 7am just listening to my day's plans of hammering fish on the swing going down the tubes.  Made my coffee & breakfast in sleet now adding insult to injury.  Attempting to make lemonade from lemons, I set up an emergency fly-tying field station in the tent, tying pheasant tail bead heads and softhackles for the day's bonanza BWO hatch sure to come with the crappy weather.  Crack the tent about 8.30 under clearing skies, by 9.30 I'm in the water wondering where all those clouds have gone, that's Rocky Mountain springtime weather for ya.

So at what was to be the apex of my trip, I'm instead faced with weather conditions of the worst sort: clear weather damping the BWO hatch, cold temp's keeping the caddis snug in their underwater cocoons. Gonna have to really work for it today, sigh.  Which I did, managing maybe 8 fish for the day, on a mixed-bag of patterns: black copper johns, BHFBPT, golden stones, caddis larva.  I wound my day down at 4pm down at Texas Creek on a bit of moral victory, however:  a slinky 14" brown on caddis larva.  Broke down the rod then and there- better savor the high note, than leave the river after more fruitless pounding.


Overall, a decent enough trip allright, if not quite up to expectations.  Still, I had my best day on the Ark on Friday, seems the weather doth provideth and taketh away, huh?  Just read the BWO's are still breaking out while the caddis remain stalled down river, looks like the best fishing is still yet to come.  I now find I'm already toying with the idea of bringing the boy with me back up there mid May, if snowmelt and bugs allow.  Naw, that's just crazy talk, right?  Then again, in this crazy spring, why the hell not?