On Sunday, Emiel and I rode the Whitepine/Canyon Creek Loop near, you guessed it, Whitepine. This is the best trail I have ever ridden, if you haven't ridden it: ride it! If you have, you know whats up!
Before we started, I had some maintenance to do. The day before I rode the last 30 miles of the Monarch Crest Trail with 2 gears, I had no intention to repeath that performance. Note: when you bring a spare derailleur cable, make sure that it is the correct length!
By 11 AM we were parked at the Snowblind campsite and riding the two miles up Co Rd. 888 towards Whitepine. These first miles are fast and efficient climbing through a valley filled with aspens and beautiful views:
After passing Whitepine, the road stays nice for another mile before turning into a steep streambed that continues all the way to the top of Tomichi Pass. A couple miles outside of Whitepine we passed this old graveyard, sure makes life these days seem blessed!
Tomichi Pass climbs and climbs, but its beautiful the whole way:
1 mile short of the Tomichi Pass summit, the Canyon Creek Trail branches off on the left.
Its rideable at first...
But then you start gaining elevation...
And end up doing a half hour of this:
But, with no one else in sight and amazing views in every direction its hard to complain:
2.5 hours and 4000' vertical after leaving the car, we were at the top; and was I confronted with the rather unusual problem of not being able to identify many surrounding mountains. Looking back down at Tomichi Pass:
Here comes an hour of uninterrupted downhill:
The first several miles are fast, relatively smooth alpine singletrack:
Followed by miles of every kind of awesome: smooth, fast, flowy, technical, pedally, burmy, etc. It was too much fun to stop! About 7 miles into the descent, you come to a strange outpost in the woods and take a left, then its 5 more miles of flowy singletrack.
One word of warning: right when you think you are home free there is a steep, sandy climb to put the icing on the cake! Yep, even with the last climb, that was awesome!
Whitepine is INCREDIBLE. The climb is steep, long, and loose, but the descent is all time. The views and lack of people aren't bad either. Until they get ride of that darn 4000' climb I doubt you'll see many people.
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