Bikepacking - Coffee Pot Road into the Flat Tops

Its been a little while without posting, but things are going well with the training. I've gotten in a few 50 mile MTB rides with 6000' or more of climbing and my weight is down to 168. So I've been making some good progress. Less than a month to go before we line up in Durango, so last weekend was a good time to get out with the gear bags and a loaded down bike and go for an overnighter.

I didn't have anyone to watch my dog, so I had to keep the trip into a roughly 24-hr period. I scoured the maps to find a good ride with a long climb to test the legs with the heavy bike. A friend suggested that I look at the Flat Tops over by Dotsero, so I broke out the maps and decided on a trip up Coffee Pot Road.

Coffee Pot Road starts at 6300' and climbs relentlessly to 10,100' before continuing on up through rolling terrain to a high point of 10,700'. I figured this would get me at least 5000' of climbing on day 1 with the bonus of sending me to an amazing area to camp and explore more the next day.

I took my dog Max for a 5.5 mile hike early Saturday morning so he would wear himself out, and then headed over to Dotsero and began my climb up Coffee Pot Road at 12:30pm. I was encouraged that I was able to climb just fine even with the heavy bike and never had to reach into the easiest of my granny gears. I passed through pinon and juniper and up through the aspen and spruce before reaching Deep Creek Overlook after 15 miles, 2.5 hours, and almost 4000' of climbing.

View of Deep Creek 2500' below:

I took in the views, ate a PBJ, and got my stoke on to have the big climb over and to be up top with the rolling terrain like this:

The views were opening up in every direction to the Sawatch, the Elks, and the Southern Flat Tops. There was water everywhere and I was thoroughly enjoying the ride as I rolled in the Crane Park.

I rolled up on Deep Lake after about 28 total miles and a little over 4 hours. I filtered a full bladder of water and watched a group of 20-somethings "fishing" by chunking boulders at fish in the stream inlet. I'm not sure if they had any luck with that method.

Here is Deep Lake:

From there, Coffee Pot Road would start to descend for 10 miles and 1700' to its dead-end at the South Fork of the White River and Budges Resort. The wilderness was getting much deeper and more beautiful, so I started scoping out potential campsites on the way down. I saw several fine ones, but wasn't ready to stop yet so I just kept on going down.

About halfway down you reach Indian Pass Camp at 9750':

You are surrounded on all sides by the Flat Tops Wilderness area and it is stunningly beautiful. Someone already had the best campsite at Indian Pass and I was in the mood to keep exploring so I decided to take Coffee Pot Road all the way to the end.

I had read that a cabin at Budges was $250 a night, so any fleeting thoughts of kicking back in style were quickly dismissed. The terrain had flattened out in the valley and I could tell there had to be great campsites all around. I carried my bike about 100 yards to a line of trees next to Wagonwheel Creek and sure enough:

And for all the times I've donated my leftover firewood, someone had kindly paid it forward to me:

It was about 7pm so I had plenty of time to explore the valley, the South Fork of the White River, and odd random skeletons resting in the woods behind my site:

Any clue what this is? I'm a little rusty on my wilderness skeletons.

I cooked up my favorite backcountry meal, shells and cheese with Tuna, enjoyed a small campfire, and tried to stay awake long enough to watch the rise of the Supermoon. I waited as long as I could, but it was still deep in the trees at 10:00pm and the bivy was calling.

I set my alarm for 4am and slept fantastic all the way. It was chilly enough to freeze the hose on my hydration pack, but by telling myself I better prepare for the CTR, I was out of the bivy, packed, and riding back out of the basin at the slightest hint of light.

I felt awesome. Its rare that I ride that early and it was fun and invigorating to watch the sun gradually brighten the day. I took a detour from Coffee Pot Road on the way out and was blessed to reach the amazing Heart Lake at 7:00am. 

Wow, what a beautiful place:

I took a longer route on the way out ('course I didn't have to start with a 5000' climb,) looping down White Owl Road to the Grizzly Cow Camp 4-wheel drive road. Grizzly Cow Camp was a weathered, crumbling group of 3 old buildings in another amazing valley at the head of a waterfall on Grizzly Creek.

Grizzly Jeep Road eventually dumped back into Coffee Pot Road for the final 20 miles back down to the truck. The 15-mile climb that took 2.5 hours turned into a 33 minute descent - and despite the gravel road, 4000' descents are just fun, I don't care who you are!

So I was back to the truck at 11:00am. Day 2 was 42 miles, so I covered 80 miles in less than 24 hours. Granted, there was zero singletrack, but my goal was really just to get in some good climbing and to lay down some miles.

I'll be back here to explore more and I highly recommend it to anyone. I might not climb from Dotsero next time, but I barely scratched the surface of the roads and trails up top and they beg to be explored.