# Telluride



## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

Hitting Telluride this week. Sure hope the gondola can take the big bike  I've done the Village Trail on a single, so I'm confident handling that with the tandem. Will check out the bike park on my single as well. Anyone done any of it on a tandem? Any suggestions?


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## ebnelson (Oct 30, 2006)

Never taken the tandem on a gondola or ski chair. I've wondered at the possibility watching the chair at Crested Butte. Let us know how it turns out. The trails around Ridgeway State Park might be worth checking out. We don't get out that way much.


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

The folks at the gondola are great. Did a test fit last night (put it on the rack and took it off just as it was heading out the station) and it looks like the tandem will fit through though the opening with no problem hanging from the horizontal rack. He said someone else did it hanging from the overhead hook through a crossing in the frame. I tried that too, but the front wheel was too high, in the operator's opinion). Will probably pad the cables but otherwise, looks like a piece of cake. 

Unfortunately, most of the trails are closed except for the bike park. I was really looking forward to doing the Village Trail, on the tandem (I did last year solo), but its closed. 

Took "No Brainer" in the bike park this morning on my solo and it looks doable on a tandem, but not fun at our level of skill. Mostly endless switchbacks. A few small jumps that can be avoided. I think there MIGHT be one or two other trails open (the guy at the hut said no, but I'm not sure he's correct) starting at the top.


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## ebnelson (Oct 30, 2006)

The trails are closed because of snow? We were up in the mountains last weekend and the snowpack looked deep like in the Cascades instead of the Colorado Rockies.


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

Elk calving. Sounds like things generally open july 1 Bummer for us


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

A bit underwhelmed with Telluride as a biking destination. 

Bike friendly folks seem to think that Durango, and Crested Butte have more to offer. Will have to go visit and see. We did one ride in Durango and it was one of the favorites of our trip so far. 'Nuf said...


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## kdb3i (Aug 25, 2008)

Sorry to hear you did not get to ride the open trails in Telluride. Only the trails into Prospect basin are closed for elk calving, which is basically Prospect Loop. There are many more trails, all of which were open. Most do not start or end at the gondola, so you may have been misdirected. The gondola is the center of the downhill stuff, but this is only a very small part of what is in Telluride. If you head back over, send me a PM and I'll be happy to provide some direction.


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

kdb3i said:


> ... The gondola is the center of the downhill stuff, but this is only a very small part of what is in Telluride.


Of course you are right, "many trail are closed" was not the right way to say that as there are many other trails to ride.

Trying out some tandem downhill was the point of the trip. I was particularly looking forward to trying Village Trail on the tandem. This was my introduction to riding downhill on a fully suspended bike last year and I wanted to share that experience with my wife on the tandem. Prospect was the other "must do" on my list, so it was pretty difficult to set those disappointments aside.

Nevertheless, we DID have a great time. Telluride is a wonderful town with so much to do without ever needing to start a car! My kind of place


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