Only a week after the epic ride called the Tour de Front Range I again set my sights on another epic day in the saddle. I'd heard of the Blue Sky Trail and how it connects the Devil's Backbone to Lory State Park, but in all the time it has been open I've never made the effort to ride it.

This month I decided to make the effort and I looked at TrailCentral to learn more about the ride. I saw the ride from Devil's Backbone to the Inlet Bay Trail was about 10 miles. However, I use to live in a development by Horsetooth Reservoir Inlet Bay and I knew once I got there I would only be at the start of some of the best mountain biking in the state; meaning I would be riding more than the 20 mile out-n-back listed on TrailCentral. To be prepared I filled up the water bottles with my magic energy powder and grabbed a couple Accel-Gels then hopped in the car.

It didn't take me long to remember why I hadn't ridden this trail in a while. From where I currently live it took over an hour to reach the Devil's Backbone Trailhead. With gas prices the way they are you can probably do the math to understand why I do my riding pretty close to home these days.

Once I FINALLY reached the trailhead I was taken back by how nice it was. There was running water, bathrooms, sheltered picnic areas, and plenty of parking, which was a trend I noticed the rest of the day. Larimer County does a fantastic job with their trailheads by offering amenaties I am not use to in Boulder and Jefferson Counties.

Soon after getting on my bike I noticed it wasn't just the trailheads they took seriously. Their trail signage was second to none and the quailty of trail was unbelievable. In fact, while riding I passed by some 30 trail workers, each one taking time to say, "hi" as I passed. In return, I had to let them know how much I appreciated their work by thanking each one of them before riding on.

Devil's Backbone is an interesting trail as it offers a great warm-up on smooth, rolling sigletrack before it throws a slow technical wrench in your ride caled Hunters Loop Trail. I gotta admit, I'm a rider who depends on rythm and when I rode this trail I enjoyed the first couple min of it, but then I wasn't able to find my rythm, which made it the most difficult part of the ride for me. However, this section of trail is mandatory if you are interested in riding Blue Sky Trail. Believe me, it is worth the effort because Blue Sky Trail is where the fun begins.

Blue Sky Trail was awesome. It took me from the east side to the west side of the ridge and the amazing part is the trail builders made this transition completely rideable and more importantly safe. Once over the ridge I was treated to a nice little descent on smooth singletrack before being dropped onto a dirt road, which only lasted a few short minutes before putting me back on singletrack. This dirt road to singletrack transition happened a couple more times before the trail makes a more dramatic ascent to the top of the ridgeline. Once at the top I was at the mid point of Blue Sky and if I had wanted to I could have split from Blue Sky, but since I was headed to Lory I opted to skip the split and keep on truckin'.

As I rode Blue Sky towards the Inlet Bay Trail I had to remember where I was a couple times. The trails are oddly familiar to the Lunch Loop trails in Grand Junction and I loved it. The trail had an energy that meshed well with my rythm as I rolled up and down the ridgeline. While riding I was treated to views of Horsetooth as well as a plethora of wildflowers.

Blue Sky Trail terminates at the Horestooth Reservoir Inlet Bay, but not to worry, that is where the Inlet Bay Trail begins. Inlet Bay Trail is a dirt bike path that connects riders to the Soderberg Trailhead. Here I where I took advantage of the smooth trail by enjoying my first gel of the ride. I also noticed that you ride through a campground so if I had been low on water I easily could have pulled over for a refill.

From the Soderberg Trailhead I headed north towards Lory State Park. As I rode I was able to ride through my old neighborhood, which made the ride even more enjoyable. It had been well over 10 years since I saw the old place and when I saw it a bunch of memories filled my head including memories of my first mountain bike ride, which was through Horsetooth and Lory. It was great to see all the signage and people on the trails, which 10 years ago were not there. In fact, I remember riding the same trails, but at the time they were nothing more than cattle trails.

After my trip down memory lane I still had a lot of gas in the tank so I decided to ride through Horsetooth Mountain Park. From Lory I headed up Saw Mill Trail until I reached Mill Creek Trail. This is not a route I would suggest for the weekend warrior. In fact, midway up the climb I remembered why I always rode this route downhill instead of uphill. Loose rock and steep ascents were abundant on Mill Creek. After crossing Tower Road I hopped on Spring Creek Trail.

Spring Creek Trail was great, probably because it treated me to a much needed descent after my long climb up Mill Creek. Spring Creek Trail was a bit on the technical side as I consider much of Horsetooth Mountain Park singletrack to be, but not so much that I couldn't take my eyes of the trail to enjoy the scenery around me. Spring Creek Trail then junctions with Soderberg Trail, which was my last true ascent of the day.

Soderberg trail took me up a tricky section of singletrack before dumping me onto a service road. The service road ascent was a middle chainring kind of ascent and once the high point is crested it is a fast descent to the Horsetooth Mountain Trailhead. Knowing I still had at least 10 more miles of riding to get back to the car I used this as an opportunity to fill up my water and enjoy my second gel.

From the Horsetooth parking area I needed to get on a paved road to get back to the Inlet Bay Trail, which was the first time I had to get on a paved road in over 3 hours of riding. After a quick descent on paved road - less than 1 mile - I was able to reconnect with the Inlet Bay Trail. I then rode the Inlet Bay Trail south to Blue Sky Trail.

Blue Sky was then ridden south to the Devil's Backbone Trailhead. The great part of this trail is that is was well designed and the rolling aspect of the trail doesn't make it feel any slower going back than it did coming out.

Once back at the Devil's Backbone Trailhead I had managed to net 30.5 miles of riding with all but one mile of it on dirt, while accumulating 4,109 ft of elevation. Sounds like a good day to me!

This is only one route of a hundred you can do with this network of trails and I encourage you to take advantage of the wonderful temperatures we are enjoying this Fall. So please, go be creative while pushing your body to be better and go longer.

Enjoy your next epic,
Brady