Hey Everyone, welcome back! It's been a while. In today's episode we're kicking off our yearly road trip. This year, we set out to do the ultimate 10 days in Colorado, filled with some very special rides. Starting in Denver, with the front range in sight, we got on I70 and drove west to the beautiful mountain town of Vail. We started our first day riding Two Elk, which is the focus of today's video.

There's 10 amazing days of riding to come over the next few weeks which include Vail bike park, Kenosha to Breck on the CT, Mt. Elbert, Canyon Creek, Fooses Creek, Teocalli Ridge, 409.5 and Dr. Park, Mag 7 into Portal and the perfect close with The whole enchilada.

Two Elk on Trailforks: https://www.trailforks.com/trails/two...

Chapters:
00:00 Roadtrip
03:39 Intro
04:40 Climb
06:24 Descent - Above the trees
08:17 Into the trees
12:53 Conclusion

Ok, let's get to what we actually came here to do and ride down! The theme for the top section is high speed, flat turns and braking bumps. Given the open terrain its hard to notice the speed since there's no trees close by for referrence, but trust me, there's a ton of sections here where you can go brakeless for quite some time. The biggest challenge comes from the narrow nature of the trail and the fact that all the turns are completely flat with no bermed support, the braking bumps are a logical consequence, as a much as well all know that the best solution for them is to stay off the brakes, it's probably impossible to take these corners without slowing down.

I haven't been here in summer, but by the type of grass, it looks like it probably grows quite a bit in its peak. Fall, once the grass has started to die down is probably the most enjoyable time for a trail like this. Even so, there's a lot of hidden pedal catchers in the grass off to the sides.

Once you leave the open field at the top, the trail quickly drops into the drainage that houses Two Elk Creek. At this point the nature of the ride changes a bit and you go into something most of us will take at slower speeds. While the exposure it self is not too bad, the trail is quite loose and doesn't give you much space to hug the highline as your pedals would hit. It varies quite a bit between smooth singletrack and the ocassional odd shaped rock that pings you in an odd direction. Don't get me wrong, this isn't particularly techincal, but its a trail that will easily catch you off guard by luring into a false sense of security.

As you continue to follow the edge of the creek, the trail will meander closer and further from it, jumping in and out of the forest. At this time of year an absolute treat as the yellow was definitely visible and beautifully enchanting. Just make sure not to look at those trees to much, you don't wanna clip one at this speed. As with most creek trails, there's a tiny bit of up and down nature to the trail as you get to lower elevations, but you never really feel like its a bummer to pedal, yeah, you may wanna throw a crank or two to keep up your speed, but you'll never feel like its taking you flow away.

Some of me favorite sections were something I didn't expect. The low gradient ones with just enough rockyness sprinkled in made it super easy to stay off the brakes and the high vegetation really augmented the perception of speed, these are sections where if like me, you're an average rider at best, you'll still feel like your riding could get you a spot on the EWS.

Reviewing this footage, I noticed my brake bias was off for this ride. I kept overdoing the rear brake getting to the point of losing traction. Interestingly, I got used to the CO loose over hardpack rather quickly and you'll see that in subsequent videos this doesn't happen much anymore. Its always interesting to see how we have to adapt to different ways of riding in different locations.

The last section before you cross over the river is quite rocky, with a distinct feel from the rest, bringing in a lot more slow tech and pedaling skills into play as you navigate the up and down terrain with short fast changing sections and exposure that comes and goes. This really off-camber section was eroding toward the river and it will surely get your blood pumping, its one of those where if you go over its all good, but you don't want to hesitate and go too slow.

As you cross over this bridge you hit the last section with its own character. As you pull away from the river, there is some techincality, but with much lower consequences it lends itself to a lot more speed.