Buffalo Creek vs. Dodge Ram Van

We rode in the shop's new Getting-To-The-Trails-And-That-Is-All Van to Buffalo Creek, near Pine. Pine is a community and not a city (from what I understand). The new to us van handled the trip quite well. Since it is still not quite ready for the public, we simply stuffed the 3 bikes into the back of the van and headed out.

Nick, Dave and I (Scott T.) arrived at the Ranger Station where the temp was a good bit cooler than in Denver. It hadn't rained up there for a couple days, and it appeared that we were going to have nothing but sunshine. We suited up and began our trip.

Within about a half an hour, arm warmers were too much and water was being consumed. I was in some knickers that were probably a bit too warm as well. But, soon we were in the midst of same amazing singletrack and temperature was our last concern. The trail was fantastic. Lots of fun swoopy climb/decent/climb sections. Lots of grinding climbs. By grinding, I simply mean that having a granny gear was useful. The climb to the "top" was not horrible, not techy, but all around fun.

Side note: The shop just got a GPS computer. I am new to it. And I loved messing with it during the ride, which is completely unnecessary. But, I didn't know that. So, there is a 2 mile section on this map that it appears we teleported. We might have... but I remember it as being one of the more fun, fast and oh-so-downhill sections of the trail. The teleported section appears as a perfectly straight line on the map. Very impressive. Oops. I know it wouldn't pushed the average speed up a bunch.

Down sides of Buffalo Creek would be that you pretty much have to drive there (hence, the van) and the trail gets sandy and loose in lots of places.

Was it worth it? Hell yes.
Will I go again? Hell Yes.
Did I eat a tremendous amount of food after the ride? Hell Yes.
Should you go next time we ride together? I think so.

Nick: Kona 29" SS - Green with a grinning faced rider
Dave: Vassago 29" Fixed - Orange with a crazed faced rider
Scott: Jamis Dakar XAM - Gray with a always hungry faced rider

By the way, look at this if you want to be bewildered for a few days: Buffalo times Eight