Bike Route 4: Rollins Pass

(From 7/13/06 on my old blog)

This is a challenging mountain bike ride (at least for me) I did this ride in the first part of August of 2004. I and two friends successfully mountain biked from East Portal all the way to Needle's Eye tunnel. This was quite an enjoyable adventure and this is a short summary of the trip:

We arrived at East Portal about 8:30 am. Actually, we parked at the intersection just east of East Portal. This is the location where the old Rollins Pass Road begins. This road was the original railroad grade between this location over the continental divide to Winter Park.

Soon after starting up the road, a coal trained popped out of the nearby Moffat Tunnel. We enjoyed watching it head eastward towards Denver. I can't imagine such a train going up or down the old grade.

The road itself was in fair condition. Some spots were not bad at all. However, many locations were full of potholes and in some places there are sizable rocks strewn about. It took about 2 1/2 or 3 hours to reach Needle's Eye Tunnel. We averaged about 5 mph while riding and took numerous breaks along the way. About a mile into the ride, the road bypasses tunnel 31 which is caved in and on private property. The bypass is about 1/4 mile long and is perhaps a 7 percent grade. After this climb, we took our first break. That was a tough stretch.

Yankee Doodle Lake is an interesting spot and there were numerous people fishing in it. We explored the entrance to the unfinished tunnel at the lake. Given the general direction this tunnel was headed, I'd guess that, had it been completed and used, the lake would have been divided in half by a fill that is partly evident.

Eventually we got to the end of the road for cars. This is about 1/4 mile from Needle's Eye. The road is blocked off at this point. The last mile before this was very rough and difficult to ride but after the roadblock, the trail is decent for bicycles. Our breaks had become more frequent due to the elevation. In fact, we stopped every few hundred feet towards the end. But we were determined to get to the tunnel, that being our goal. By the way, the elevation at the start of the ride is about 9200 feet and the tunnel is about 11500 feet. This height gain occurs in about 14 miles. That's between 3 and 4%.

We had lunch and a good rest at Needle's Eye. This is tunnel 32 as counted from Denver and it is blocked off due to a partial cave in that occurred in 1990. There were a couple people up there who claimed that they went through the tunnel. There is also a trail over the top that we didn't attempt because we were beat and were content to enjoy the fabulous view while we ate our sandwiches.

I would like to repeat this trip sometime and would like to use the trail to go over the top to check out the remains of the trestles on the other side.

The trip back down took no more than 45 minutes. This was quite an adventure as well since we moved as fast as 20 mph. The effort here was to keep under control at these speeds. We hardly pedaled all the way down during this bone rattling descent. It was hardest on the hands, I think due to the death grip employed to stay on the bikes. We got down by 1:30.

The weather this day was mostly cool. There was some wind but I was comfortable in a tshirt and bike shorts. The sun was out most of the time (I wish I had'nt forgotten my sun screen). There were some clouds coming over the divide while we were at the top but I felt only a single drop. When we got to the bottom, there were a couple of guys just starting up. I suspect that they might have gotten rained on.

On the way up, we didn’t see many people. But since this was a Saturday, more and more vehicles and off-road 4 wheelers showed up. There were quite a few spots where people were camping up there including at Jenny Lake.

All in all, it was a great day to explore a bit of Colorado railroad history, get some exercise, and enjoy the scenery. I wish I could have taken a train up there about 80 years ago!