Editor Pick
St Mary's Falls/Captain Jacks/Chutes
- August 10, 2000
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Tate from Santa Barbara, California
Here's one of the best mountain bike rides in Colorado Springs, which is famous for great biking. May I remind you that the Olympic Training Center is in the town, so there are lots of professional cyclists all over everywhere.
Begin your ride anywhere, and go to Cheyanne Canyon. It's a steep uphill grunt, probably will take between 20 and 40 minutes depending on your fitness, to get to the parking lot at the top. From there, follow a fire road straight towards Pike's Peak and loop it around until you go up and over a tunnel. Directly after the tunnel, veer off to the right and follow a single track up about 2 or 3 miles till you get to a huge waterfall -- St. Mary's Falls. Turn around here and burn your way back to the fire road, cross back over the tunnel, and cruise back towards the parking lot. Along the way back, there's a 150 degree right hand turn: after you take the turn, cruise about 100 - 200 yards and be on the look out for a single-track on your left. Follow it up, perhaps 20 more minutes, till you crest at a saddle. Take a rest here, and drop in to Captain Jack's, a rip roaring thrill back towards town. Huge berms make the descent like a roller coaster. You'll wind up on a rood soon, and the single track picks up on the other side of the road and to the left a little bit. Follow it down to the next road -- beware of motorcycle guys -- and go left for several miles. The gravel turns to pavement, and at this point be looking for a singletrack off to your right, this is the Chutes. Hit the Chutes, and you're back to the bottom of Cheyanne Canyon. Total time around an hour and a half.
From journal The Foot of the Rockies