Checking out the snowmelt

Schultz Pass, April 23, 2005

Jeff

After a long, wet, winter, it will be nice to have the trails in Flag open again. My favorite, Schultz Creek Trail, is not there yet, so I've just been spinning up Schultz Pass Road to keep an eye on things. These are what I call "dues rides," not especially thrilling but OK for keeping you in shape as you spin up from 7100' to 7900' on a steady but mild grade.

Schultz Pass Road took some hits this winter. Just a week ago, on April 17, I rode up it to find rockfalls and downed trees across it in a number of places. It's still closed to vehicles, but even if it had been open, in at least one place there was a rock sufficient to cause all but the highest clearance vehicles some problems. This weekend, it had been freshly graded, though the sign below still applies.

Here's the intersection of Schultz and Gnarly. You can see the gate with the popular R&R area beyond. There's still quite a bit of snow around at this elevation as of today; in places it's several inches deep. Schultz Creek is well out of its bed in places, and the water here was making a nice din as it hit some rocks.

Here's Schultz Creek Trail from the road, with the creek bubbling along next to it. Many parts of the trail are tantalizingly dry, like the nice swoop through the aspens from left to center. But then there's the inevitable creek crossing and snow traverse (at right), so I'm just staying off it for now and enjoying the thrilling ride back down the road.

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