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Ride Summary:
A good trail to push you into thin air and to push your bike handling skill.
Trail Description:
From Tom's Place ride the paved road up to the Rock Creek Campground.
-Take a left and go to the parking lot at the east end of the road at the lake.
-Get onto the dirt road that goes past the cabins on the southern slope.
-There is a trail you will take that heads northeast, to you left. It will take you out across an open rock face.
-Get onto the jeep trail when you reach Tamarack Bench.
-Go on down the jeep trail till you come to road 4S54, around Witcher Creek, take a left onto 4S54.
-This will bring you back to Rock Creek Rd, just go through Holiday Group Campground.
-Just take a right when you hit Rock Creek Rd and you will end up back at Tom's Place.
How to get there:
From the junction of HWY 203 and 395 head south for about 15 miles to Tom's Place. Turn right and park to the left.
Additional Notes:
Carry lots of water and watch the temp high altitudes can get colder earlier in the year.
| Posted by: Creek Dude on 12/14/2004 |
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The turnoff to Holiday Campground is NOT well marked. Most likely, you'll miss that turnoff if you're not familiar with the area and end up in Swall Meadows. If that happens, you're looking at 15 miles of road biking to get back to Rock Creek Lake and over 3,000 vertical feet of elevation gain from that point. I agree that doing this ride as a shuttle would be wise for most riders. Check out the Rock Creek website for more information...
Rock Creek Mountain Biking - Sand Canyon and Lower Rock Creek
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| Posted by: shmo on 10/6/2004 |
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Continuing. Ride out of swall meadows by making a left at the road and continue to the old 395. Make another left and ride up hill and over into the lower rock creek gorge. At the bridge enter the 3rd section of lower rock trail and ride it through to Paradise. One insane ride. You will need a jacuzzi after this one.
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| Posted by: Shmo on 9/2/2004 |
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I recommend shuttling this either at swall meadows junction or at paradise lodge as I will explain. Riding up hill to Rock Creek lake is tough even on a road bike. This ride is awesome but you will need to earn it even shuttling a car. The trail leading to the start of sand canyon will be a test to your high altitude lung capacity (10,000 ft). It is brutal especially with a DH rig. But, once you get going downhill it is a fun single track with seasonal stream crossings till you come to a jeep road. There is 2 or 3 short uphill climbs and before you start wondering when the downhill starts it becomes really fast. But then the fast becomes faster when it gets steep and sandy (deep pumice). Then the fun gets funner after the sand turns back into dirt and the road becomes windy and banked. Be careful here since it is an open jeep trail and may have an unexpected close look at an offroad vehicle. The downhill ends at a stream crossing and make a right to Swall Meadows. If you don
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