Well I’m happy to report that Leighton and I successfully made it up Red Cone yesterday on our respective steeds. Leighton is absolutely ripping on his new Kove 450, no surprise after seeing the antics he was capable of on his f800gs earlier this year. I was on my medium bike, my current only bike, the already well worn 2024 T7.
We had both done Red Cone last year on small bikes, so the trail wasn’t entirely new to us. The bottom 1/3 of the trail is technically the most challenging, a combination of loose baby heads, gravel, tight uphill switchbacks, and some unavoidable boulders mixed in for flavor. We took it in sections, with frequent rests. No shame there, boulderhopping on any bike is a workout at altitude.
The tech gives way to some wonderful fast, flowing banked turns and woops which feels like a real reward after the first few miles. This is just fun when dry, but the deep potholes and turns would be treacherous with too much moisture. This smoother, faster dirt track takes you up above treeline for the third of three fairly distinct sections.
Once we cleared treeline we were greeted with a series of long loose hill climbs. There are a few false summits, and each committing climb lands you on a plateau with another distant peak coming into view.
The last exposed hill climb leads to a respectable summit. The views up here are gorgeous, and there was a ribbon of snow left from earlier in the week laid along the neighboring ridges.
What goes up must come down, and on the notorious one-way descent is where we encountered our first snow and ice. It would have made a nice sledding hill. Leighton just seemingly coasted down without incident, so I launched after him. He had made it look too easy. I was making full use of my front ABS. Unfortunately in the middle of a confusing stall/bumpstart clusterfuck the ABS turned off instantly, locking the front wheel which immediately folded up under the bike.
After a precarious pickup on the hillside we were able to make it down the rest of the loose descent.
We were last up here at the saddle of Webster Pass in early summer. Leighton had organized a trail work party shoveling what was left of the snowdrift blocking Webster to make way for his Passapalooza ride. It was satisfying to be back after the first significant snow of the fall season, an fitting bookend to a very full summer of riding.
Here is a video of the ride:
