JPaks llc

 The Gunny Loopy Loop

Conceived back in 2018 by ultra endurance racer, Jefe Branham, the Loopy Loop was born out his desire to piece together as much backcountry, Gunnison county singletrack as possible. It has always consisted of a shortie and biggie version.

Initially the shortie was ~195 miles in length and the biggie was ~355 miles.

My wife, Kristen and I attended the first 3 years in a row, competing in the shortie version each time. Those first 3 years we ‘shared’ a spot tracker and rode together, so technically we weren’t racing, but we knew Jefe and we knew that his routes would be epic.

So epic we kept coming back for 3 years straight!

But then Covid happened. Then I had Open Heart Surgery in ‘21. Add a couple of years for recovery and rebuilding and the next thing you know, it’s 2024.

This was the year. Now was the time.

The time to see if I still have what it takes. Still have the drive, the push, the fire inside to sign up and finish a big bikepacking race. I've toured extensively since the operation, but a race. A race is a whole different animal.

You see, my mind and body have not been on the same page since having my Aortic valve replaced with a mechanical one. My mind didn’t trust my body and my body was scared to push my mind.

After three years of rebuilding, regaining, relearning; I was ready to take on the Loopy Loop for the 4th time.

The Seventh edition would see the addition of a mini loop at 75 miles, the Shortie at 155 miles and the Biggie at 255 miles.

Sat, Aug 31st, at 4am, 17 like minded Loopers showed up to IOOF park in downtown Gunnison to take on the seventh edition. Late August in Gunnison means cool, crisp mornings with delightfully warm afternoons and Saturday proved to be on point in both regards.

With a quick pace and light conversation, we rolled through town, around the airport and onto the pavement leading to Hartman rocks. Things started to spread out a bit as the pace quickened and before I knew it we were onto singletrack and making our way up.

After a few miles of singletrack the route turns downhill towards Blue Mesa reservior. Having done this same part of the route before, I knew how cold things were about to get as the sun was just starting to rise and the temps would be at their lowest. I ate some of the bread pudding muffin I had stuffed into my vest, layered up with my windbreaker and rain gloves and started to plummet down.

One by one I would pass racers stopped on the trail, donning down jackets, hats, gloves, whatever warmth they were packing as I heard a ‘beep' from my Garmin alerting me to the temps being too cold to power the backlight!

A few minutes later I was basking in the warmth of the newly risen sun as I pedaled around Blue Mesa and towards the days biggest climb at approx 16 miles and 4k of elevation, bringing us from the valley floor to the top of the mesa on a mix of doubletrack and jeep road. Once at the top, Little Mill trail greeted riders with an absolutely ripping descent to carve off all the elevation we had just gained.

This climb up to Little Mill used to be a favorite of mine, but on this day nothing felt right. Cramps in both legs WAY too early, lack of strength to get up climbs I’d done before and my mental state in limbo about exactly what I thought I had gotten myself into. Thoughts of quitting, thoughts of cutting the ride short and jumping on the shortie route in CB. Lots of negativity going down, but at that exact time I stopped. Unclipped and got my head straight. Right there I made the audible (to me) promise to see this thing through. To finish what I started. To not quit.

With another round of climbing in front of us on Ohio Pass road, I found myself riding and chatting with Isabelle. As we were riding along, getting to know one another, a Bald Eagle carrying a snake in it's talons, flew directly over our heads as we both shouted in excitement. This would be the first of a litany of animals I would have the pleasure of seeing over the next 4 days. What a way to start!

Ohio Pass road leads to Carbon Creek which takes you to Baxters trail, dumping you almost directly into Crested Butte by way of an amazing, purpose built flow trail. I was lucky enough to find myself riding with Connor, whom I had met last year at the AZT800 finish. Together we ripped the Baxter's descent, trading whoops and yelps all the way down!

Lucky for us, being towards the back of the pack meant that by the time we reached Crested Butte, the Labor Day festivities had died down and there was virtually no wait for dinner, a la: massive burritos from Teocali Tamale. With the sun getting lower and our bellies full, we hatched a loose plan to get out of town, up to the Paradise Divide and into National Forest for the evening, approx 10 miles. I managed to get about 8 miles up before calling it a night and by that time Connor had fallen into his own climbing rhythm and decided to camp on his own.

Day 1: 85 miles

The morning of day two saw me sleeping in quite late (considering I was racing) but I awoke fully rested and ready for the mornings climb up and over the Divide. To my surprise I found my Spot tracker completely unresponsive when I tried to power it on and I quickly realized that the ‘new' batteries I thought I had put in, were in fact not new at all. With another 15 miles before Mt. Crested Butte resupply, I was a ghost in the tracking world.

Up and over the Paradise Divide, I was lost in my own mind with the views, the elevation when I felt my watch vibrating. Ah yes, time to take my daily dose of meds to keep things flowing smoothly, inside me. There is a definitively weird feeling to swallowing blood thinners at 10,000’ while participating in a bikepacking race. Medical tech is amazing!

Before I knew it I was flying down the full 401 trail and onto the road through the town of Gothic, I was feeling great and riding fast. Up ahead lay the next major resupply as the trail would take us far, far away from any stores after leaving Mt. Crested Butte. As I was descending the dirt road towards Mt.CB, I saw a rider in front of me and quickly realized it was Connor! He being on a singlespeed, on flat ground, I was able to catch up to him and let him know that my Spot batteries were dead, but that I was indeed still alive. He said he had been wondering all morning since my ‘dot' was still sitting on the other side of the mountain.

With an expensive resupply in Mt.CB, we got freshly made sandwiches, party sized bags of Doritos, and coca-cola's to go. A quick stop at the Crested Butte burger company had us filled to the brim and we were off, climbing up the ski resort and around the mountain towards Brush Creek road.

With a mix of dirt roads, singletrack, jeep roads and old mining roads, the route winds through some of Crested Butte and Gunnison Ntl forest's best kept secrets and pieces those together to make a cohesive loop that flows up and over one drainage and down into the next, only to be repeated again and again. Massive uphill gains were greeted with miles upon miles of downhill that would leave you forgetting just how hard it was to reach the summit and coming screaming down the other side.

By the end of day two I found myself up on the Reno Divide road around 11k ft at 9:30 pm and I knew that I would be descending very soon and I didn't want to get too low for the evening so I called it there and found a delightfully peaceful spot for the night. By this time I hadn't seen Connor since Cement Creek so I was unsure his whereabouts.

Day 2: 40 miles

The morning of Day 3 was fantastically warm and bright. After a quick snack I spent some time stretching out on my ground cloth, getting ready for what I knew was going to HAVE to be a big day as I would be dropping into Taylor Park and heading up to the Timberline Trail. I've spent time on the Timberline trail in the past and there are no easy sections. Part CDT, part moto trail, fully brutal, the Timberline trail is slow going at best and I would have to traverse a massive section of it this day.

Apart from a few moto riders on the trail, I spent the entire day by myself, under a perfectly blue sky with light clouds. Perfect temps, beautiful trails and no one around, I made great time and found myself climbing up towards Timberline mid-day under the dappled shade of pine trees on the Texas Ridge trail.

By the time I was working my way along Timberline I knew I wouldn't make it as far as I had hoped, but that was ok since my timing would put me in the right place to drop down the next morning, off route to Taylor Park trading post for another round of resupply, which I desperately needed as I was burning through all my food at a rapid pace.

I managed to find a sliver of cell service atop Timberline trail and saw that first off, I was NOT in fact DFL and that Connor along with multiple other riders had scratched already (this was a huge motivating factor for me) and second, that there was a Café in Taylor Park that opened at 8am the next morning! I would be getting hot coffee and some salty hashbrowns! What an unexpected bonus I hadn't planned on!

Day 3: 40 miles

I awoke on the morning of day 4 to freezing cold temps and condensation on everything. It took me a more than a few minutes to get going and once I did, I would be hopping and jumping around for what felt like eternity, trying to get blood flowing into my extremities. It was bone numbing cold and I had to descend straight away, next to Sanford Creek which meant the cold of the river valley would be all encompassing.

By the time I had made it out of the hills and down to the valley I was presented with multiple water crossings (a theme already on this ride as the water level was great this year) one of which I ‘thought' wasn't deep enough to circumnavigate so I pedaled straight in. Four pedal strokes later I was plunging my feet into the water with every rotation and it quickly became apparent that I had misjudged the depth and I was now completely soaked from the knees down, at 7:30 am. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! Ugh, I had been so good the previous days about removing shoes and socks to wade through the river crossings (even during the hottest part of the day!) and here I was, before the sun was even fully up, with two, stone cold feet.

Well at least I had that hot breakfast to look forward to! That would make this all better and I'd be laughing at my mistake in just a few minutes as the Café opened at 8am (per Google).

A fast, cold, 5 mile downhill detour to Taylor Park and I was standing outside the Café,  but there were no lights on and the chairs were still stacked on the table tops. Checking my phone again, Google maps assured me it was open and ‘not too busy!’

I swung over to the general store to inquire about the Café. Maybe they were slow to open, maybe they had slept in. That's cool, I can wait! But no, I was informed that the Café had closed the day before (Labor Day) for the season and that they had ‘forgotten' to update the Google maps page…

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, but I did and now I was crushed. No hot coffee, no salty hashbrowns, no warm feet. Oh well, at least the Taylor Park trading post had the provisions I needed for breakfast as well as the next 95+ miles of riding.

There were multiple times along the route that I had considered ‘bail out' points where I could either ride back to Gunnison or arrange a ride back and every time I passed one of those bail out points, I smiled a bit bigger because I knew there was no going back. Taylor Park represented the last bail out point before things really got remote and would make extraction extremely difficult should something go wrong.

This I knew and this was frightening for me, but that fear is what I had come here to conquer. To push back against, to see if I was tougher than ‘it.’ As I left Taylor Park and headed back up the road to where I left the trail, I knew that I was one of the few left in the race and all I needed to do was finish. Placement didn't matter, finishing was the ONLY thing that mattered. Finishing is a win in my book.

Pedaling up towards Tincup, this day was going to be huge, elevation wise. Once the climb up towards Mirror Lake and Tin Cup pass began, it would be a day spent mostly above 12k with summit after summit after summit until the final summit: Canyon Creek. But I needed to get over and down Canyon Creek before dark if I wanted to see this thing finished the next day and I did. Most of the racers had either finished or were going to finish that 3rd day.

I had the most pleasant time chatting with SXS drivers, moto riders, Jeepers, basically all trail users wanted to say hi and ask what in the F*$k I was doing?!? The respect really is there with the majority of people and if you just give a nice wave or nod, it goes a long way to bridging the gaps in recreational activities, since were all out there to experience the same thing, just in different forms of transportation.  I spent 20 minutes at Mirror Lake, drying out my sleeping bag and bivy from the previous nights moisture. Having been to and having fished Mirror Lake before, I was kicking myself for not bringing my Tenkara rod! The fish were literally jumping at me, mocking me as I sat eating lunch! Next time!

From Mirror Lake it's a full uphill battle to the top of Tincup Pass at 12,154’ then over to Hancock Pass 12,140’ and finally Tomichi Pass before summiting Canyon Creek at 12,800’+. By the time I reached the summit, the sun was just beginning to drop behind the mountains and the colors really began to pop in the clouds. Calm, cool and stunningly beautiful, I had made it to the top of the highest, furthest point on route!

It was ‘almost' all downhill from here! I took some pictures, made a video and decided start heading down before all the daylight had escaped. Chunky, fall-line, rowdy descending ensued and I was quickly seconding guessing my line choice in the fading light. With a full day of riding behind me and my senses dulling, I weighed the consequences of continuing onward to make up some distance, against the consequences of crashing or flatting and decided to make the hard choice to call it a night in the valley below just before 10pm.

Day 4: 50 miles

I awoke on the final morning with an urgency to finish this loop! As I descended towards Pitkin, I was super happy with my camp spot up high as the valley below, that I was now riding through, had the signs of a light frost the night before. I knew that the Pitkin store lie ahead of me, but I didn't require any more supplies so I was unsure whether I'd stop there or not. As I approached the building I could see the ‘OPEN' sign illuminated in the window and 2 gentlemen, slowly rocking back and forth on rocking chairs on the front porch, steam rising from their coffee cups. “Good morning gentlemen,” I said. “How are you today?” They said they were doing great and asked how cold I was last night. After a brief exchange I inquired as to where and if there was any hot coffee still available. The two gentlemen lead me into the back room where there was a piping hot pot of coffee waiting along with various snacks. With an apple juice and coffee in hand, I proceeded to the cashier where I was told, “Mr. Ed paid for your coffee, sir.” I spun around and asked which of the two gentlemen was Mr. Ed. After a little prodding, the one man pointed to the other and said, “This is Mr. Ed” I said; “Thank you for the coffee Ed, that was mighty nice of you!” He simply said; “You're most welcome and welcome to Pitkin" The other gentleman turned out to be John, the owner of the Pitkin store.

This is the kind of interaction, encounter, crossing that these events create and I'm here for it. Race clock be damned, there are beautiful people all over this planet and our paths happen to cross here, for a reason. Taking the time to talk, tell stories, share some kindness can go so far in bridging the gaps between social classes, political views and ideologies.

As I drank coffee on the porch and situated my gear, one by one the locals would appear like clockwork, grab a coffee from inside and join the others on the porch. By the time I left the two gentlemen on the porch had turned into 6 along with another woman, all curious as to my days plan to get back to Gunnison.

With the sun getting higher, and a heat advisory on my phone for the valley, I knew I was already later than I wanted, but my belly was full of hot coffee and my heart was warm from the conversation and the road ahead was fast!

After a few miles of pavement (saw a moose too!), the route turned onto dirt and then into singletrack. Working our way up and around the Fossil Ridge wildlife area, the vegetation grew a little thinner and the temps grew a little higher. With only 2 major climbs left in the loop, I slowly picked them off and made my way ever closer to Gunnison.

By the time I was on Lost Canyon road, I knew the remaining few miles would fly by as most trails from there descend back towards Gunny. With a storm brewing off to the North, I was treated to tailwinds and cooler temps under cloudy skies as I made my way towards Signal Peak.

A few fast, flowing sections later (Rasta!) I was looking at the College on the outskirts of town and only a few blocks back to where it all started, IOOF park.

Rounding the final corner, I could see my wife, Kristen with her arms raised, shouting with excitement as I rolled into the park, after 4 days and 10 hours on trail.

-Kristen had finished the biggie loop almost 24hrs earlier than me to be the FIRST and ONLY women to have completed a Biggie Loop! Such a strong rider!-

As I peeled off my shoes and dug my toes into the cool, damp, green grass of the park, I looked up to see a deliciously frosty Coors Banquet being held out for me, signaling that yes indeed, I can!

Cheers!