Great Explorations bike tour company

Great Explorations is the type of active travel company that is normally featured on our sister site, OTM Tours. But it offers such great bike trail rides, I also wanted to highlight it on the trailsnet site.

For example their Sea to Sky bike trip in British Columbia sounds like the perfect mix of trail types to keep most riders happy and moving. If you're familiar w/ the good old diamond rating system for ski slopes, you'll appreciate the mix of trail types on the Sea to Sky bike ride.

"Just because you're biking in
the mountains, doesn't mean
you're mountain biking." -
Kevin Purdy, trailsnet founder

According to the Great Explorations website, 30% of the trail is green, 60% is blue, and 10% is blackish.

That sounds ideal to me. As I've stated on this site before, my heavy-duty mountain biking days are over. That wasn't necessarily my decision, but my knees.

However, I still like an occasional challenge on a mountain bike trail like my recent trip down memory trail as I ventured back onto Hall Ranch near Boulder, Colorado.

What I'm trying to say is that 10% blackish trails is just enough to provide a dash of variety, a pinch of adrenaline, and a hearty helping of nostalgia.

Great Explorations bike tour company

Bitterbrush Trail on Hall Ranch Open Space

Northwest of Boulder, Colorado lies the Hall Ranch Open Space, part of the North Foothills Open Space complex. Both Hall Ranch and Heil Ranch are included in this system, and both areas have incredible mountain bike trails that are now connected by a bike trail.

The Bitterbrush Trail and the Nelson Loop Trail are both on Hall Ranch Open Space and are about a mile and a half from Lyons, Colorado on highway 7. The two trails make up a lasso trail (sometimes also called a lariat trail) with the Bitterbrush Trail forming the rope handle of the lasso and the Nelson Loop Trail forming the actual lasso.

These trails are fairly steep in spots, and they are studded with outcropping rocks and tree roots along the trail. While these obstacles make the trail fairly difficult, they also make it the ultimate roller coaster ride for seasoned mountain bikers.

View and download the Everytrail Guide for these trails and enjoy directions, descriptions, pictures, and suggestions on your smart phone. It beats lugging around an unwieldy guidebook every time you hit the trail.

Bitterbrush Trail on Hall Ranch Open Space