Grand Départ April 26 2025
In a stubborn continuance of a tradition that PJ Munsen started in 2019, five of us set out on a late-April pilgrimage to pop 2025’s proverbial bikepacking cherry in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Our malformed, shrunken brain masses combined to concoct a year full of increasingly difficult expeditions and superstition stipulated that we kick off the season with a half-baked nap in the dirt to bring us some luck or whatever.
The Beach Classic route is an homage to the early Munsen-lead missions to Marshall Mesa where we spent our formative years pissing the night away on a sandy hillside facing Highway 93, thus earning the spot’s nickname, “The Beach”. The Beach Classic is certainly not a carbon copy of those early rides, but an update that improves upon them by adding in the new paths and methods that we have picked up during the intervening years. Instead of taking the long, brain-numbing trudge along the I36 bikepath we now opted for the comfort of dirt paths via Standley Lake, Meadowlark Trail, and the Mayhoffer Singletree Trail.
The Beach Classic also bypasses the original Beach camp, relegating it to a scenic point of interest on the way to a more challenging trail across the highway. The choice to take Dowdy Draw to Springbrook Loop provides more rocks, vertical efforts, and pristine views of the Flat Irons and bits of Eldorado Canyon. Not a bad trade-off over the sandy highway views of the original beach. The updated route still includes classic dirt-napper resupply points at Whole Foods and the Eldorado Corner Market. The latter providing last-minute options for dinner and drinks to take on the short haul to camp.
As for the new camp spot, I had selected a general area that looked to have a clearing in the middle of the trees just below our last climb. As it turns out, it was a pretty solid spot with only minor downsides that I would discover later that night and early the next morning.
Trains seemed to be blasting around a curve just the other side of the foothills, complete with the sounds of shaking rails and screeching brakes, just about every time I awoke during the night. The constant waking up was probably more a consequence of cowboy camping, but the ghostly sounds of distant locomotives wasn’t helping me in my efforts to sleep. The morning found us relatively hidden from view, but the voices of morning hikers could be heard clearly coming from the trails that flanked us on either side. No biggie, by that point the deed had been done and if caught we were headed home any way.
Depending on the crew’s hangover, there are three options to head back. The first two options are to take the same way you came up or complete the Springbrook Loop. Either way you take here it’s going to be the rowdier option. A good wake up if you aren’t already battling a headache. Then there’s the boring but less intensive option, taking I36 path back to town. I36 has its own drawbacks (exposure to wind, highway noise, and boredom), but it is the quickest and easiest way to get back to Denver.
Main takeaways from the 2025 Beach Classic:
Do drugs
Bring booze
Eat trash
Be friendly
Cover bright colors
Bring a minimal sleep kit
Don’t be afraid to move those hips around a non-existent camp fire
Learn how to speak wild turkey
Colorado hikers get out EARLY
