Adventure Biking - Williams Fork Loop

I've been looking at this loop for a couple years now and finally managed to talk someone into doing it with me and had good weather.

http://www.strava.com/activities/185120604

Ethan and I loaded up and headed over the divide to the Williams Fork campground.

After some final adjustments we hit the trail.

The west branch of the South Fork trail was nice riding with only a handful of downed trees.

There were a couple cold stream crossings to wake us up.

As we got higher we had some beautiful riding through aspens.

After about 9 miles we got to the climb that would take us above treeline. 1500 ft in just over a mile and half meant we had a good hour of hike-a-bike.

Once we got out of the trees the slope mellowed out a bit and we were able to ride some.

The "trail" above treeline was vague in places.

Some sections made for good riding..

..and others made better hiking.

After one last, brutal, hike-a-bike we crested the pass that let us into the eastern leg of the Williams Fork loop.

The trail was a bit easier to follow on this descent so we made good time.

This section brought us to the Denver Water facilities at the bottom of Jones pass where we jumped on the pipeline road.  There is singletrack down the valley, but by all reports there are way too many downed trees for it to be rideable.

After 8 miles on the pipeline road we descended the Darling creek trail.  That section had quite a few down trees, but it was at least only a couple miles.  We finally made it back to the car after 32 miles and 10.5 hours.