Green Bird: Bikepacking Trip 2025 Report

This year, for the Big Bikepacking Loop™ we went hard, we went harder, and we went long! I'm going to go through each day with a new post and share the victories and defeats of this amazing ride.

This year's route started in Leadville, took us through Buena Vista, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, and Eagle. It was a combination of ambitious, leisurely, remote, and urban. Here is a look at the planned route:

And this is what we ended up doing:

Some slight modification on day 3 and 4 took place due to a horrific day 2 and some smokey air. Let's get into day 1!

Outlined Route

Outlined Elevation

We started by getting some traditional Safeway breakfast burritos in Leadville and then hit the road from at the tubing hill.

All Smiles at the Start

We started on pavement heading down HWY 24 for a few miles until we hit our first gravel and rode over Weston Pass. This gentle pass climbed up a nice valley with lots of dispersed camping to the top of Weston Pass

Riding up Weston Pass

The views at the pass were amazing! We passed the Weston Pass huts and treeline a bit before the top.

Geoff near the top of Weston Pass

Some top-of-the-pass whiskey, thanks to Aaron. We did this at several passes and it was great, even when the pass was not great.

Isaac Enjoys some Pass Whiskey

Next we took a reasonable descent through the valley to hook up with Highway 285, which was a miserable, windy experience. But it got us back on some fun dirt roads to take us into Buena Vista. THese roads were mostly rideable, but several sandy spots got the best of us and ended up walking a bit.

Dirt Roads into Buena Vista

In BV we grabbed food at a food truck, had a beer, and saw a couple cool dogs,

Food Trucks and the Buena Viking

Forklift Certified Collie

Suspicious Great Pyrenees

Last thing in BV was to stop at Safeway to restock on food, and get talked at by a nice, strange lady.

We rolled the last 10 paved miles to Mt Princeton Hot Springs where we soaked in the pool, and then chilled in the creek. Cold water provided some great therapy to prepare for day 2.