Little Browns Creek Trail #1430

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Unknown

[Per Nate King] Having ridden/shuttled all of the reasonable ways to the top of this trail quite a few times out and backing is the quickest, safest and most efficient way to ride this trail. You get to see what you're getting yourself in to as you ascend for the top with the bail out simply being turning around and heading back to your car. Begin either at the CT intersection at Raspberry Gulch (FS273) or the Browns Creek TH (water and pit toilet), climb up the CT to the junction with Little Browns.

The "traditional" loop of Browns Cr to Little Browns Cr is a good pedal option as well. Just be prepared for a lot of traffic (including horses) on the beginning couple of miles of Browns Cr trail.

I do not recommend pedal looping this ride from the Mt. Antero Jeep road (FS 277) unless you are in exceptional shape.

The 4x4 shuttling of it is a blast but requires a decent high clearance 4x vehicle and about 3 hours (round trip) drive time (from CT/Raspberry gulch junction).

The only difficult navigation point is the very beginning, as the singletrack is very faint at the top, adjacent to FS278B (listed here as Mt. White 4x4 Road). Look at the map/MTB Project mobile app, get as close as you can, and bushwack over to the singletrack. Hopefully, we can get the trail more clearly marked in the future to reduce wandering around on alpine tundra looking for the singletrack.

It's located next to the creek itself, just south of said creek. At the top is a marshy headwaters area; look just below that for the singletrack. Ride along FS278B (Mt. White 4x4 Road) until you see it, then cut over.

Once on the trail, it's quite difficult above tree line due to many granite boulders to thread the needle around, or try to ride over, along with some pretty steep bits. Once below tree line, the trail is a little wider, with fewer pedal and derailleur gobbling boulders, and the speed increases.

From there, it's mostly a long, steep descent where your brakes will be getting hot, with several short punchy climbs.

The end of this trail segment is where Little Browns joins the CT - Segment 14: Highway 50 to Chalk Creek TH. This is where the trail gets faster yet, and even better. If you stay on Little Browns/CO Trail at this point, you get about 900' of extra descending that is awesome, then a steep climb up a ridge, followed by a steep descent down to CR162 Chalk Creek Dr.