Each time I ride Butterfield Canyon I come away with three thoughts:
1. That climb is a total butt kicker.
2. At under 2.5 hours round trip from my house in Riverton, I should do this ride more often.
3. Who in the world are Colton and Josh?!
Of course, the reason why I don't ride Butterfield more often is because it is in fact such a butt kicker. Looking at the climb from a statistical point of view it doesn't seem so difficult: A bit under 7 miles and 2,300 feet of elevation gain. That doesn't seem bad does it? The problem is that you gain most of the elevation over the second half of the climb. And when it eventually does get steep it quickly becomes really, really steep.
In fact, the middle section of switchbacks is so brutal and unrelenting that if you're not mentally prepared for the inevitable pain & suffering you'll soon find yourself either walking your bike or flipping a U-turn. Think I'm exaggerating? Go ride it and experience it for yourself!
6 comments:
I've often wondered who Colton is as well. He seems to like Butterfield.
Love that middle section, someone with a computer told me it is around 20%. Don't know Colton but apparently he isn't in good standing with whomever owns the spray paint can.
How is the upper road? Late last year it was pretty tore up from rocks and I haven't been past the middle section since it opened this year.
Warren - The road surface was great. There was, however, a fair amount of debris on the road in sections but overall it was as good as it's ever been.
Dude, that climb rocks! I always have to paper boy the 18% part, cause if I go straight at it than i'll fall over going 4 mph. The only climb that beats the hardness of that climb is powder mountain. 5 miles 3,000 ft.
The first time I rode that my friends tricked me. They said it was gradual the whole way up. I attacked on the first pitch. I blew up 100 ft later. They caught up to me laughing.
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