While taken as a whole the Colorado Trail is truly epic and fantastic, the stretch along Sargents Mesa is generally considered to be the absolute worst section of that excellent trail. Being the worst part of an excellent trail generally means that reality falls somewhere in the middle. A few sections of the Sargents Mesa segment offer beautiful, flowy, benchcut singletrack at a moderate grade.

It’s all of the other segments that are the issue. A few sections of this trail run straight up and down mountainsides and steep-sided valleys, which isn’t so unusual for Colorado

What is quite unusual, at least for the Colorado Trail, is that this segment is shared use with motorized traffic. Due to some of the steep grades, the torque of motorcycle tires has created deep, eroded trenches in places. Loose babyhead rocks abound, making for difficult mountain biking… and mandatory hike-a-bike in many places.