While this trail can easily be self-shuttled using Boreas Pass road, most riders choose to pedal it as a loop. It’s up to you.

However you choose to get to the top, the descent down Gold Dust is absolutely phenomenal! The singletrack begins descending immediately, dropping quickly down the mountainside, and funneling into an old drainage flume that has turned into a flowy mountain bike luge.

Some of the upper sections are steep, rocky, and loose, but as the trail descends the grade mellows significantly. A couple of riser climbs in the middle keep Gold Dust from being a completely downhill rip, but they’re over quickly.

The most challenging section is in the beginning of the second half of the trail, with a very technical, rocky up-and-over a small ridge. While rideable, this one section is extremely challenging.

Don’t let that scare you off, though. This one short section is easily walkable. Excluding this section, Gold Dust is a blue/black trail. Excluding the steep upper rocky section, it drops to an intermediate singletrack rating… with those couple of sections exceeding.

Once below the extremely rocky portion, that intermediate singletrack flavor takes over in full-force, flowing quickly down the mountainside through pines, and ending in a gorgeous aspen grove.

If anything negative can be said about Gold Dust, it’s that it’s over too quickly!