Description

The Pot-O-Gold trail is one of the newest trails built in Salida as of the time of this writing in late 2023.

You'll find the Pot-O-Gold at the end of the Double Rainbow, and it connects from Double Rainbow to the main Rainbow Trail.

This is a two-way trail, but this fantastic addition to the trail system provides a welcome opportunity to loop Gutz on a 100% singletrack ride! The ride begins from the Little Rainbow trailhead off of CR 110 by pedaling up the twisty, rolling Double Rainbow trail.

Double Rainbow has some short, punchy climbs in it, but they are mere warmups to what you'll find on Pot-O-Gold. While Pot-O-Gold was designed to be climbable, this narrow singletrack trail goes uphill in a hurry! You'll ascend countless switchbacks as you slowly work your way up the steep mountainside.

As you climb, the views of the valley floor far below will continue to improve—helping to keep your mind off your screaming quads.

Eventually, you'll reach the Rainbow Trail, taking a left turn, and—you guessed it—you'll keep climbing. After crossing a dirt road, you'll reach the upper trailhead for the famed Gutz descent! The descent starts off steep and loose, funneling into a series of tight berms.

Lower down, the trail grade mellows a touch, which only allows riders to carry even more momentum.

Drops and old-school gap jumps are sprinkled throughout the descent, but all of the jumps provide a ride-around option. The trail gets its name from an area where the singletrack swoops back and forth through a narrow valley, aka the "Guts" of the mountainside.

Two lines actually run through the Guts—a taller and steeper line and a shorter and mellower line, which look like intestines when viewed from above. As the trail continues to drop, the tread gets tighter, rockier, and drier as it enters the high desert environment found on lower Methodist Mountain. This route takes a left turn onto Soul Trail West, and the ride changes character dramatically thanks to a new school flow trail filled with berms and machine-built jumps.

After a brief flowy rip, it's time for a bit more pedaling to work up and down and across the Little Rainbow Trail to return to the trailhead from whence you began.