Ponce De Leon.....

....the fountain of youth, at least that is what we have been calling Lake Irwin in Crested Butte where we home base and camp when visiting those amazing trails and mountains.  The reference comes from how our 11 year old dog behaves there...since he just goes completely nuts and acts like he is 3 and not 11.  We have also noticed an amazing feeling of relaxation and rejuvenation after spending time there.

Lake Irwin...

Of course our trip was full of biking and hiking after riding; however, we did take a day off the bikes and did some really nice hikes right from our camp site.

Day one was 403 > 401...

Day 2 intent was Gunsight > Scarp Ridge > Lake Irwin...however this did not work out.  The hike up onto Scarp ridge is pretty sketchy and we ended up bailing on it, which turned out to be a long day with a lot of hike-a-bike to get back to camp.  Overall the day was still really good, just a little too much hiking.

The ride up Gunsight was brutal, but the views are unreal...

At the top finally....

Day 3 was a hiking day up onto Scarp Ridge to check it out and see if we could do the ride at some point...

Day 4 Reno > Flag > Bear > Deadmans

Of course there was plenty of relaxing and drinking beer while hiking around camp and the lake...