# Hwy 40 Winter Park - Granby



## Samadhi (Nov 1, 2011)

I was thinking about riding Hwy 40 from Winter Park to Granby on Saturday weather permitting. I might extend that to Hot Sulfur Springs - a nice soak at the end of a ride would be a good way to end the ride..

Anyone ridden this route? Opinions?


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## teleguy57 (Apr 23, 2006)

I'm in Fraser right now on vacation. There's a fair amount of traffic, but there Is a bike path from Winter Park to Fraser, and you could take hwy 5 from Fraser part way to Granby and stay off one section of 40. Saturday will likely be busy with weekend auto traffic.

I have another route for you to consider. Ride from the north end of Granby on hwy 40 and about 2 miles out of town take hwy 125 toward Walden. After a 3 mile climb you have a nice rolling ascent to Wilow Creek Pass - about 2200' elevation gain in 21 miles. Little traffic, nice scenery and good road surfaces. You can keep going all the way to Steamboat (78 miles) if you're ambitious. I had a great ride on that route today -- about 44 miles out and back from the wildlife viewing area. I would recommend starting in Granby since I had to start the 3-mile climb with no warm up!


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## Samadhi (Nov 1, 2011)

teleguy57 said:


> I'm in Fraser right now on vacation. There's a fair amount of traffic, but there Is a bike path from Winter Park to Fraser, and you could take hwy 5 from Fraser part way to Granby and stay off one section of 40. Saturday will likely be busy with weekend auto traffic.
> 
> I have another route for you to consider. Ride from the north end of Granby on hwy 40 and about 2 miles out of town take hwy 125 toward Walden. After a 3 mile climb you have a nice rolling ascent to Wilow Creek Pass - about 2200' elevation gain in 21 miles. Little traffic, nice scenery and good road surfaces. You can keep going all the way to Steamboat (78 miles) if you're ambitious. I had a great ride on that route today -- about 44 miles out and back from the wildlife viewing area. I would recommend starting in Granby since I had to start the 3-mile climb with no warm up!


I drove through to Fraser a couple weeks ago and noticed the trail. Seems like a nice MUT - not nuch traffic, few cracks in the pavement from what I could see.

Arial photos of the highway indicate reasonable shoulders to ride.

That 125 rte sounds good, but I need to stick to 40. My wife is going to a woolens mill outside Granby with some friends and offered to drop me off in in WP and meeting up with me in Granby. letting me continue to Hot Sulfur Springs and meeting there for a soak is an option, but doesn't leave me a great deal of time for side trips. It's 27 miles from WP to HSS and down on the flat I could cover that distance in less that two hours, but not sure how the altitude will play out. Except for a climb after Fraser the ride is mostly level-to-downhill, so 90 minutes seems reasonable if I don't have to stop/rest. My wife and her friends will need 2 hours at least, so HSS seems like a convenient endpoint.

There is, of course, the very real possibility of rain to consider - 27miles in the rain in that country could be two hours of sheer misery. T-storms at that altitude can be pretty fierce and not to mention dangerous. Of course wheeling into HSS after two hours laying down the V in the rain would be most triumphant.


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