Charles Mahoney
San Francisco, CA
cmahoney@montgomery.com

Hit the heights near Steamboat, but get acclimated first.

For an upgrade, you can't do much better than the out-and-back ride from Rabbit Ears Pass to Long Lake. Despite the innocuous-sounding name, this is an epic, 20-plus-mile singletrack grunt over water crossings, footbridges, and exposed tree roots. Riders in the superhuman category nix the out-and-back element and instead attempt the nothing-short-of-gnarly ride from the Fish Creek Falls junction to the eponymous falls--a feat that entails carrying your bike over a boulder-strewn, three-plus-mile descent. Warning: This section requires finely tuned technical skills, quads of steel, and a whole mess of mental stamina--not to mention a shuttle car at the Fish Creek end, just outside of town.

Either way, you won't be disappointed by the scenery: The first nine miles to Long Lake will take you through wildflower-studded meadows and past subalpine lakes. Start the ride on Base Camp Road (FS 311), a forest service road that you can pick up at Dumont Lake Campground, about 25 miles southeast of Steamboat on U.S. 40. From there, pedal about four and a half miles to a right-branching singletrack (FS 1102 or the Base Camp Trail). Take this about three miles to Round Lake, where you'll pick up the Fish Creek Trail along the north shore of Long Lake to the junction with Fish Creek Falls trail. Here's where you'll turn around and retrace your route or, if you're feeling especially ambitious (read: gonzo), you'll brave the descent into town.

For additional ride ideas and trail maps, stop by Sore Saddle Cyclery (970-879-1675) in bustling downtown Steamboat, call the Routt National Forest rangers at 970-879-1722, or pick up a copy of Linda Gong and Greg Bromka's The Mountain Biker's Guide to Colorado (Falcon Press, $14.95).

To feed your fly-fishing habit, try the Elk and Yampa rivers or rainbow-stocked Dumont and Steamboat lakes. Fishing licenses, local know-how, and equipment rental can be found at Straightline (970-879-7568).