Great Flume Trail

Until recently, this trail was a non-system, somewhat secret singletrack. It was pioneered on the remnants of a portion of historic flume that stretched for nearly 15 miles. Motorbikes were by and large, the most frequent users of the trail, and the reason it remained open to any type of mechanized travel, rather than fade into obscurity along with hundreds of other abandoned and forgotten flumes within the Golden Horseshoe area. The trail has now become a system route by the Forest Service, and is maintained by Summit County. The trail connects American Gulch Road to Georgia Pass Road (aka South Fork Swan Road). There are wooden chicanes marking either end of the trail, and once on the trail it is pretty easy to follow. From American Gulch Road the Great Flume begins as a mining road. After crossing a large tallus area (the remnants of a massive hydraulic mining operation) there is a fork in the trail. Take the right, uphill fork and hike to an historic cabin. To the right of the cabin, through another wooden chicane a singletrack climbs briefly before reaching the flume. After 4 miles the Great Flume trail ends at Georgia Pass Road at another chicane.