One-way Distance: 1.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 5768 - 5945 feet
Cellphone: 2-5 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Jumbo Mountain
Fee: none
Attractions: Handy connector
Zip-N-Out is part of the Jumbo Mountain Trails System in Paonia, Colorado. The lower end of the trail begins off of the Sweet Shady trail a little less than a half mile from the Jumbo Mountain trailhead. From there it works its way up a small valley below Rebel Ridge and Horseshoe Ridge, then over a hill and on to where it eventually crosses the Powerline Road. A short distance later Zip-N-Out meets up with the Plumbers Crack trail and comes to an end. Enroute it is connected to by the Rebel Ridge, Horseshoe Ridge, Bang Zoom and Cactus Cutoff trails.
To get to the trailhead head east on 3rd Street in Paonia and turn left onto Rio Grande Avenue. Follow Rio Grande as it crosses the creek and turns into Pan American Avenue and begins climbing the hill. The trailhead is at the end of Pan American Avenue. There is only room for a handful of vehicles to park at the trailhead but there is additional parking at the bottom of the hill at the Apple Valley Park where there is also a restroom.
This post begins at the top of Zip-N-Out where it departs from the Plumbers Crack trail.
The trail starts out on a fast moving singletrack that weaves its way through the juniper forest traveling generally in a downhill direction.
A glance at the trails elevation profile shows its overall downhill trend with most of the change in elevation occuring in the final quarter mile.
After traveling for only a third of a mile Zip-N-Out meets up with the Powerline Road where it goes to the right to get around the head of a deep wash for a hundred feet or so before leaving the road.
No sooner than it leaves the Powerline Road it is connected to by the Cactus Cutoff trail which runs along the wash down to the Herfendoodle trail.
From there the trail continues to be easy even though it takes on a slight uphill trend.
Around the 0.4 mile point from Plumbers Crack Zip-N-Out is crossed by the Bang Zoom trail which also begins off of the Plumbers Crack trail and runs down to the start of the Herfendoodle trail.
At the 0.6 mile point Zip-N-Out is crossed by the Horseshoe Ridge trail.
Right after that Zip-N-Out turns sharply to the right and drops over the hill into a small valley or basin below Horseshoe Ridge where it works its way around the base of the hill to the opposite side of the valley.
At that point it takes off on a nice downhill roll along Rebel Ridge going in the direction of the trailhead.
