Originally Posted by
alloo
Not sure what you're talking about. Most of the highline trail near my house are paved. I use it to commute home.
The Highline starts in Waterton Canyon and runs 63 miles to Aurora. The paved part (mostly) starts at Mamie Eisenhower Park at Colorado and Dartmouth and goes north and east for about 25 miles. The roughly 40 miles of unpaved part extends south and west of Hampden and up Waterton Canyon (about 4 miles up the canyon). There are a few bits of it that are paved around C470 but it is dirt for the majority of those 40 miles.
I would agree that a hybrid should be able to handle the unpaved part with the caveat that
ericcc65's friend is already riding wider tires than hybrid bikes and is complaining about the bike not rolling through the gravel all that well. That could be due to tire inflation, however. Generally the dirt part of the trail is quite firm.
I would suggest trying a couple of bikes if possible. See if you can borrow a hybrid and a mountain bike and have her try them.