In Pagosa Springs, CO. Leaving in an hour for the ride over Wolf Creek Pass which will take us up over 10,850′. The weather is expected to be excellent with minimal haze and fairly good views off in the distance. Will be a big day…
Speaking of “big days” – Sunday we rode over Grand Mesa southeast of Grand Junction. Again a stunning, blue sky Colorado day. We have been really lucky since leaving Jackson with great weather. Grand Mesa lived up to is name – it was “grand” in every way. Big, beautiful, climbed 5350′ up to 11,000′. Grand Mesa is the largest flat topped mountain in the world and by the time we reached the summit we all believed it. As always, Tom, Mike Blum, and Dave Cutler were up ahead. Dave Thompson, Rob Short, and I following. Climbing continuously for 20 miles and then over the top and a continuous drop of 4640′ feet on a beautiful serpentine descent through alpine forest to Cedaridge. Dave Cutler, Rob Short, and I flew through town having missed the trailer and having too much fun! Fortunately Kevin was alert as ever and came down, picked us up and brought us back to where the rest of the crew was having lunch.
Monday after an early shuttle over to Telluride, we headed up to Lizard Head Pass with 13 miles of climbing up to 10, 246′ followed by 55 miles of descent (really 55 miles of descent!) down to Cortez, CO. Phil was able to get on his very cool recumbent bike and then disappeared down the hill , flying! After dinner on the patio of an great Mexican restaurant, we picked up Rachel and then all crashed for a much needed night of sleep!
Yesterday was Mesa Verde National Park in the morning followed by a 40 miles ride from the north entrance of the park down into Durango, CO. We chose to not ride in Mesa Verde because of the narrow roads so unhooked the van from the trailer and then took both vehicles down to the south end of the park where we had great views of some of the best preserved ancestral Puebloan archeological sites in the United States.
A “tail gate dinner” courtesy of Phil with John Rudolf now with us ended a great day.
We arrive in Taos on Friday and then will see many of you in Santa Fe Saturday evening!