Day 11

After the disappointment of yesterday, we felt that we could make the 82 miles from Blanding to Dolores, especially doing the leap frog relay. In fact we knew that we could make the 82 miles. So goodbye Blanding, and it was Jack who started us off. The going was pretty flat once again, which we always appreciate, although he did finish with an uphill!! BP and Angel were next up, and again another flat ride with one or two slight up hills but no bigees. Following BP and Angel were Felipe and Andriy, the fast team, and this was the system all the way through Utah and into Colorado, yes Colorado, our fourth State. The scenery did change in Colorado, it was more arable with more green to it, which we hadn’t seen for a long while. Plus more animals, horses, herds of cattle, and the occasional dead deer by the side of the road. First town in CO was Dove Creek, a little sleepy town but obviously a farming community as was seen by the farm machines. The one constant were the high mountains in the distance as we rode towards them – the Rockies! Not nice. We knew that we would be up against them in a few days. Right now we were literally enjoying the Colorado scenery.

One thing that we also notice was that there was more traffic on the road, by the last few days’ comparison, when we had hardly seen any vehicles at all.
So to Dolores 6956 feet elevation, a sleepy small town. Our camp site was on the East side of Dolores just outside in the San Juan National Forest. Very basic but very beautiful. We picked a spot in a shaded area, with a river running by. Angel and Felipe were off the river, followed by Charlie who immediately immersed himself into the running water but came out screaming “Hell that’s cold!” Man the water did look great, so next in was Angel and Felipe, and again screams of how cold it was! Angel and Felipe were really loving this camp site and were making spears to try to catch fish – good luck guys! Once again Andriy was the chef making pasta which was guzzled down by the team. One of Andriy’s funny traits is that once the meal is over he nearly always makes himself a toasted cheese sarny (that’s sandwich to the uninitiated). Yes another one tonight.

The entertainment is usually Andriy beating Jack at chess with the group looking on. It was no different tonight another beating for Jack.
Our camp site host was a guy named Brian, who had actually come out to the West some four years ago. He pointed out the humming birds that were migrating to South America. He hung sweet water for them outside of his cabin. They really are fascinating birds, very small, and very territorial.

Telluride tomorrow and apparently the highest squash court in the world is there, or so we are told. Not sure that we will be playing squash when we get there though! An uphill ride most of the way, so the relaying should come in handy again.

BP