We left our San Juan National Forest camp site, Dolores, pretty early. Our camp host was left with a CS Ride X America T which he was really proud of. We actually packed up quicker than we had ever done on this Ride. Did this mean that we really wanted to get into the Rockies as fast as we could, are we crazy – don’t answer that!
Jack was first up, and off we went for 10 miles. We are following the Dolores River valley, which is spectacular. High mountain side which are covered in forest, with the Dolores River running the opposite way to the way we are going. It really is amazing scenery. There are some terrific properties by the river, wherever they can build, which is not often. We can always see the high Rockies and are getting deeper into climbing. Higher and higher. Felipe and Andriy are next to go, and they start on an uphill, which we in the van have a sly laugh about! Another spectacular 10 miles and it’s BP and Angel’s turn. More uphill biking, with the altitude ever getting higher. I cann’t remember who hit 10,000+ feet first, but there we were staring across to Sheep Mountain, 13,188 feet high, beautiful. We were all starting to B and moan about the up hills and who had the steepest, let me tell you it was definitely Angel and me.
Met a couple of Harley bikers who were now retired and literally just cruising the West – man they have the life. They were from Detroit and were leisurely making their way to Phoenix, but in no rush.
It wasn’t getting any easier, but on we went. Spotted a yellow belly Marmot, just chilling on the rocks, next to a water tap sticking out of the ground, miles from anywhere I might add, so kind of unusual. Jack rides to within 7 miles of Telluride and BP and Angel take over for the ride in.
Telluride was in the grip of a Bluegrass festival, the place was packed and we were given a ticket for the van that allowed us to stay in the town for 3 hours – what’s that all about?!! We parked, and strolled around the town, getting lunch, and basically taking in the scene. Sadly Mumford and Sons were playing on Sunday. It seems that we timed our Ride to Telluride badly, we would miss them, and they are English you know.
We drove up to Mountain Village in search of the highest squash court in N America it was at The Peaks Hotel. We drove right up to the front door and asked the doorman if we could go to the squash court. Sadly the court has been converted into a pilates studio!!! And we were ready to play too!! However our trip was not wasted we rode the gondola back down into Telluride. It’s free and you have to change gondolas once. The second one went over a vertical drop that scared the living daylight out of Angel and Jack. But some absolutely awesome views down to Telluride, across the valley and to the high Rockies, we could even see the Telluride airport perched right on the top of a plateau with no room for a mistake when landing!
Provisions bought we headed to our camp site which, because of the festival was a good 15 miles out of the town, but hey who’s worried.
Tent up and fire lit we are now ready to relax and recharge.
Cheers,
BP
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