Slept badly, convinced that the temperature would drop below freezing and burst the water tanks in the RV. Sue slept badly, convinced that we were going to be eaten by bears. Still, he headed out at 7.30am to hike up to Crate lake at nearly 12000'. Altitude does weird things – walking uphill we were breathing really hard, but stop for 2 minutes and instantly you feel OK again. Fingers swell up too – Sue couldn't even clench a fist, but we didn't get altitude sickness, so that was alright.
We'd spent the night at the Vallecito resort, an RV park that seemed to be run by square dancing christians. When Sue went to pay the propritress said “hey Bill, this lady's from the UK and she's rented an RV with her husband and they're touring around, isn't that cool!”. So there you have it, square dancing christians think we're cool.
Hired a canadian canoe and went for a paddle on Vallecito reservoir which was fun, until we saw the rain clouds coming in. We made it back before the storm broke though and headed back through Durango to the Trimble hot springs - 50m swimming pool and 2 hot pools, all outdoors. Either I'm rubbish at swimming now or the altitude completely did me in.
headed of the road to camp off piste in the San Juan mountains by St Andrew's lake.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The 470 mile long Colorado trail starts in Denver and finishes in Durango, I set out to ride the last 20 miles of it. Keen mathematicians will have gathered that this implies a 40 mile round trip, which is quiet a lot. I don't have the exact figures, but I'd estimate there was roughly a billion feet of ascent involved too. The first 3 hours were nearly continuous uphill on dirt road – all steady middle ring climbing, just for 3 hours solid. That was OK, I was on schedule when I hit the Colorado trail and was looking forward to 90 mins of glorious singletrack. For the first 30 mins it rocked, then it turned steeply uphill which blew. I was pushing for long periods and didn't really know where I was beyond being on the Colorado trail, in the trees, with the creek below me – which narrowed it down to a 15 mile stretch. When I thought I'd got to the top of the climb the trail started undulating, but by this time my legs had gone and was pushing every time the gradient went up. After forever it levelled out and i had a traversing super narrow trail to enjoy for so long that it started getting boring! Then it finally started descending. Relentlessly. I was nearly too worn out to enjoy it, but not quite :)
I think it was an hour of continuous craic. Possibly the hardest ride I've ever done, certainly one of the best. Epic.
We rode into town and out the other side to the Horse Gulch trails where we split, Sue rode Meadow loop and other bits while I did Telegraph Road, most of Sidewinder (couldn't find the top of it despite an extensive search), a bit of Cowboy, Crites, Anasazi and half of Meadow. Damn fine trails. It didn't suck at all. Not massively technical, just tight, twisty, flowing REAL GOOD STUFF.
I was cooked by the end of it though (all 2 ½ hours of it).
We headed back into town in search of fluid which was provided by Carver's brew pub and their Lightner Creek Lager. Bought a camera (Yay!), dragged ourselves back to the RV and I finally managed to bully the laptop into looking for other wireless networks apart from our home one, which was clearly out of range.
Got up with the sun and rode up Prime cut and down Kessel Run with Sue before breakfasting on eggy bread and beans – a pretty good start to the day.
Tried to buy a camera in walmart but they were shite. “Do you need any help sir?”
“Yes, do any of these compacts have an aperture priority mode?”
“Well, I'm not too sure about the technicalities, but I think you can adjust the ISO on some of them”.
It was hard to leave Fruita, but the cooler climate of the mountains did have it's own appeal, so we headed south for Durango, stopping briefly in Ouray (little Switzerland as it's known because the mountains around there are reminiscent of well, Switzerland) for huge and delicious ice creams.
Stopped at the United RV park on the edge of Durango.
The trails that everyone associates with Fruita. Went and did Prime Cut with Sue, then rode Joes ridge, which didn't quite live up to the hype. We were chilling out in the RV waiting for the sun to cool off when Troy, keith and Quentin from OTE showed up with a couple of guys from out of town. They offered us a shuttle run up to do Prime cut and then Kessel run. They hammered the trails and I was going all out to hang onto a wheel. Prime cut was loads more fun at full tilt, but Kessel run was just brilliant swooping, twisting trail. Sue did it twice she liked it so much.
After a couple of beers and a nap I summoned enough energy to set out to ride Zippetty Do Da. I went up Western Zip and down Q70 and up Coal Gulch Road to Frontside (not something I'd repeat). I was suffering on Frontside, it was undulating singletrack with brutal climbs that I was too exhausted to ride. But Zippety delivered. One of the best trails I've ridden anywhere.
I was happy and broken by the time I finished. A tough day enjoying myself. Camped at the trailhead. Discovered my camera had died :(
Went out earlyish and did Steve's loop with Sue, a nice ride which ran along the edge of a bench with the colorado river way down below. At one point the trail is a few feet from a 300' drop – hello vertigo. The most scenic loop in Kokopellis? Probably. Sue took the shortcut back while I did handcuffs and Troy built. In general these trails are moderately technical, narrow singletrack with short bits of seriously difficult/impossible problems usually at the start and end of the loop as you descend to / climb out of a bench. I'd had 3 punctures in 24 hours and decided that my back tyre was for the bin, picked up a new one at OTE.
Went out on the Wednesday night OTE ride which was Troy built again but in the opposite direction to how I'd done it in the morning. It rocked again. As the light was fading there was lightening going off all over the place, but amazingly we only got rained on for about a minute. It was half light by the time we finished Troy Built, so it was quarter light as we came down the stupidly fast descent off Lions.
Rounded off the day with Shrimp Burrito and Margarita at Fiesta Guadalajara. Perfect.
