Durango is one of those places that’s not super easy to get to, particularly if you’re trying to get there from a place, like Burlington, that isn’t super easy to get anywhere from. On Wednesday we got up extra super early to catch our flight from BTV to Denver. 5 minutes from the house we clipped a deer. Luckily the car was okay for the most part, there’s a headlight to replace and some fur to extract but we got off pretty lucky.
After arriving at Denver we dealt with our copious amount of luggage and the rental car question, picked up Team Dicky and got on the road to Durango. After we rolled in and got situated, we found some friends at Ska Brewing and had a little preview of the art show they were setting up. They had hundreds of the entry forms hanging up all over the place as well as lots of bike art to check out.
On Thursday, after getting acclimated and building up our bikes we hopped on a Hermosa Tours shuttle to check out a section of the Colorado Trail. The 45 minute van ride dropped us way on the top of a saddle at about 10,000′. As we got out of the van and looked over our shoulder, a big pile of thunder and lightening was headed our way. We got moving as quick as possible in our best attempt to out run the approaching storm.
top of the trail
After a quick little dirt road climb, we dropped off onto singletrack and started the descent. Super fun and fast. A little damp and lots of stream crossings and we were trying to keep our speed up before the rain started. But before too long it was raining and we were climbing. About three miles of climbing, some of it pretty rough, meant a big patch of hiking for me. The altitude was sucking the air out of my lungs and i felt like crap. And I was cold. George didn’t bring any cold weather gear, so I gave him my arm warmers and was only riding with my wind jacket.
start of the trail
After the sucky, wet climb our little group reconvened and rallied for the rest of the descent. We were all suffering. I was thinking that I had never been so cold on a ride and was wondering if hypothermia was in my immediate future and I’m sure that the rest of our group was feeling the same thing. We started to rip down the mountain in the rain, suffering but still finding a bit of fun.
a sunny section at the beginning of the ride
Then we came upon the cows. I had no idea there were cows ranging up there, I was in the lead and going as fast as I could hands off the brakes. Suddenly, I came around the corner and see a huge black animal headed onto the trail. I screamed and hit the brakes and realized that it was just a cow. There were more cows coming up and we had to hassle them to get them out of the trail. At one point, the guys were ahead of me around the trail and scattered a group of cows. But one of the cows got confused and decided to run down the trail. I got stuck behind the dang cow for one mile. Couldn’t get around him on either side and he wouldn’t stop and let me pass.
Finally, on the other side of the cow, we kept it moving because daylight was fading fast. The rain had slacked off and the temps warmed up a smidge. At this point the trail got fun, downhill and swoopy and fast. We put the miles behind us as fast as possible and finally dropped out onto the road as darkness fell. A few miles of pavement brought us into Durango and a few more miles and we were finally back at the house.
super mud
My toes were froze, my clothes were froze and covered with mud. We were all pretty hungry and miserable, but in the end I thought the ride was awesome and loved being way out in the mountain.s
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