Ride the Rockies - Before the Ride

Ride the Rockies - Before the Ride

The 2013 Ride the Rockies tour is a 545 mile trek through 7 cities in Colorado; Telluride, Cortez, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Alamosa, Salida, Canon City and Colorado Springs.  All of these towns (except Canon City) are beautiful and worth checking out the real estate to re-locate.  My riding buddy Michael Witt sent me an e-mail saying he was going to sign up for the lottery to enter.  I thought, sure, I'll enter the lottery with not a lot of thought if we got picked.

Then we got picked and the heart started racing.  Michelle was all for it and said "Go, have a great time."  It's a big trip logistically to get across the country with one's bike.  What follows is the 9 day blog entry.  There are lots of pictures and video worth watching.  It was truly a fantastic trip that I would encourage all you fellow bikers to think about.

It's the end of the second day out here in Telluride.  To date it seems like we came across the country for hiking instead of biking.  The whirlwind of activity started yesterday which seem like it could have been 1 week ago.  The journey started with a 3am wakeup call Friday morning to head out to Dulles airport for a 5:30am flight.  It was an easy flight to Denver, and then a puddle jumper over to Montrose.

Arriving in Montrose at 10am MST we were wondering what we'd be doing all day.  The plan was to stay the night there and catch a shuttle the next morning into Telluride.  We didn't have to wait long as the locals at the Hampton Inn told us about Black Canyon.  Kudos to the staff at the Hampton Inn as they were the nicest and most helpful people at any hotel that I have ever met.

Hardest short hike I've ever taken.  1 mile ~2,200'.
See the river way down there/

 The hotel drove us over to Black Canyon and we went into the Visitor Center to talk about hikes.  We talked to two rangers who apparently were doing the "good cop bad cop" routine.  They were telling us about Gunisson Trail hike which we think is about 2200' down a one mile un-maintained trail.  One ranger was warning us about going down, while the other was a lot less worried about the two of us athletic looking individuals taking the jaunt.  

Picture doesn't quite do this justice.  Entire hike was
crazy steep over loose rock.

That trail turned out to be the most technical hike I have ever walked.  It was practically a 45 degree angle all the way to the river over loose rock.  It was simply a ridiculously dangerous hike that neither Michael or I was going to turn back on.  Plus, I had the greatest ever hiking shoes on, CROCS!

Click here for the Gunnison Trail Videos

As hard as that hike was, it was totally worth the effort once we reached the bottom.  The river and canyon were incredicbly beautiful.  The river was melted snow so my feet lasted about 20 seconds in the water.  There's a small campsite at the bottom of which a few people were there.  After one hour we headed back up.

Looking better than he did on the way down.  That water is cold!

Going up was so much easier than going down and about 4x as fast.  There was only one stressful moment with Michael and the chain.  One part of the trail was close to repelling.  It was that steep.  But as they say in Black Canyon, "What happens in Black Canyon stays in Black Canyon."

Picture from the bus on the way over to Telluride.

We rode the shuttle over to Telluride in the morning.  First thing was to check out the demos.  There is a Specialized Turbo electric bike.  Oh my, this was the coolest thing ever.  Battery powered and doubled your output.  It could sense how hard you were pedaling.  I was going 30mph up hill and barely putting forth the effort.  It pretty much a moped activated by pedaling.  Way cool!

Telluride is at the bottom of those mountains.  Incredible scenery.

We got our bikes and took a short couple mile ride and then cruised through the town.  It's bigger than it seems on the map.  It was a good time riding through and seeing all the activity and people.  We rode back to the campsite and registered for the ride and got our pristine lodging arrangements.

Diki's Grilled Cheese was all that and more.

There's a festival back in town so we walked back over for some dinner after a hour or two of meeting people at the campsite.  Festival food was on the menu including a gyro and the best grilled cheese sandwich in Colorado made by Diki.  AFter walking around even more, we took the gondola ride to the top of the mountain and walked around there for a bit.  Got some great pictures as you have 360 degree views of all mountains around you.  Just incredible.

Little town of Telluride.   Not a lot going on during non-ski season.

Not done with the activity yet, so we rode back down and enjoyed the festival people and band.  Got hungry again so had a pretty good burger.  And as we seem to always be on the go we threw in another 3 mile hike to see the tallest waterfall in colorado.  You could see Ingram Falls from the streets but you had to walk down 1.5 miles to see Bridal Falls which is the big one.  You can check the video.

Pretty good accommodations, I say.

Michael sporting his vehicle of choice.

We're now back to the tents at night and guess what?  Those pristine lodging conditions ..well, my air mattress is flat. No worries, got another one, brushed my teeth, leaving my feet disgustingly dirty for the night, and typing this first blog entry.

View from top of mountain down on Telluride.

Colorado is a beautiful state.  We've seen so many mountain views, snow, fields, and overall incredible nature that it makes one want to live out here.  Or at least visit frequently.  Checking real estate properties I found there are lots of houses in the $2 to $5 million range, totally within budget.

It's 10:29pm, 12:29pm if you count EST so I think I've had enough activity for the day.  Long bike ride ahead tomorrow starting with a 25 mile 3000' ascent.  Wish me luck 'cause I'm going to need it.

Continue to Day 1 - Cortez