Talk about ending the summer with a bang
A few of us decided to do Durango this past weekend. The forecast looked good for the weekend with slight chance of rain. Turned what they really meant was "get rained and sleeted on for 300 miles".
BFW, her BF and Jkol rode down from Denver to South Colorado Springs to meet me and start the trip. That's right, my powers of persuasian (aka "Let's leave from Colorado Springs") talked 3 people into driving 70 miles south to meet me, 10 miles from my house
It was 7am and the cool but not cold yet. The weather was looking sketchy but we decided to push forward. Surely it couldn't rain all day!
Christi and Issac:
Jkol: Doing SSSUUPER!
We hit rain going up Monarch pass and it didn't stop until Pagosa Springs. Ironicly the least experienced rider among us (Jkol) was the only one who thought to bring a rain suit but even that can't stand up to 7 hours of rain and sleet over the passes. If it was just the cold it would have been okay. If it was just the rain but warm that would have been okay. If it was just the wind it would have been okay. But when your powers combine, Captain Planet comes out and turned us to a fucking tree.
We could see the sun peaking out in the distance like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but we could never reach it. Finally after Wolf Pass we came to Pagosa Springs and the rain/clouds disappeared and suddenly it was a nice ride, albiet shivering all the way to Durango.
We got to our hotel (the ironhorse inn) - got dinner and started a fire. Our TV wasn't plugged in and the power cord was about 5 feet too short. The front desk brought us an extension cord to turn on the TV but the speakers didn't work. It was okay though, we had fun adding our own dialog and drinking beer.
Saturday and it's 460 miles was done and in the books. Sunday's weather was forecasted to be pristine and weather.com didn't disappoint this time. We got a late start and took a wrong turn, taking us towards Cortez. We finally made it out of Durango around 10:30... a time that would come back later to bite Jkol and me in the butt.
Sunday made the whole trip worth it. Warm weather, fun roads and hardly any traffic. A nice mix between technical canyon roads and tripple digit sweepers. We made it to the north rim of the Black Canyon for what would turn out to be the only group shot of the trip:
Christi and Issac decided to split off to get home faster and Jason (Jkol) and I pushed on. The Black Canyon was as beautiful as ever:
We pushed on towards Carbondale and enjoyed the 50 awesome miles of Hwy 133.
82 to Aspen and Indi pass and eventually to Buena Vista. Shit, it's 7:30 and pretty much dark out now. Over 100 miles for both of us and now it's mountain riding in the dark. Uh oh.
Jkol took off like a bat out of hell down 285, cursing my name since I suggested taking the "fun" route over the mountains instead of lame I-70.
I can now say that I've ridden from Buena Vista to Colorado Springs, over the mountains in the complete dark.
925 miles (for me and around 1000 for the Denver crowd) later I got home just after 9pm with Jkol sending me a text that he made it around 9:30.
I washed the hundreds of bugs off the bike and put her into her storage spot for the winter.
Overall a pretty epic ride, I can't wait for next year but I think I'll do it in June or July next time.
Not a bad season!
Mileage at July 4th: 6736
Mileage at Sept 18th: 13635
Miles commuting: 0 -- all canyons baby!
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