San Juan Day 3

After waking up at a leisurely pace and cooking some oatmeal and coffee, we started up the road at around 8:00am on the Million Dollar Highway toward Ophir Pass.

Since it was early, very few cars passed us on our way to the pass.

We took a few pictures and rested at the top of the pass. We could see a slight increase in car/truck traffic from the top of the pass. There is something lacking when you get to a peak that is accessible to cars and trucks. Am I right?

The day before, the "most beautiful race on Earth" had its first race on Ophir Pass (Telluride 100). The course was still marked as we were riding up to Ophir Pass. Surprisingly, very few tire marks could be seen during the ascent to Ophir.

The route then dropped to the Oscar Pass Trail, but not before descending through some rocky sections.

Frankly, I had heard about the next section of trail from Mike Curiak and Lee Blackwell's trip several years ago. Lee commented by saying there were sections that were so steep that it was "a hike-a-bike." Although, they had gone down what we were going to be climbing up. Before the ride, I asked Scott and he recommended trying to find a new route.

Well, the "new route" option had presented itself earlier, but we decided to muster up our inner-HAB and just go for it.

The route goes up 3,000 feet in roughtly 2.5 miles.

Ophir Pass in the background

 Hike we did, blisters we got. In all, the views made the hike-a-bike go by quickly.

With rain and thunder in the background, Aaron and I were both ready to get to the top of the pass and began descending. Toward the top of Oscar Pass, the trail crossed a very large, steap snow drift that covered the trail. As few people traverse this trail, nobody had postholed through this area. Aaron started going across (in his non-HAB friendly shoes), slipped and almost lost balance. He was spooked and jittery. Not good.

Aaron quickly suggested that we climb up and over the snow drift. Frankly, that was impossible because of the sheer size of the snow and the steep sides that we dould have to climb. I told him that I would go first, postholing as I went so that he would have adequate steps to follow. I got across safely and began to coach him through the steps. I went back to grab his back to give him more balance. After several minutes, he got across.

Lesson of the day....HAB friendly shoes in the high country are a must.

We pushed on toward the top as the storm approached.

Taking a page from Day 2 (when the storm was coming as we neared a pass), we decided to do the opposite of outrunning a storm....enjoy the storm by sitting and making some coffee.

Looking down into the Ophir Valley

Coffee and Storms (a)brewing!

Where's Waldo?

This place is somewhere I would like to spend several days (if not weeks) getting to enjoy. Incredible. The instant coffee was pretty incredible too. 

Unfortunately, lightning in the background near Ophir Pass made us leave after resting for 30 minutes.

We turned left at Wasatch and begain to ride down into Telluride.

Green everywhere

Laughter, followed by gasps of excitement upon seeing the views combined with snow, wildflowers, jagged peaks, the colors....

Perhaps it is because I am a native-Tucsonan and live in a desert, but this place makes me smiles. It makes me want to come back and live here. Winter in Arizona, summers in Colorado....hmmmmmm. We descended down, stopping to talk to a few hikers. One commented, "I can't believe you are out here riding this" and another said that "Wasatch was named Best Trail in the US by Outside magazine several years ago,"

For now, I leave you quite a few pictures to enjoy and decided for yourself...

Brown Dog pizza and a camping spot down by the river again....I stopped by ACE hardware and bought a car visor to sleep on. It was not the same as the Big Aggie clearview pad, but the extra padding did help a little that night.

View from our camping spot, Bridal Veil

Met some new cyclists that were touring while we were there and even drank some local beer. More from day 4 and day 5 to come....

San Juan Day 2

The next morning (check out San Juan Day 1 here), we woke up and slowly got ready for the days ride. The valley floor of Hermosa Creek was a little cool and humid.

We started to see the larger number of tourists that had shuttled that morning, including the annual Yeti Tribe event in southern Colorado.

There were apparently two groups, one dowing Hermosa and the other doing Colorado Trail from Molas Pass. After Hermosa, it was another quiet ride up to the start of Colorado Trail.

We had a quick lunch before starting the Colorado Trail.

Wildflowers were the theme of this mid-afternoon ride. It's rare to find two men so excited about wildflowers.

Aaron did not bring his camera. So for the rest of the trip, we would frequently switch the DSLR back and forth.

Big country abounds

We met some more Yeti Group folks and chatted it up. Great to have such friendly folk on the CT. Surprisngly of the 5 people we talked to, two of them had done the entire CT.

More wildflowers?! Yes please!

Before getting to Molas Pass, we turned our bikes down to Clear Lake by way of South Mineral Camground.

The "slow, wildflower pace" quickly came to a "let's try to outrun the storm pace." Bad part about this is that I had to put my sleeping bag in a dry bag (my seat bag is no longer waterproof since it is 5 years old). While I was doing this, I apparently dropped my Big Agnes Clearview sleeping pad and never noticed. Doh! I did not notice until arriving at camp in Silverton later that day.

The camera stayed in the pack while it was raining, bombing down to the campground.

The quick, 30-minute storm passed over and we were left with more blue skies. We pressed on to Silverton.

And got to a camping spot pretty early on outside of town....another camping spot next to the river!

San Juan Day 1



Aaron started to talk to me about a loop in the San Juan National Forest in late June. Having been there several times in the past few years, he had cooked up a 200 mile loop that started from Durango. As the tentative date came closer, we finally finalized the plans and packed our bags for southern Colorado late July.

 

The drive up from Tucson to Durango took about 8 hours, after stopping half way in Flagstaff for the night.



 



The original plan to hang out with Krista that Friday night morphed into an early start to our trip. As soon as we got to Durango, we started to load up the bikes and ride toward Hermosa Creek Trail through town. We left a little after 3pm that Friday.

 

Flowly singletrack greeted us for the first few hours

We passed a few hikers that afternoon. Other than those hikers, we had the trail to ourselves. The common misconcpetion is that the trail can be crowded. If you time it right, this trail is too big to have hikers/bikers come later afternoon.

Left to ourselves, we crusied on......enjoying the first day of our 200-mile bikepacking loop.

I can't remember ever bikepacking next to a wooden bench. So when what seemed like the perfect camping spot appeared and the sun was starting to set, we stopped and camped for the night.

El Tigre Bikepacking, Mexico Day 3

We woke up on the last day ready to beat the heat. The night had passed with several interruptions (click here to read about Day 2) that left us a little groggy. After a quick breakfast, we packed up and started the climb out.

 

Having made the shortcut across the river on the first day, we were curious to see the entire road route from around the lake. The route is a lot longer, a good hour or more of riding. One benefit of taking the different route was a change in the scenery. 

The new route behind us, we rode on the same road back to the car.

Great views morphed to canyons...

and later to flagstone mines...

and finally the "famous" dinosaur tracks.

This is the type of bikepacking trip that really brings a smile to my face. The "exploration bikepacker" is the one that is not content riding the same loop, rather he/she constantly tries to find new routes.

That bikepacker is rewarded with new views and incredible experiences (in this case, tequilla and tacos!). It is not easy though. Combing aerial photographs and researching new routes does take time....

Thank you, Lee, for entertaining the idea of this trip.

Information on the route:
GPX track available here
Maps available here