I am so excited to have made it to Telluride. It's a Colorado mountain town I have always wanted to come to since back in the day when I read in the gossip mags that Cameron Diaz and JT would vacation here to get away from it all on their winter snowboarding holidays!
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| The historic mining town of Telluride |
I more imagined myself snowboarding down the mountain here after having driven a rental car into town rather than having cycled over 2,350 miles from the Oregon coast through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and pushing under my own pedal power over most of Colorado's mountain ranges just to get here.
So making it to Telluride, especially in time for the 21st Annual Blues and Brews Festival has been a huge mission accomplished in my mind. Upon arrival, the town lived up to my expectations straight away with a long Main Street full of quaint shops, restaurants, wine bars, pubs, cafés, art galleries in traditional mining town architecture, the side streets lined with colourfully painted cottages interspersed with modern condos, all surrounded by the most gorgeous and colourful mountains.
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| Telluride |
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| We could see the mountain peaks from 40 miles away |
Getting here from Montrose was also a ride I will remember. As soon as we left the campground along Hwy 550 we could see the jagged mountain peaks we were heading to 40 miles out in the distance, getting closer and closer as the day progressed until finally we were riding and climbing right amongst them.
Our cycle touring buddy, Grane (maybe spelt Grein, we don't really know) from Holland, snuck up on us just outside of Montrose. We call him Stealth Grane, as he always manages to catch us by surprise from behind. We last saw Grane in Cold Springs Campground just outside of Black Hawk. From there he had hitched a ride all the way to Dillon opting not to take on the Central City Parkway and Loveland Pass after the long climb up Trail Ridge Road and the Peak to Peak Hwy. It took us 6 days to catch him again, after he took a day off to explore Black Canyon National Park.
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| Grane snuck up on us after we stopped at this historic site |
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| Grane with the peaks getting closer |
An update on our other buddy John from Maine, who we also met the same day as we met Grane in Riverside, and with whom we had all coincidentally mapped out the same route to get off the Transamerica Trail and follow the Great Parks South route through Colorado then the Western Express route into Utah. We last saw John in Poncha Springs. He had ridden as far as Estes Park with us after Trail Ridge Road, then made it to Nederland before he had a mechanical issue with his bike, his back hub feeling loose and his wheel wobbling on the descents. John hitched a ride to Idaho Springs but the bike shop there was closed, so he hitched to Dillon where he got his bike fixed, also missing the Central City Parkway and Loveland Pass.
John's journey seems like it is a bittersweet one. Apparently, many years ago he took his whole family (wife and 3 kids) cycle touring along the Pacific Coast route. His youngest son was 7 years old at the time and his daughters aged between 12-15 years I think. Sadly his wife died on the trip on a bike accident during a descent. Hence, when he heard about the accident we witnessed from some passing drivers it scared the crap out of him because he thought it might have been me that went down and all the memories of his loss came flooding back from the similar situation where he heard about the accident from passing drivers as well.
I'm not sure if we'll see John again this trip but maybe with our couple days off in Telluride he'll catch up with us again. He is going to meet his daughters in Durango soon, and they will visit some National Parks and go hiking from there.
On a positive note, we checked on Irene and Randy the day after their accident via the Walden Sherriff's office and they reported they were released from hospital the morning after, Irene with a broken collar bone and Randy feeling more worse for wear than he had directly after the accident. We got a phone call from Randy too on the night of my birthday to thank us for everything we had done for them. They are back home in California now. Irene will be able to ride again in about 6 weeks time. Randy has a sore hip but other than that they plan to take up the Transamerica Trail where they left on in a years time.
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| The Dallas Divide looming in the distance |
Back to our ride into To-Hell-You-Ride - Steve was concerned we wouldn't actually make it to Telluride today, as it was a lot of uphill riding. We passed through the cute and laid back town of Ridgeway on the way where we stopped for a quick coffee and pork burrito to get us over the Dallas Divide where we had great views of the mountain and valley below. The descent was really cool through the Hastings Mesa and along Leopard Creek, the mountains turning more rocky and colourful with red, grey and sand coloured rocks, the dirt turning red as well and green trees everywhere.
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| The Marmot Run Trail leading to Ridgeway |
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| View from the climb up Dallas Divide |
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| Celebrating our summit with Grane |
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| Resting at the Dallas Divide Summit with Grane |
Turning onto Hwy 145, the road to Telluride, we started following the San Miguel River. We like following rivers as it means the gradient will be quite mellow. We stopped at the town of Sawpit which consists of a gas station convenience store for an icecream and ginger ale, then started the climb into Telluride rising high above the river. It was a beautiful approach through the canyon despite the harder gradient at the end of the day.
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| Riding past the Hastings Mesa |
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| Wildflowers and Mesas |
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| Colourful Colorado |
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| Rest stop in Sawpit - "Not Quite Telluride" |
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| Approaching Telluride Mountain |
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| Starting to rise above San Miguel River |
We'd bought our tickets for tomorrow's entry to the festival yesterday along with camping in the town park for up to 4 nights. Once we found the box office, it was straight in to set up our tent on the overflow baseball field with the hundreds of other campers, take a cold shower and walk into town for dinners and beers at Smugglers Brew Pub. Exhausted once again, we ended the night listening to the Violent Femmes from our tent.
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,371
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (36.3 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 2
Bonks: nil
Dog chases: 3
Dummy Spits: Steve (4) Day 10 - because it rained; Day 16 - because the rocks in the river were slippery; Day 29 - because it takes me so long to get ready in the morning; Day 36 - because I was blogging and Steve was dieing of starvation
Mandy (2.5) 0.5 Day 14 - those freakin' wreckless Idaho drivers!; Day 26 - because my bike computer had a meltdown; Day 28 - because Steve wouldn't help hold my bike up in the wind after watching it nearly fall over 3 times whilst I tried to put my clothes away in the panniers because it looked like rain ahead
Flats: Katie (4)
Wrong turns: 8
Beer of the day: Smugglers Road Rash Red and San Juan Skyhop (it's a tie!)
Lesson of the day: camping amongst hundreds of other people can be surprisingly quiet but there's always that one jackass that leaves their stereo on all night playing the same song over and over and over again on repeat until 6 in the morning........ggggrrrrrrrr!
No. of days with no shower: 13
No. of days in a hotel: 12
Starting weight: Steve (90kg) Mandy (51.5kg)
Day 30 Rawlins weigh in: Steve (183 pds / 83kg). Mandy (110 pds / 50kg)
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