Rocky mountain High, Take III

Day four was the day I was waiting for. We had the most beautiful, vast, surreal views all day. The day started with a 13-mile climb in which we gained about 4,000 feet. Of course every uphill must be followed by a downhill, but, as it turns out, they aren't as enjoyable when they are on well-worn roads, with spitting rain in 60-degree weather. But we made it down to the van where we warmed up with hot chocolate and heat vents! Continuing on, we had two more mountain passes ahead of us, and we pushed hard to the top of each one where we celebrated our victories over the summits. And, to finish off the day in style, we coasted (at 40mph) into Durango for 32 glorious miles! Thanks again to Molly’s dad, Mr. P, for riding with us; it was quite humbling. At the end of the day, we were lucky enough to be treated again to some unexpected and very generous hospitality. Bob and Mary opened their house to our group and, along with Mr. and Mrs. P, provided us with a wonderful evening of dinner, drinks, and good company.



Celebrating the end of the first climb!



The re-warming vehicle... with a view.



It’s hard to be mad about climbing when you have views like this!



Tough…



…and strong!



For some reason I thought I had enough energy left to do a pull-up after climbing three passes…



At the end of the day we enjoyed a night out in Durango and took a herse/limo/’ru home!

After four hard days, we enjoyed a well-deserved day out of the saddle in Durango. We spent the morning working with Habitat for Humanity both landscaping in front of one of their housing units and helping the local chapter move their ReStore to a more desirable location. They thanked us for our hard work with lunch and sent us on our way for some free time(which we couldn’t thank them enough for). The afternoon brought many adventures for our group… To name a few adventures, we went tubing down the river in a rainstorm, we visited downtown Durango for shopping, food, and internet, we did some requisite maintenance on our bikes, we saw Harry Potter 5, and we went to a rodeo. At the end of the day, some generous souls from Habitat came to our campsite with dinner for our group. Thanks again!

Finally: day five in the Rockies. We climbed ten miles up and out of Durango before we officially rode out of the mountains, all the way to Cortez, Colorado. We only lost about 300 feet of elevation overall between Durango and Cortez, but as we looked east from Cortez we could see the range behind us and we could finally claim that we rode over the Rockies!