Jul
26

Day 41) Centennial RV Park to Mountain Village

We managed to get up pretty early, but it was still quite windy and we weren’t looking forward to the day at all. There were two passes to climb before we got to Telluride! There was an option for us to take a different route to Durango, through Ouray and Silverton, which would be a lot shorter. But we had our hearts set on visiting Telluride. Ryan’s morale was beginning to weign with the thought of the headwind and two high passes followed by a night sleeping in a park, if we were lucky enough to get a space. I felt like I needed to do something to lift his spirits and also convince him that we should continue on the longer route, so I confessed that I had gone back online and managed to get us a hotel! Surprise! It was a bit more than we would usually pay and it wasn’t anything special, but it would mean we could have a nice evening and a warm cosy bed when we got there.

We were spurred along for a short time, but the gravity of challenge soon began to set in and we really began to doubt we’d make it tonight. Ryan knees were really sore and I felt annoyed at myself for booking the hotel as we’d lose our money if we couldn’t get there. We stopped for breakfast in the town of Ridgeway at a lovely, busy café which cheered us up a bit and gave us time to think of a plan. Maybe it was time to cheat a bit again. Maybe we could hitch a lift to Telluride! It was an emergency after all – we had a hotel bed waiting for us! So after breakfast we loitered around the next door petrol station looking for someone heading in our direction – we were limited to big pick up trucks only, due to the length of our bikes. Nothing seemed to appear, but there was a huge red pick up sitting in a parking space and it looked like the owner was about to leave. I plucked up the courage and went over and asked him if he was going to Telluride. He said that he lived in Ridgeway, so unfortunately wasn’t going to Telluride. He said it was easy to hitch around here though and we should make a sign and stand beside the road. I thanked him and he must have taken pity on me, as he suggested he could just drive us up to the top of the first pass, about 11 miles away. We were thrilled! That would be perfect! It would set us on our way, but we wouldn’t feel like we had cheated an excessive amount and could still have a full day of riding.

The guy, Bob, was awesome and relayed to us funny stories all the way up to the top of the pass. He was a carpenter and had worked on Ralph Lauren’s Ranch, which we passed on the way up – 22,000 acres and he only goes there a few times a year! At the top and on the other side of the road were about 5 or 6 cyclists next to there support vehicle having just made it up the other side of the pass. We felt very guilty for not cycling ourselves as we unloaded our bikes from the back of the truck. We dashed off quickly down the other side before they had chance to realise what we had done, with muttering s of, “Well we don’t have a support vehicle to carry all our stuff, we are on heavily loaded bikes”, trying to justify our actions! We found out that the downhill is certainly no where near as much fun without having put in the effort of the uphill, but this was a small sacrifice to make and we were very grateful to Bob the Carpenter.

It rained on and off as made our way towards Telluride. We were staying in Mountain Village, the resort above Telluride at the end of the Gondola cable car. I wasn’t exactly sure where our hotel was, so that was a bit of a problem. Once past Placerville to ride was uphill again and we went at a very slow pace. We got to the turning for Telluride and I destroyed Ryan sense of relief by telling him that this wasn’t us. We still had further uphill to go. It was raining heavily now and we pulled into the cover of the Conoco garage and I called the hotel to see if the could come and pick us up! They were very friendly and wanted to help, but their big van was in for repairs and they only had a people mover full of seats. There was no way we’d get our bikes in there, so I asked for directions and off we set. After a short very steep climb, the ride wasn’t so bad and when we entered Mountain Village it all seemed worthwhile. What an amazing place! It was like a fairy tale of independent stone houses scattered around and a golf course and winding lanes. No wonder Oprah Winfrey has a house here. When we got to the Gondola Station Ryan noticed the sign for our hotel and as we rode in beside the beautiful apartments and past the amazing outdoor swimming pool he realised that I had been telling porky pies! It was something special… a suite in the Mountain Lodge! When I found out that we couldn’t guarantee staying in the town park, i’d gone back and totally blown the budget! I’d got a good discount, but what the Hell, we deserved it and it would be a great way to celebrate our achievement and coming to the end of our trip. So we had an afternoon of Pina Colada;s beside the pool and when the heavens decided to open in the evening we had a trip to the most wonderful supermarket near the hotel and cooked dinner in our little kitchen. Ahhh, this is bliss. We could stay here forever.

Total climb:

5915 feet (and that’s excluding the ride with Bob!)

Animal Alert:

A Marmot! He has very friendly and made a great model posing for the pictures. We didn’t know what he was at first so we asked the waitress at breakfast to look at the photo and tell us what it was. When she said a chipmunk we knew we needed a second opinion!

Summed Up:

After 6000 feet of climbing the Mountain Village Suite was total heaven.

The Marmot

The Marmot

A particularly good breakfast

A particularly good breakfast

Arriving at Mountain Lodge

Arriving at Mountain Lodge

Mountain Lodge

Mountain Lodge

A Pina Colada by the pool made us forget the 6000 feet climb, almost!

A Pina Colada by the pool made us forget the 6000 feet climb, almost!

A proper kitchen to cook in, pure luxury after 6 weeks of cooking on a single gas burner outside

A proper kitchen to cook in, pure luxury after 6 weeks of cooking on a single gas burner outside

Our living room in the suite

Our living room in the suite

Elevation Profile

Total Distance:

53.362 mi

Total Time Cycling:

5h 32m 30s

Jul
25

Day 40) Black Canyon RV Park to Centennial RV Park

We were heading for Montrose today, where we hoped to stop for lunch. We passed by a lovely looking campsite among the trees, and shortly afterwards came across a cool abandoned garage and motel. It was like something from the seventies, with old cars and trucks lying around the place. Next came Cimarron, which was a blink and you’d miss it kind of place with a store and not much else. We had one small pass to get over and then it was mostly down hill to Montrose. As we entered the town we saw a Pizza Hut. Ummmm! An all you could eat buffet. It was only 10 to 12 but we could definitely manage to stuff our faces. We went in and helped ourselves to plates of pizza, salad and pasta. I obviously hadn’t learnt from my experience a short while ago, where I pigged out on a lunch buffet and then could barely ride my bike to Coulter Bay!

After the buffet we headed to the library to use the internet and let our dinner go down. I wanted to surprise Ryan by booking us into a nice hotel in Telluride where would hopefully be tomorrow night, to try to make up for his uneventful birthday. Telluride was a posh ski resort in winter time and I was hoping to get a good deal. I was sneakily using the computers in the library whilst Ryan was using the laptop. Unfortunately most of the hotels seemed to be full, the rest being way out of our price range. The only camping in Telluride was in the town park, so I called to see if I could book us a space, but that was full too. The lady advised me to call on the way and she’d let me know the present situation and direct us to another campsite if necessary (but the nearest campsite was 6 miles out of town – fine in a car, but not when your only transport is a bike). It all seemed a bit disasterous! To make matters worse Ryan caught me on the computer and now thinks I am going to surprise him with a lovely hotel and I have to try to make him believe me that I couldn’t find anything.

The afternoon didn’t get much better as on leaving the library – several hours later – we were greeted by a monsterous head wind and we could barely ride at 3 miles an hour on the flat! For the first time all trip I was able to ride faster than Ryan, we could only assume that it was because I was lighter and had less surface area. We didn’t have much option but to stop at a campsite about 8 miles out of Montrose and get up early tomorrow to try to make it to Telluride. It was going to be a mammoth day. The campsite was nice and the warden friendly. They also had internet access which was a bonus, so we uploaded some blog.

Total climb:

1678 Feet

Summed up:

What a headwind!

The thought of Lobster & Cocktails first thing was a bit too much so we cycled onwards

The thought of Lobster & Cocktails first thing was a bit too much so we cycled onwards


A bit windy then?!

A bit windy then?!

We finally made the campsite, no thanks to the worst headwind of all time

We finally made the campsite, no thanks to the worst headwind of all time

Elevation Profile

Total Distance:

35.626 mi

Total Time Cycling:

4h 13m 40s

Jul
24

Day 39) Gunnison to near Cimarron

For some reason we weren’t really motivated today and although the ride beside the Blue Mesa reservoir was very scenic, we just wanted to get to our destination, wherever that might be. It was hot and as had often been the case, many of the anticipated refreshment stops had ceased trading. I’m not sure why; maybe tourism is taking a downturn during this reportedly bleak period for the economy. We passed an English guy going in the opposite direction who seemed to be on even more of an adventure than we were. He didn’t even have proper cycle route maps and was basically just winging his way around interesting parts of America and then putting himself and his bike on a bus to explore a new part of the country. We told him where the rest stops and campsites we had seen were. He had come all the way from Montrose today, but it was unlikely we were going to make it that far. Especially the mood we were in. We decided to stop at the Black Canyon RV Park. It was threatening rain and the campsite had cool little covered “huts” beside each pitch with a picnic bench, so if it did rain we would be dry. Typically it didn’t rain, but we enjoyed our stay at this cute little site.

Total climb:

1993 feet

Summed up:

A lazy feeling day

Blue Mesa Reservoir

Blue Mesa Reservoir

Looking down the gorge

Looking down the gorge

Our lovely campsite

Our lovely campsite

The view from our tent

The view from our tent

Elevation Profile

Total Distance:

40.850 mi

Total Time Cycling:

5h 07m 53s

Jul
23

Day 38) Gunnison (Day Off)

July 23rd… Ryan’s birthday! We had to get up for our free breakfast, so no lie-ins! We had a good breakfast in the room beside the lobby – it wasn’t a dining room as such, and the breakfast wasn’t Hilton style, but we had freshly made waffles with some mini omelets and sausagey things. It was the best breakfast we had had in a hotel so far. The rest of morning we just chilled and Ryan took some birthday phone calls, opened his cards (thank you everyone for the cards and dollars!) and then we went for a wander around town. It wasn’t the most picturesque town and we couldn’t really see any nice restaurants to go to for Ryan’s birthday. The best review online was for a restaurant a few miles out of town that we had passed on the way in. Maybe we could cycle there tonight. We were going to have a picnic lunch in the park, but the sky was very grey. We went to Wallmart and I picked up a few birthday treats for Ryan and as we headed back to the motel the heavens opened. No picnic for us. We spent the rest of the afternoon indoors, tried to use the pool, but it was swamped with screaming kids, and then went to a crappy pizza restaurant, Marios, for dinner as it got undeservedly good reviews online and it was far too wet to cycle anywhere. All in all, poor Ryan’s birthday was pretty uneventful and I felt a bit sorry for him! Oh well, at least we weren’t in a manky hotel or camping in the rain.

Ryan checking his Birthday e-mails after opening some cards

Ryan checking his Birthday e-mails after opening some cards

Our Room

Our Room