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

A particularly good breakfast

Arriving at Mountain Lodge

Mountain Lodge

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

Our living room in the suite

Total Distance:

53.362 mi

Total Time Cycling:

5h 32m 30s