Living full time on the road has added challenges during this pandemic. Our plans in Texas were to ride it out in state parks through May, where we could be away from people. Keeping a close eye on what was happening around the country, we weren’t surprised when the cancellation notices for our next reservation …
To complete our two week stint in Durango, we rode a few loops at Twin Buttes, did a giant gravel loop called Strada de la Plata, and rode again out in Horse Gulch. Strada de la Plata This gravel route clocked in at 56.9 miles with 5,021′ of climbing. The ride took us through several …
Engineer Mountain Trail Engineer Mountain Trail is typically done as a shuttle but without that option, we rode it as an out and back. It’s pretty straightforward, you climb for 9.2 miles and 3,624′ and then turn around and descend. The switchbacks start pretty close to the beginning and you wind your way up through …
Madden/Gold Run/Starvation Loop Exploration Day! From camp we rode up the gravel road to Madden Peak. It’s nice wide gravel for the first few miles and then gets increasingly rocky so it’s a good thing we were on mountain bikes. At the top we turned onto Old Gold Run singletrack and took that for miles. …
Fall colors are starting to drop!!! We rode Chicken Creek and Mancos Rim Trail as an out and back for a 20 mile, 2,200′ of climbing day. These aren’t very heavily used trails but both were fun, though definitely less maintained. Chicken Creek is a ribbon of singletrack through the forest with plenty of rocks …
After a couple weeks in Telluride, we moved on to Durango. We were here back in June but a lot of the high country trails were under snow so we decided to come back. Animas Mtn and Ned Overend Trails We rode a loop on Animas Mountain last time and had fun so we did …
Hope Lake Another doozy! Hope Lake hike + extra credit add-ons was 6 miles and featured beautiful trail through forest, a river, waterfalls, a lake, wildflowers, and billions of jagged red and orange mountains. We hiked up about 2,000′ to around 12,200′. At that height we could see the whole mountain range! Looking back down …
For our last ride in the area we went the biggest. We rode up Barlow Road to Bolem Pass, rode the Colorado Trail up to Blackhawk Pass, descended down down down and then climbed out on Hermosa Park Road back up and over Bolem Pass. When I say road, don’t think smooth surface. These roads …
After our big Wasatch Loop Trail ride the day before, and given the impending afternoon storm, we opted for a shorter ride. East Fork Trail starts around 10,000′ and climbs up 1,426′. The climbing is never too steep and follows above the river, traversing meadows, skirting hillsides, and climbing through alpine forest. We didn’t get …
BEST VIEWS. We both agree this ride had the very best views of any ride we’ve done in the states. Wasatch Trail Loop was 18 miles, 4,310′ of climbing, topping out at a staggering 13,053′!!!!! That’s higher than any ride we’ve done I think. The Climb From town, we rode east up a rugged jeep road …