Miles: 44 Miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Avg. Speed: 14.1 Mph
Total Climbing: 3961 feet
Work: 1540 kJ
We are now 1000 miles into the trip. Today’s ride was an active recovery ride. We only had to ride 44 miles from Cortez to Durango. We had to go over a pass shaped like a saddle before a long decent into Durango. Since the ride was short we started relatively late, 8:15 am. It was cool so I put on my vest and arm warmers. The sky looked menacing with dark rain clouds towards the mountains. For awhile it appeared that we may dog the storm and not get wet but once I cleared the first peak it started to rain. This was the first rain on the trip and it was happening on a long decent. I kept my speed in check at 26 mph going down hill since I was riding on the shoulder and had a guardrail next to me.
Luckily the rain stopped after about two miles and I was able to warm up on the next climb. This Colorado pass was different from the other on the trip since we were surrounded by trees. At the top the pines gave way to groups of birch. It was very colorful but since the sun was still behind the clouds it left little light for photography.
At the top I met up with Bones who has stopped for a coffee at diner at the top. He was enjoying his recovery ride and taking in the changing color of the leaves. The decent into Durango was great. Colorado does a good job of keeping the shoulder clean and wide. Unlike in Arizona where it was full of junk and narrow.
We were into Durango by 11:30 and had the afternoon to explore. One of the highlights of Durango is its old steam train to Silverton. I was able to see it pull in the afternoon. Those old trains are an engineering marvel. We also saw the local high school homecoming parade.
Today’s photos at Flickr.
All Photo sets at Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhanke/collections/72157607429548840/
No comments:
Post a Comment