Biking in Durango, part une

...Or, How I Spent My Summer Vacation. I would have posted these sooner, but I've been distracted by riding my bikes. Falling behind in my blogging means there's a lot to blog about. Also, sorry about the date stamps in the pictures. My camera decided to just start randomly adding those in.

As you may have guessed by now, I recently spent some time in the beautiful Durango, Colorado. It was very pretty, and... Durango-y. I did a lot, and even managed to squeeze in some biking, the photo evidence of which I'll get to shortly.

It all started with a 300 mile motorcycle ride. Alex and I both rode our motorcycles there, with the intent of heading up to Ouray at some point during the week. Sorry, no pictures of the ride to and from.

Since TC and I both brought our mountain bikes, we hopped on them one day and took off through town in search of some leisurely riding. I can say that the Animas River trail, which runs most of the length of Durango along the (you guessed it!) Animas River, delivered in that aspect. It's a pretty arterial urban trail, with beautiful scenery.

Part way down, we fund a BMX track. Of course I had to have a go.

Unfortunately, my mountain biking skills kept both wheels fairly planted on the ground, but it was fun to ride around a few times.

At a few points, the trail parallels the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

A couple days later, TC, Alex and I headed up on the motorcycles to Ouray, through some of the most beautimus terrain I've ever seen with my own eyes. Over 10 and 11,000 foot mountain passes, with peaks still towering over us, scary tight hairpin turns, through rain and sleet, it was an incredible ride.

On the way down from Coal Bank Pass.

Snowden Peak, from Molas Pass. The picture doesn't show it as well, but it had this pearlescent shine to it.

Molas Lake.

Red Mountain. It's amazing just how red it really is. My camera sort of washed the colors out.

Main Street in Ouray, looking southward.

Once we arrived in Ouray, cold, hungry, and stiff, we went to a little burger joint, called Maggie's Kitchen. On a table next to the register, there's a basket of permanent markers and a note that said "Leave us your autograph!" All the walls were painted white, and you could sign them. Great feature of the place, and all three of us left our mark. So, as we're sitting at the table, Alex pointed out something that completely made my day:

Yup, from the Fat Cyclist blog I read so much, and it's actually (I'm guessing, but I'm pretty sure) from when Fatty's sister and her friends did the Ride the Rockies event mentioned in this post on his blog.

More pictures to follow in Part Deux, tomorrow, if I don't get distracted by something shiny.

Also, for pictures of the other not so bike related stuff I did, I have an album up on Facetube.

Mileage: de nada.