hurronnicane

We also spent a couple of nights in a great creek side campsite ten minutes out of Creede. Finished another ride right as the rains got going.

After finally breaking free of the gravitational pull of the Gunnison area we drifted south. We had seen a dirt road on the state highway map that went from west of Saguache to Lake City (30 or 40 miles). It took some time to find it but it was a magical drive creeping along in the van. Amazing scenery! Saw only a few people, one who was bike packing a segment of the Colorado Trail. Saw a moose and her two calves on the drive.

Near Creede, Colorado.

I want to hit Del Norte again on our way back south. It sounds like there are three or four good places to ride near there. And yes, southern Colorado is beautiful! I want more!

We have mostly been “boondocking”. So we just look for dispersed camping opportunities on BLM and Forest Service lands. There is an app that is helpful called iOverlander. The trick is to find a site early in the day so that the looking isn’t stressful. We have not always succeeded but it has generally worked out. Really only one bad campsite so far. It’s a huge step up from tent camping which is all we’ve ever done but there are some luxuries we don’t have, like a bathroom and shower. All is good though. We have eaten well, slept like babies and had a really relaxing time with a decent amount of riding (or altogether too much riding depending on who you ask), hiking, a speck of live music and seeing friends, etc. We have only had to pay for four nights of camping and three of those nights were dirt cheap with our lifetime Senior National Park Pass which seems to work at most federally managed sites.

Whitewater park near Hartman Rocks. I’m guessing there is a good story about the women’s changing area.

From the Pioneer Museum in Gunnison.

At the theoretical halfway point of the trip I’ve ridden 17 times and seen lots of New Mexico and Colorado. It’s not all fun and games though. Laundry Day.

Hartman Rocks!

Our ride was cut short by rain. We’ve been near rain almost every day of our trip but this was the first time it cramped our style (though not by much).

Yesterday we rode near Del Norte, Colorado. A point of historical interest is the Old Spanish Trail which passed through the trail area. There are ruts in the rock made by the wagon wheels.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Linde An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green As we run short of books we have turned to Tiny Libraries and might eventually have to buy a new book or two. We have already apologized to our local library for overdue books.

It was indeed. We liked it a lot! Well used, but not crowded, multiple places to access the trails, and not insanely steep. We look forward to returning and explore some more. It also offers plentiful boondocking spots. We were camped super close to a trail and ten minutes from town.

Yesterday was my birthday and we did a fun trail through an amazing landscape! A navigation error added some extra miles and my wife was a real trooper about it, and the extra miles were some of the best riding we’ve done together in a while. Temperature maxed out around 75 degrees. Did I mention the wildflowers and copious quantities and variety of mushrooms? Today I squeezed in one last ride before we broke camp and headed out.

Speaking of old guys, we ran into a couple of mountain bikers on trails outside of Pagosa Springs yesterday. They were in the middle of a significantly bigger ride than us. One was from Austin who said he was almost 70. The other was a local and he is 75. I’m about to turn 64 tomorrow but it sure helps to see people out there doing big stuff even older than me!

Unsure where this belongs, if anywhere. We left Dripping Springs on July 12 in our daughter and her boyfriend’s DIY dodge sprinter van conversion. We had no real destinations and only the loosest of timeframes to visit those undetermined destinations. So far we have been quite successful. We brought our bikes, lots of books, and an aggressive slacker mentality as we try to avoid the heat in Texas. Riding destinations have included Capitan, New Mexico area including Ruidoso, Lake Abiquiu, New Mexico and nearby places, and now trails in the Pagosa Springs area. As older riders we have not been hitting as much gnar as my younger self would have liked or as many epic length rides as some, still we have had a bunch of fun. I finished my fourth book of the trip this morning and hope to complete my eleventh ride this afternoon.

Today, in Abiquiu, New Mexico we ran into two riders doing the Ride the Divide. She said they were on day 45. Looked like she has gotten a lot of sun! And two days ago, a group of ten or more bike packers stopped at our campground. They were en route from Savannah, Georgia to Los Angeles.

Someone said the lake is 50 feet down. Sign of our times. Having never seen it before we didn’t know any better…

Abiquiu Lake, New Mexico. The peak in the background is Cerro Pedernal, at the northern end of the Jemez mountains. Georgia O’Keefe’s ashes were scattered there.

Fungus. New Mexico.

Saw a herd of 20+ wild horses while at the laundromat in Ruidosa. The better picture would have been them browsing the landscaping at the cinema next door but I was digging dirty cycling clothes out of the deep recesses of the van.

We are in the Ruidosa area now. Rode at Cedar Creek a couple of days ago. We are boondocking near Capitan in a free BLM campsite with unlimited dirt roads and supposedly 75 miles of trails.