Day 15: Durango to Durango via San Juan Byway 252 miles

Today I fulfilled the second of my "must dos" in Colorado. It was a full day, as most of them have been. We were up early and went to a local bagel shop for breakfast, then on the road just after 7am. Our route was the scenic San Juan Byway which loops around the San Juan mountain range in southwestern Colorado. The San Juan's are the location for 14 of the states 54 peaks over 14,000 feet, so the scenery is dramatic. This range is also rich in silver, and most of the towns were originally mining communities.

Back when we had first moved to Tucson, Paul and I went to Cortez over Labor Day weekend to visit his father who had a summer place there out of the Phoenix heat. We had our bicycles and decided to ride from Durango to Silverton. This route is a famous bike race known as the Iron Horse Classic, because it was started to race the narrow gauge railroad. Paul's Dad offered to drive along with us, leapfrogging from spot to spot. He would stop and have coffee or read a bit of the newspaper until we went by and then pass us and find another spot to stop. Even though it was early September, it was quite chilly, and we weren't prepared for the temperature at elevation. Still, all was going well with the leapfrogging method until we approached the final climb, Molas Pass. Paul's Dad figured we were all set, and he went ahead to Silverton to wait for us there. Meanwhile, it started to rain and then the rain turned to snow. We were okay climbing, but then there is a 10 mile fast descent into Silverton and we were hypothermic by the time we finished. I've read that a true adventure sucks while you are having it, so I guess our ride ranks as an adventure. We laugh about it now.

On motorcycles, and with heated gear and no rain, the ride to Silverton was positively delightful. We followed US-550 from Durango north and stopped to take pictures at Coal Bank Pass (10,640 feet) and Molas Pass (10,910 feet). The route continues through Silverton and the town of Ouray. The descent into Ouray was very twisty and fun. At Ridgway, we followed CO-62 west over Dallas Divide (8,970 feet). CO-145 south took us toward Telluride. We took the side trip into the village of Telluride, a very good example of a Victorian Era mining town, now also known to me as the home of the $4 bottle of juice (8 oz bottle). The ski area of Telluride is a few miles outside of the village. From there we continued south over Lizard Head Pass (10,222 feet) and down into the Dolores River Valley. We continued on into Cortez to pass by the old family summer place and then stopped in town for lunch. US-160 east took us back to Durango.

For dinner, we had arranged to meet my friend Julz and her husband at a local restaurant. Julz was one of my very best teammates when I was seriously into bicycle racing. She is smart and fun to be around. I sort of lost touch with her when we left Tucson in 2005 but had heard she had moved to Durango and was getting married. Thanks to the power of the internet, I found her email address about a year ago and we've been in sporadic touch since. So I was delighted that we got to spend a few hours with her and her new husband, Sean. They are building a house just outside the village of Durango and we got a tour through that. Julz has very good taste and is an architect by training. Their house is beautiful. It should be ready for them to move into in a month or so. We'd love to come back and visit with them again.