We took a back way into Colorado, which made for an interesting ride. Our destination was Mesa Verde National Park, where we would spend two nights - one camping, one in the lodge. We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Cortez (street tacos with an amazing hot sauce) and then went to check in at the campground. We still had plenty of daylight, so we rode south into the park to see the sights.
The next day we got up to ride the Million Dollar Highway, but took the long way around to get there. The San Juan National Forest between Cortez and Telluride was amazing. It looked to me like they were just past peak color!
It was a several hour ride just to get to Telluride, but traffic was low and the views were amazing. We eventually rode the stretch between Ouray and Silverton, the Million Dollar Highway, which did not disappoint. Unfortunately, it was a busier stretch of highway with no real pullouts, so I do not have any photos of that stretch. Trust me, it was rugged and beautiful.
We spent the night at the lodge in Mesa Verde National Park. The next morning we packed our bikes and rode to Chama, NM to ride the highway we followed in the train from 2-3 weeks ago. We went north from there and made our way to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
That took us to our last camping night, in New Mexico. We originally planned to camp at Eagle Nest Lake State Park, but detoured 10-15 miles to Cimarron Canyon State Park, which had trees and a pretty little river right next to the sight, complete with trout.
We went to bed with a weather forecast showing 30% chance for rain, but not starting until 9 or 10. I awoke at 5 and on a whim checked the weather, 30% chance for heavy snow, starting now. I checked the radar, and we were in for it, no way to avoid it.
So we packed up our bikes in a good deal of haste, said a hasty good-bye (Jason headed east, I headed south). My route took me up in elevation, and unfortunately the rain did turn to snow. That was the sketchiest ride ever. Several times I thought I should turn around, but all routes out of Eagle Nest go up, meaning snow. So I stayed the course, knowing my road would head downhill and with the loss of elevation that snow would turn to rain, which it eventually did. But it was still really cold and stayed cold (low 40's without windchill) until I was 2.5 hours away from home on a 7-hour ride, along with rain along the way.
That's it for this year's Mountain Man adventure. Cheers,
Marc
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