Durango, Colorado

Tues 17 Aug

Day 30, 9845 km

  

Been a fair bit of water under the bridge since last update.

Fitting in writing time not easy, if I cant find quiet space outside

and social demands with riding-mates in the evening, an occupational hazard.

BigHorn sheep on Mt Evans

Out of Idaho Springs the next morning, straight up Mt Evans, 14,700' odd, 2,000 higher than Mt Cook

and not easy to take a breath for us sea-level ites, let alone navigate a narrow cliff-sided road.

Can't help but comment on this obesity criticism levelled at Americans.

For every overweight person, you see 2 fitness adherents

all these high passes we climb over are infested with cyclists.

Seems to me, they take their bikes on holiday, conquering Mt Evans, or any pass near the campsite, what you do when on vacation.

I think I have it right, but Lance Armstrong trained here, high-altitude stuff

and this was his post-cancer recovery test to see if he would go on to tackle his 5th Tour de France

detailed in his book, "Every Second Counts".

Another observation on this body business...

some of our group eat and drink like troopers, some dont

not rocket science to see who handles desert, heat, cold, general hardship, 600 km/day in the saddle plus, going without, etc, better.

The old, and the latter day pioneer building this nations roads, rail, and other infra-structure had to be a pretty tough cookie, and well victualled.

The nation will be even better fed today, but that old pioneering genestock, in a lot of places, wont be doing the same daily work

so the calories are going on their ass instead.

A few of us are feeling the effects of high altitude, we've rarely been below 5000'.

Taking I-70 West through Eisenhower Tunnel, over Tennessee Pass, then a lunchstop at Leadville, alt 10,500'

there's a 100 mile bike race on there that day.

Its not as if its not high enough to build a town at, they have a bike race there too

1000' higher than the top of Ruapehu.

There's no snow to be seen either, everywhere we go its greener by far than last year, theyve had a lot of rain west and mid-west USA

even the desert is greener, cattle grazing everywhere, whereas last year they were so rare, I'd stop to photograph them.

Near Independence Pass

This is also the area of the renowned ski resorts, Vail, Copper Mountain, and Aspen.

We checked out the gondola at Vail, but they wanted US$22 a ride so we gave that a miss.

Aspen's on the other side of Independence Pass, 12,000'

the corporate jets, dozens of them, lined up, shining along the runway

bit expensive company for these kiwis, but the field I'd head for if I was skiing USA

our overnight stop, Carbondale, another of those ski-resort overflow towns, still 6000' asl

we're getting pretty good at functioning at this level now

although having to hump our packs up to yet another 2nd floor room is no joke.

Next day it was off to Moab, Utah, for a 2 night stopover.

If you want to see rock formation, this is capital city for getting mesa'd up and butte'd out

pop 6000, alt 4000', so we're feeling really fit here, almost sea level.

Colorado Natl Monument Park

Nice side track on the way, was nipping off at Grand Junction into Colorado National Monument Park

a 20 mile taster of canyon things to come, running parallel to the freeway we're supposed to be on, so little time lost, but plenty seen.

Got there by accident looking for a riding coat manufacturer whose address was right at the park's western exit gate

but closed up tighter than a drum

of course...   its Sunday!

Moab has an interesting history...

originally biblically named meaning "the far land", it was also one of very few natural places to cross the Colorado river

but got overtaken for that privilege when other crossings got built.

The place really took off in the 50's when caravan dwelling geologist Charlie Steen found the uranium lode he just knew was there.

Basically a mormon teetotal town, Charlie set the place alight freighting in booze by the truckload for his town-wide parties

even had his own plane and pilot to get around in

but like a lot of rags to riches stories here in America, the IRS ran him into the ground.

The legacy of the mining is a 16 million ton pile of uranium tailings

there's a massive exercise underway to shift and bury it somewhere else, (near Crescent City)

the problem being the possible leaching into the nearby Colorado.

I think the effect is one of raising the ammonia levels in the ground water.

Heard it said last year, the Colorado dosent make it to the sea

each major city draws, filters, then recycles its water back in

then when it reaches California, the agriculturalists irrigate the last of it into the fields and orchards.

Arches Natl Park

Moab has 3 great parks for looking at rocks and canyons, and massive drops over cliffs.

The Arches, and Canyonland Natl parks, which we can access with our annual passes

and Dead Horse Point, which is a state park, cost $5 to get in.

Dead Horse is an isthmus sort of point jutting into the canyon, with a neck only a few metres wide, and 1000' cliffs all round.

The early injuns and cowboys used to herd the wild hosses onto the point, then fence them in while they caught the ones they wanted.

One delinquent lot went off leaving the horses they didnt want to their awful fate, hence the name.

This is also the cliff where "Thelma and Louise" ended their wild road-trip.

The Moab district's been the scene of many a western movie, with director John Ford and John Wayne regular visitors.

Stage Coach, Rio Grande, Commancheros, Once Upon a Time in the West, all done here

plus some parts of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and MI-II, where the movie starts off with Tom climbing a butte wall, such is the grandeur of the place.

The town has an established film commision

Speaking of horses and their fate.........

one nice story coming out of Custers Last Stand at Little Big Horn, there was a survivor...

a horse.

Badly wounded, but nursed back to health over several months, he became a military icon

wheeled out on ceremonial occasions, and lived to an old age.

As a horse breeder its hard to imagine having to shoot your horse to make a barricade.

In some of the museums weve visited, you can see photos of indians who survived the battle too

they lived till the 1940's and 50's

so, a not so long ago bit of history.

Have to mention again, we outraced another 2 storms getting from the parks back to town

a bit of grand-scale trigonometry figuring where the storms were heading

and what directions and distances our roads home.

Ran in front of one, and right angle turned and fled the other for 20 miles as lightning flashed big sparks from the sky to the hills on our left .

And so it is we're here at Durango...

no sign of the Durango Kid, but there's an old-time hony-tonk piano bar just along the street

we know all the tunes!

On the way here we got a ride on a gondola, free too, at Telluride ski resort, where we had a lunchstop

and at another little wayside town, Ouray, time for an icecream so huge, I didnt need dinner.

Thats another thing we lose out to USA on, their icecream is better.

We've gone down the tube making ours out of chicken fat

over here I think they still use cream.