Telluride minivacation
Aug. 5th, 2018 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaOne great thing about living where we do is that we're close enough to a lot of spectacular places that we can make a long weekend (or a short week) into a minivacation, instead of it being so long to get there that it makes no sense to stay only a few days. (Of course, another great thing about living where we do is that it's a vacation destination in its own right; I am immensely grateful that I get to do hikes and rides right here from my house that most people have to be on vacation for!) Britt decided on impulse that he wanted to take a few days of mountain biking in Telluride over his birthday (August 1), and since I'm a total pushover for anything that sounds like fun, I happily agreed.
To be honest, I've spent very little time in Telluride. I passed through on my first grand tour of Colorado when I moved here in 1989; I've run there from Ouray five times, as the Imogene Pass Run ends in Telluride; and I've skied there twice. Britt made reservations at the Inn at Lost Creek in Mountain Village, which is connected to the actual town of Telluride by a free gondola, and so Monday morning we packed up our bikes and drove the ~110 miles, which took us about two and a quarter hours, not counting a stop in Rico for lunch. We got there a bit before 2, and as it happened it was a cloudless day with no rain predicted, so after we checked in and unpacked, we changed into our bike clothes and retrieved our bikes for a ride. (The reason Britt chose this particular hotel is that they have bike storage - it's like valet parking for bicycles, just tell the front desk you want to ride and they bring them out to the lobby for you!)
For our afternoon ride, we connected a few trails downhill out of Mountain Village to get to the Illium trailhead for the Galloping Goose trail. The name comes from the motor cars used by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad for running mail to mountain towns where a steam train was not profitable, and it's mostly on an old railbed and so a relatively easy grade - except where old trestle bridges no longer exist and so the trail goes down into a side canyon and back up, sometimes quite steeply. We didn't make it all the way to the other end, at Lizard Head Pass, due to lack of time; we turned around near the highway crossing by Ophir instead, and had a pleasant mostly-coast to the low point before climbing back up to the trailhead. It was quite scenic, though unfortunately the wind patterns had brought the smoke from the California fires to Colorado; it wasn't as hazardously thick as it had been during the days of the 416 Fire, but the air had a distinct smoky tang, and visibility was poor during our entire visit.
Then, instead of biking back up the singletracks we'd taken from Mountain Village, we took the Meadows Trail into Telluride. This is a glorious, easy, mostly flat singletrack along the San Miguel River that leads into the town bike path. We continued on the path to the gondola terminal, where we loaded up our bikes and took the easy way back to Mountain Village. (The free gondola connects Telluride and Mountain Village via San Sophia station at 10,540', where you can get off and hike or bike, or eat at the fancy restaurant there.) All in all it was 27 miles in about 3:20, and you can see the map here on Strava if you're so inclined.
The next morning we started out in the opposite manner (and direction): took the bikes on the gondola to Telluride, where we bought a lunch to take with us at a bakery, and then headed east, toward the end of the box canyon that forms the San Miguel valley. The 4WD road from Imogene Pass comes in on the north, but we were making for the 4WD road to Black Bear Pass - actually, the road from Black Bear Pass, as the pass itself is one-way to Telluride. The first set of switchbacks, though, allows two-way traffic, as it's the route to Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest waterfall in Colorado at 365 feet, and the trailhead for Blue Lake, our eventual destination.
So we dropped into low gear and began grinding up the 10% grade switchbacks, dodging uphill traffic, downhill traffic, and quite a few hikers who had left their vehicles at the base of the climb. Despite the large number of SUVs and motorcycles, the road forced everyone to drive slowly, so it really wasn't bad. We got a lot of admiring waves and comments from both drivers and hikers. We stopped in a few places to let vehicles pass, and also at the base of the falls. In this dry year it is only a thin ribbon of water, but it's still pretty, and the 1907-era powerplant at its top looks like a Victorian house. It's still in operation - according to Wikipedia, it provides 25% of Telluride's power needs - and when we were there, workers were hanging from the cliffs in harnesses, doing some sort of maintenance.
The last switchback before the powerhouse was a bit of a traffic jam, with parked vehicles narrowing the roadway as there's no parking lot for hikers, but we threaded our way through it and continued on the closed road above the powerhouse that is now the Bridal Veil Trail. Lots of hikers, some heading out and some returning, but we were the only mountain bikers. Which was not surprising, because this trail was tough, a doubletrack with a lot of loose rock. The grade wasn't bad, but the powerhouse is near 10,300' and the trail goes up from there, so grinding up even a gentle grade felt hard in the thin air. We fought our way up for about a mile and a half, riding when we could and walking when we couldn't, before finally admitting that it would make a lot more sense to just stash the bikes and hike the rest of the way to the lake!
(this was the easy part...)
We ate our lunch on a rocky ledge above a small waterfall, then hid the bikes in the trees and rejoined the trail. It was definitely easier to walk while not pushing a bike, but of course our shoes were designed for riding, not hiking; Britt's in particular are poorly suited to walking, and we stopped to put some moleskin on so he wouldn't blister up too badly. Most of the hikers were coming down, now, and when we arrived at the lake (1.8 miles and almost an hour of walking) only one couple was still there.
We spent some time exploring the lake. At 12,000' it's well above treeline, and the views would have been great if not for the smoke. The shores are littered with old equipment for mining and power generation, which I guess has been there long enough to qualify as "artifact" rather than "trash".
Then we hiked down to where we'd left our bikes and zooooooomed back down much faster than we'd ridden up. A long day, but an enjoyable one. (Strava maps: up, hike, down.)
By Wednesday we were ready to ease up a little, especially since we'd actually done a longish local ride on Sunday. After breakfast we took the gondola, but instead of going all the way to Telluride we took our bikes off at San Sophia station. We bypassed the bike park with its scary downhill trails and instead rode the Prospect Trail, nearly 10 miles of amazing rolling singletrack, with a few interesting sights along the way, such as the fixer-upper we spotted that is probably for sale for $2 million (hey, it's right on the ski area!).
After lunch in Mountain Village, we rode up the gondola again (in a cabin with two men who turned out to be in the band playing for that evening's free outdoor concert) and descended the Village Trail.
After showers we were ready for our massages - yeah, we decided to splurge! We got back to our room in time to catch about an hour and a half of the concert by Old Salt Union, which we enjoyed sitting on our balcony, before taking the gondola one more time to the restaurant on top, Allred's. Not cheap, but a really excellent meal, and because it was Britt's birthday they gave us a free dessert - naturally we chose the creme brulee, our favorite!
Thursday morning we got moving early so we could do a little riding before a late breakfast, revisiting the Jurassic and Meadow trails that we'd ridden on Monday afternoon, which put us in Telluride, where we took the gondola to the top and then rode down the Village Trail back to Mountain Village. This gave us a good appetite for breakfast - by now, really, it was brunch - and after our showers we packed up, ate hearty, and then headed back home to Durango.
All in all we rode over 66 miles and climbed over 6600' of elevation - that's the same as going from sea level to our house! It was a great little vacation, A+ would do it again!
To be honest, I've spent very little time in Telluride. I passed through on my first grand tour of Colorado when I moved here in 1989; I've run there from Ouray five times, as the Imogene Pass Run ends in Telluride; and I've skied there twice. Britt made reservations at the Inn at Lost Creek in Mountain Village, which is connected to the actual town of Telluride by a free gondola, and so Monday morning we packed up our bikes and drove the ~110 miles, which took us about two and a quarter hours, not counting a stop in Rico for lunch. We got there a bit before 2, and as it happened it was a cloudless day with no rain predicted, so after we checked in and unpacked, we changed into our bike clothes and retrieved our bikes for a ride. (The reason Britt chose this particular hotel is that they have bike storage - it's like valet parking for bicycles, just tell the front desk you want to ride and they bring them out to the lobby for you!)
For our afternoon ride, we connected a few trails downhill out of Mountain Village to get to the Illium trailhead for the Galloping Goose trail. The name comes from the motor cars used by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad for running mail to mountain towns where a steam train was not profitable, and it's mostly on an old railbed and so a relatively easy grade - except where old trestle bridges no longer exist and so the trail goes down into a side canyon and back up, sometimes quite steeply. We didn't make it all the way to the other end, at Lizard Head Pass, due to lack of time; we turned around near the highway crossing by Ophir instead, and had a pleasant mostly-coast to the low point before climbing back up to the trailhead. It was quite scenic, though unfortunately the wind patterns had brought the smoke from the California fires to Colorado; it wasn't as hazardously thick as it had been during the days of the 416 Fire, but the air had a distinct smoky tang, and visibility was poor during our entire visit.
Then, instead of biking back up the singletracks we'd taken from Mountain Village, we took the Meadows Trail into Telluride. This is a glorious, easy, mostly flat singletrack along the San Miguel River that leads into the town bike path. We continued on the path to the gondola terminal, where we loaded up our bikes and took the easy way back to Mountain Village. (The free gondola connects Telluride and Mountain Village via San Sophia station at 10,540', where you can get off and hike or bike, or eat at the fancy restaurant there.) All in all it was 27 miles in about 3:20, and you can see the map here on Strava if you're so inclined.
The next morning we started out in the opposite manner (and direction): took the bikes on the gondola to Telluride, where we bought a lunch to take with us at a bakery, and then headed east, toward the end of the box canyon that forms the San Miguel valley. The 4WD road from Imogene Pass comes in on the north, but we were making for the 4WD road to Black Bear Pass - actually, the road from Black Bear Pass, as the pass itself is one-way to Telluride. The first set of switchbacks, though, allows two-way traffic, as it's the route to Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest waterfall in Colorado at 365 feet, and the trailhead for Blue Lake, our eventual destination.
So we dropped into low gear and began grinding up the 10% grade switchbacks, dodging uphill traffic, downhill traffic, and quite a few hikers who had left their vehicles at the base of the climb. Despite the large number of SUVs and motorcycles, the road forced everyone to drive slowly, so it really wasn't bad. We got a lot of admiring waves and comments from both drivers and hikers. We stopped in a few places to let vehicles pass, and also at the base of the falls. In this dry year it is only a thin ribbon of water, but it's still pretty, and the 1907-era powerplant at its top looks like a Victorian house. It's still in operation - according to Wikipedia, it provides 25% of Telluride's power needs - and when we were there, workers were hanging from the cliffs in harnesses, doing some sort of maintenance.
The last switchback before the powerhouse was a bit of a traffic jam, with parked vehicles narrowing the roadway as there's no parking lot for hikers, but we threaded our way through it and continued on the closed road above the powerhouse that is now the Bridal Veil Trail. Lots of hikers, some heading out and some returning, but we were the only mountain bikers. Which was not surprising, because this trail was tough, a doubletrack with a lot of loose rock. The grade wasn't bad, but the powerhouse is near 10,300' and the trail goes up from there, so grinding up even a gentle grade felt hard in the thin air. We fought our way up for about a mile and a half, riding when we could and walking when we couldn't, before finally admitting that it would make a lot more sense to just stash the bikes and hike the rest of the way to the lake!
(this was the easy part...)
We ate our lunch on a rocky ledge above a small waterfall, then hid the bikes in the trees and rejoined the trail. It was definitely easier to walk while not pushing a bike, but of course our shoes were designed for riding, not hiking; Britt's in particular are poorly suited to walking, and we stopped to put some moleskin on so he wouldn't blister up too badly. Most of the hikers were coming down, now, and when we arrived at the lake (1.8 miles and almost an hour of walking) only one couple was still there.
We spent some time exploring the lake. At 12,000' it's well above treeline, and the views would have been great if not for the smoke. The shores are littered with old equipment for mining and power generation, which I guess has been there long enough to qualify as "artifact" rather than "trash".
Then we hiked down to where we'd left our bikes and zooooooomed back down much faster than we'd ridden up. A long day, but an enjoyable one. (Strava maps: up, hike, down.)
By Wednesday we were ready to ease up a little, especially since we'd actually done a longish local ride on Sunday. After breakfast we took the gondola, but instead of going all the way to Telluride we took our bikes off at San Sophia station. We bypassed the bike park with its scary downhill trails and instead rode the Prospect Trail, nearly 10 miles of amazing rolling singletrack, with a few interesting sights along the way, such as the fixer-upper we spotted that is probably for sale for $2 million (hey, it's right on the ski area!).
After lunch in Mountain Village, we rode up the gondola again (in a cabin with two men who turned out to be in the band playing for that evening's free outdoor concert) and descended the Village Trail.
After showers we were ready for our massages - yeah, we decided to splurge! We got back to our room in time to catch about an hour and a half of the concert by Old Salt Union, which we enjoyed sitting on our balcony, before taking the gondola one more time to the restaurant on top, Allred's. Not cheap, but a really excellent meal, and because it was Britt's birthday they gave us a free dessert - naturally we chose the creme brulee, our favorite!
Thursday morning we got moving early so we could do a little riding before a late breakfast, revisiting the Jurassic and Meadow trails that we'd ridden on Monday afternoon, which put us in Telluride, where we took the gondola to the top and then rode down the Village Trail back to Mountain Village. This gave us a good appetite for breakfast - by now, really, it was brunch - and after our showers we packed up, ate hearty, and then headed back home to Durango.
All in all we rode over 66 miles and climbed over 6600' of elevation - that's the same as going from sea level to our house! It was a great little vacation, A+ would do it again!
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Date: 2018-08-06 04:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
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