September 14 - Arrival in Cortez

Today is the day we are going to pick up our trailer. We left Alamosa and started driving towards Wolf Pass. We must have seen half a dozen rainbows as we drove through the San Juan Valley. The temperature continued to drop as we approached Wolf Pass, bottoming out at 8 C. It started to rain and it was quite foggy but the drive wasn't too bad.

We stopped at the Farmer's Market at Pagoda Springs and got an education on the different types of chilies that are available. The peaches we bought were amazing.

After lunch at Kristi's Kitchen, we headed for Cortez and about 15 minutes into our drive, we saw the remnants of a hail storm where a pickup had gone off the road and smashed his front end

We arrived in Cortez around 3. Our trailer was in the back, still nicely tarped. On closer review, we noticed that most of the bungee cords had essentially disintegrated from the constant Colorado sun. It took us an hour to remove all the bungee cords, ropes and tarp. The trailer looked great!!

On to Sundance Trailer Park where we will spend the next 3 nights. Nice to be home.

September 15 - Phil's World awaits

We took our bikes to Kokopelli's to have them equipped with slime tires. No getting stuck on the trail this year.

After an early lunch we headed off to Phil's World. Karen wanted to do the Trust Loop to get more confident with her bike. While this loop was not very challenging, it was very picturesque with views of the surrounding mountains and offered enough challenge to allow us to become much more confident with the bikes. Since we finished this ride fairly early at 1:30, we decided to try Ribcage….to Kevin's glee. Ribcage had a lot of sections that were quite technical and it was quite a challenge to get to the top, particularly since we had already ridden 11 kms. Ribcage itself is about as much fun as you can have on a mountain bike. Tons of steep down and ups, culminating with 7 huge rollers back to back. We finally finished….it was long and exhausting, but tons of fun.

September 16 - Boggy Draw Trail

Mornings are quite cool. We spent the morning getting organized for the next segment of our trip. We found that many of the campgrounds are full but we were able to reserve a site in Kanab.

We drove north to Dolores for an afternoon of mountain biking. The Boggy Draw Trail was well hidden (we drove past it the first time and needed to get directions). We were advised that the Maverick route and the Italian Canyon were the best rides for beginners. The Maverick route was not too steep with narrow singletrack that twisted and turned through the trees. The Italian Canyon had alot more technical components - alot more drops and climbs and alot of rocks on the trail. The reward was the beautiful view of the canyon. Kevin & I parted ways when I thought we were halfway through Maverick. The ride went on and on and I thought I was lost a few times. I was also on the lookout for bears since the guy in the parking lot decided to put that idea in my head...I never actually figured out what I was going to do if I encountered one. Kevin spent some time singing as he went through the 5' brush, to make sure there were no bears waiting on the trail but as he continued to grow more tired, he came up with a new verse....."take me back to where I began and I will be a happy man". All in all, it was a very enjoyable ride.