While driving up the road into the box canyon that cradles the town of Telluride, memories came streaming back from 19 years ago when I bicycled into this town. Barely finishing that day in 1997, I was totally exhausted, arriving in a state of glucose deprivation. I was on a bicycle tour in the San Juan mountains that I had no business being on. I was in way over my head. This was only my second bicycle tour, and this tour was probably the hardest out of the 40 listed in the Timberline Adventures catalog.
The ride started in Durango Colorado. As we rode towards Silverton, the first real climb was a 2000 foot ascent to Coal Bank Pass. The air around Coal Bank Pass is supposedly the cleanest in the nation. I know why, because there is not enough air up there to get dirty. As I approached the 10,600 ft summit, I started to see stars, and my peripheral vision started to black out. I barely remember the tour leaders dumping me in a van just 100 yards from the summit. They shuttled me to the top of the second pass of the day while I recovered. They let me back out of the van and I coasted downhill into Silverton. I remember laying in bed that night, wondering what I had got myself into to. I didn’t even make it up the first climb of the tour, and there were eight more days to go, and about another 20 similar or harder climbs. Everyone else in the tour group had made it the entire way, and I was dreading the humiliation from failing again in the days ahead. I now knew I was in for an ordeal.
The next day we climbed Red Mountain Pass on the way to Ouray. Red Mountain Pass is over 11,000 feet. I rode slowly, trying to ride within myself and keeping my heart rate down to a manageable level. I was quite concerned about the elevation. Yesterday I almost blacked out at 10,600 ft, and today we were going over 11,000 ft from a starting elevation of 9300 ft. I managed the pace and the climb well and ascended to the summit of Red Mountain Pass without blacking out. We descended into Ouray, and I started to gain a little bit of confidence.
The route the next day to Telluride had two major climbs. The first climb was a ten-mile 2000 foot ascent to the Dallas Divide. Along the way we passed by Ralph Lauren’s Double R Ranch. I really struggled again that day. The group was all so much more advanced than I was. I do think I was the oldest member of the tour. Once again, they were miles ahead of me. One of the tour leaders hung back with me to encourage me. I think her name was CC, or CG, or CK, or CJ, something like that. Actually I think her name was CK. After making the ascent to the Dallas divide, there was a long downhill to Placerville where we would make a left turn to start the ascent up to Telluride. The directions this day were simple, turn left from the motel in Ouray, turn left in Ridgeway, and turn left in Placerville. CJ stayed close by, probably worried that I would crash and end up unconscious in a ditch along the side of the road somewhere. Reaching speeds of 40-50 mph during the long winding descents was easily attainable. Keeping the speed down below 50 mph required quite a bit of hand braking. Also sitting straight up in the saddle helped slow the bike due to wind resistance, but sitting up straight was not an ideal posture from a stability perspective. I had to stop every ten minutes or so just to rest my fingers from gripping the brakes to keep them from cramping up.
After the steep winding descent, next up was a 1500 ft climb into the town of Telluride. Situated in a box canyon surrounded by mountains on three sides, there is only one way in and out of the town. Telluride is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed their first bank. They made their get away by using multiple fresh horses they staged along their escape route. The element Tellurium is where the name Telluride comes from. Tellurium is primarily used for electro-optics such as infrared sensors and night vision goggles. Tellurium is also used to make copper wire more ductile. Interestingly, mining of Tellurium never occurred in Telluride, but gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc mining did occur there and still is mined today. There are enough mined out tunnels around Telluride to stretch out the same distance as from San Francisco to Los Angeles, 560 miles. When miners got on trains to head to Telluride back in the 1800s, the conductor would shout out, “To Hell You Ride”. Now Telluride is a world-class ski resort. My ride from Ouary to Telluride also felt like a ride to hell.
The ride up to Telluride was simply beautiful even though I was really struggling with the second climb of the day. Lining the road were aspen trees, one of my favorite trees. Aspen trees have delicate oval heart shaped leaves with beautiful white bark. The endless rows of Aspen trees on the way into Telluride was simply beautiful, God’s own white picket fence. Two hours after making the turn in Placerville I slowly rolled into Telluride. My energy stores were completely spent. I managed to make my into my room at the Viking Lodge, the same place I am staying now. Staying there 19 years ago is how I knew to look for this place this year. The Viking Lodge was one of the nicest places I ever stayed on 18 bicycle tours (over 200 places). I remembered back then thinking how nice it would be to have a layover day in this town and rest. But the tour continued for the next six straight days, with even harder days ahead. I figured some day I would come back to this quaint old mining town, the return only took 19 years.
After briefly settling into the room, I walked with the group in the afternoon to get some pizza. At this point I was so hungry and exhausted, I could hardly walk. My sugar stores were completely depleted. Later that evening, while heading into the restaurant for dinner, two of the women in the group saw Ralph Lauren get out of a limousine with a girl on each arm and walk into a movie theater. That is the kind of town Telluride is now. Many A list Hollywood types come here to ski. Ralph sold just under 50% of his company about 10 years ago for $900 million dollars, and he still owns over half his company. I would love to see his ranch house near the Dallas Divide, but the setting of the ranch was too far back off the road to see. Having the backdrop of the San Juans mountains behind your ranch would be very nice.
After dinner we took the gondola up to Mountain Village. The night was cold and raining. This was a pretty hard drinking crew for a bike tour this difficult. Usually bike tours compositions are mostly made up with vegetarians who don’t drink. Because of the rain, or some other reason, the gondola got stuck for a while. I had to pee so bad from all the beer consumed at dinner. I remember at one point I actually thought about opening the door to the gondola and peeing out the side of the little capsule hanging from the wires. I imagine others in the group were in the same situation. Finally much to my relief, the gondola started again about 15 minutes later.
Driving on these same roads I bicycled on 19 years ago, I wondered how I had ever managed to bicycle all those long distances. But I was 19 years younger then. Those tours, while awesome, were so fast paced. You would get up early in the morning, pack, eat breakfast, ride until late afternoon, unpack at the next hotel, eat dinner, come back to your room and go to sleep. Then you would get up early the next morning, and do the same routine all over again. There was very little free time during the tour. I am finding now that staying in just once place for a while is so nice. I’ve been so fortunate to see so many places on these tours while I was working. But I always had to return within a few weeks to go back to work. Now, I can return to the places I loved the most and spend as much time as I want there. I have more places I want to go back to and relax than years I have left.
I am glad I did all those fast paced strenuous tours while I was younger. A dear Canadian friend once told me, that her parents advised her to do the hard rides and hikes when you are young, instead of waiting till you are older and retire. She and her parents were very wise. I could probably do one day of a ride like this now, but then I would have to rest the next day. My body just does not recover as quickly as it did 10 years ago to ride day after day after day.
By the way, on that tour back in 1997, I was able to complete each days ride for the rest of the tour after that agonizing first day. After staying in Telluride, the next day we headed to Montrose. Then the next day we rode to Gunnison. Little did I know that two days after leaving Telluride, during the ride to Gunnison, I would experience my first spiritual experience of meeting a soul of a dearly loved departed cat who now existed above the earth plane.
Long Hard Ride – The Marshall Tucker Band
Sounds like great fun, despite the physical challenges. Wish I had done it. Beautiful country! I have driven through it, but that is just not the same as seeing it from a bicycle.
Yes Rollins, glad I did it, but glad I did it years ago. I wouldn’t want to bike a route this difficult again. But you are correct, seeing the area slowly from a bicycle, is much better than a car. Always rewarding to see a place using your own power, either from a bicycle or your legs. I think the most wonderful part is the scent, smelling the aroma from the many trees. Scent is very under rated among our 5 senses. But when you read the next post in a few days, there is also a sixth sense which is even more extraordinary.
Rob ….
always enjoy your reports out there from the “real world”.
More and more I am very impressed by your excellent writing style. I think that you could have easily pursued another successful career path way-back-when.
As time goes on,
I am also amassed in what I usually “blow-off” as coincidence,
many of the related occurrences that happen in my daily life.
Now I am awakening to a big reality in my naive “little world”.
Just 5-days after I started to read your Telluride fond memories …..
….. I receive in my Facebook “Newsfeed” the following post ….
A poster of the Grateful Dead playing in Telluride on Aug-15-16 (1987)
Hmmmm …..
“Mother” Google “whispers” to the media world (e.g. Facebook, etc)
that you & I have a Telluride “connection”.
Facebook knows that I “Like” the Grateful Dead.
The urban legend of “Big Brother” is no longer an “Urban Legend”
and truly exists in today’s world !!!
Best of Luck, as always, going forward !!!
Thank you for the kind words Frank, I put a lot of work into each writing, probably going through about 20 drafts before publishing. I sure could use an editor. As for big brother watching, yes I believe you. The formal word for is “data fusion” and it has been going on longer than people realize. There are levels 1-5, what we are experience is probably considered level 3. Level 5 is about predicting events that will happen based on correlating data. I often see ads tailored to things I am interested in, but often its after I already bought the item, so I don’t know how much good that does. That is interesting that FB correlated Telluride and Grateful Dead. I have a two simple rules I follow that keeps me from worrying about big brother. I don’t write or put anything on the internet that I would not say in public to a person,and I won’t post anything that I would not want my mother to read.
You are doing a very good job of editing, Rob. Don’t look for professional help!
I absolutely agree with your Internet policy. “Don’t put anything on the Internet that you would not want the entire world to see.” All of my posts are “public”.
Thanks Rollins. A second set of eyes would help, but for my purposes is not necessary. Sometimes I read a post from several years ago that I thought was completely correct and I still find errors.