Bicycle Tour of Colorado

Well when I woke up this morning I noticed more bikes than usual going by our window. After an half hour or so there appeared to be thousands; just a steady stream. After a short investigation I found out the the BTC was going through town.

Apparently this Bicycle tour of Colorado is an annual event that starts in Durango then goes to Ouray the first day, Montrose/Black Canyon the second, Telluride the third day (fourth day is a rest in Telluride), Naturita the Fifth, then Cortez and back to Durango. They say on their website the hardest climb in the state is the east portal road in the Black Canyon. I don't even know how it would be possible without burning up brakes. You can't just fly down with all the hair pin turns and it is a 16% grade (steepest I know of anywhere) so you can't go slow too easily.

Anyway, today they stay in Montrose. There are bicyclers everywhere. The numbers on their bikes went well into the 4000's, so there were a bunch. Cali and I decided to take a walk over to the high school to check it out. The good majority of them are staying at the high school in tents. Some others were at hotels. It was a pretty cool sight! Here are some pics.

Lots of tents!

More tents.

They'll use any field :)

Just a small portion of the bikes!

Black Canyon Hike

Well just the other day I did the hike into the Black Canyon. Philip and I took the Gunnison trail which was a challenge; testament by my sore quads for two days after. This trail is not really a trail at all. Most of it is just rock slide. This trail, by my GPS, was .71 miles (one way) with about 1740 feet elevation change. Going back up was brutal! Here are some pics.

Anniversary #3

Bear Creek Trail

Ouray, Co

For our third anniversay we decided to try a hike we hadn't done yet. It was suppose to be very pretty, but other than that and the location, we didn't know much about it. It was just south of Ouray. It's called Bear Creek and it has three different mines on it and you can also hike right up to Engineer Pass (a 7.1 mile hike). We decided to go to the first mine - Grizzly Bear Mine - a 2.4 mile hike. Little did we know that the middle mile of the trail was on the edge of the mountain. Can you see the trail in this picture? Look close - it's right on the edge of the two rock faces; right through the very center of the photo.
Here I am on the trail on the edge. Talk about nerve-wracking.

I spy the trail over there...right on the edge. Can you?

We did see some beautiful views.

This view was rather spectacular. The only problem was that you couldn't walk and look at the same time because of the cliff, so you had to stop if you wanted to see anything.

Mike was so happy to see some bighorn sheep. I think we startled them from their resting place because they were laying right above the trail.

Another scary yet beautiful picture of the scenery and the cliff's edge.

Yes, that's the edge behind me. I kept telling myself not to think about it, otherwise you just psych yourself out.

The first 3/4 of a mile were all switchbacks up the mountain so we could get to that lovely edge. It was pretty spectacular, however, because the trail was over piles of shale and it sounded like you were walking on metal. Clink, clink, clink.

We did come to some spring water run-offs. The trickles were making their way down to the creek below, which was roaring with snowmelt.

If you look close you can see Ouray in the valley far back.

I love this picture. But I kept thinking, "Where are the handrails?"

An awesome view. I found comfort in holding on to the rocks on the "safe side."

Another spring flow coming down the mountain. It was the clearest water I've ever seen. You could see the color of every rock under the water.

I couldn't keep my hands out of it, it was so tempting...but brrr!

At last, the mine! This was the only building left standing. We're not sure what it was used for.

I was so disappointed to see that the rest had fallen. Mike was certain that an avalance or rock slide had taken it out through the years. Many of the heavy metal pieces were buried quite deep. The biggest mystery is however did they get all that heavy metal equipment up there? Did you see that trail?

Here's Mike checking out what was left and wondering, "What did they use this huge metal wheel for?"

It's a good thing to pose by, however!

So happy anniversary! (We did do something conventional and had dinner later that night.) :)

Tadd in Michigan

This was Tadd's first travel...anywhere. He found lots of interesting places to lay in the car. None of them happened to be his carrier, or the seat, which would've made the most sense. So he laid on my neck...
in the back window...

and on the floor behind Mike's seat.

Once in my parent's house, he found lots of other places to lay.

He loves the chair in our house, so it only makes sense that he would gravitate towards this chair.

And finally, a bed to lay on! For those of you who don't know, we don't let him in our bedroom in our house. He loved laying on this bed in my parent's guest bedroom.

He was introduced to dogs for the first time. It took a few days, but he eventually got used to them and even got to the point where he would play with Chloe. I don't think he felt too threatened by her. Maybe it was her size...

Well, he never got to the point where he would play with Molly, despite all her pleading and following him around. This is as close as she could get before he would slowly lift up a paw and swat her on the nose.

Visiting Michigan

Everybody in Colorado (who's never been East) wants to know what Michigan looks like. Well, here it is folks. Gray on top, green on bottom. :) Were we ever glad to see Colorado's big blue sky when we got back!
We got to see our friends Chelo and Laura and baby Elena. It's been five months since we saw her and needless to say, she's grown a lot!

A great "Team Santana" picture.

I'm not sure Elena had ever seen someone as tall as Mike. The next picture we took she was actually looking at the camera, but I thought this was so much cuter.

We did get to fish one day on a pond between my parents' and Mike's parents' houses. It was pretty good fishing. I caught my record number of fish ever.

Look close, you can see the bass I caught just coming out of the water. Jordan was ever helpful that day. He let me do all the fishing!

A good sized bass - the biggest fish I have ever caught!

Gunnison Gorge

Chukar Trail

The Gunnison Gorge

These were just a few pretty cactus we saw on our way in.
Here's Cali just after we got to the trail head and started off.

When we got to the Gunnison Cali didn't waste time on fishing. The river was very high so we didn't have much area to fish and it was difficult, but we tried. We only fished for about a half hour. Cali had a bite, but no fish. It is "gold medal" trout water, we just didn't have the time and it was too high.

Here is another shot. There are some class 3-4 rapids in the background. It was very peaceful down there, we were the only ones. It was a 1.1 mile hike one way that took about 30 minutes. It was about 570 elevation change.

On our way back. This part of the trail was in a little canyon. We wanted to leave early because the drive was very technical and I didn't want to do it in the dark.

A picture of the Escape on our way back. This small road was 7 miles to the trailhead and it took 45 minutes one way. 3 of that 7 miles took about 30 minutes. This was one of the few areas I could actually get out and get a pic. The road was very rough. The Escape did well, but only if driven right. I had to strattle big trenches and squeeze around some serious boulders while going down steep grades along ledges. Cali was a little nervous. A couple times I got nervous, just because it got pretty bad, and if it got any worse it woud have been a bugger backing up.

One last shot. Again, this was the good part of the road. :)

Overall a great trip. I want to do it again, when we have more time and the river is down a bit. I'd love to catch some of those big browns.