We woke up after one of the coldest nights of our trip to this wonderful view of Telluride. Our campsite was to the right of the river in the photo below. The sound of the river was peaceful, but seemed to make our spot next to it extra cold during the night. We were happy to have our 20 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bags!
Coming off of the gondola the day before, Telluride seemed like a very nice town but after setting up our campsite we were too tired to do much exploring. This moring we headed through town to a local breakfast place that came recommended to us. We met Mario there for breakfast and enjoyed the view of Telluride over pastries and coffee.
We had a nice breakfast and exchanged stories and talked about our experiences in the Rocky Mountains with Mario. Then we parted ways.
We exited the city and found a nice paved (and only somewhat bumpy) bike path that took us back to highway 145. We cruised down 145 (a very nice descent with cautious traffic) to Placerville and then took 62 to the Dallas Divide! Our expeditious descent quickly turned into a difficult climb.
We spied this marmot on the way.... It is said that they often sit on top of boulders by their dens.
We reached the top of the Dallas Divide, elevation 8,983 ft!
Part way down from the summit, we stopped for a picture with the snow covered mountains in the background. Smoke was coming off of my brakes as we slowed to a stop at this very windy point (Emily's disk brakes were doing just fine).
We quite literally rolled into Ridgeway with the momentum from our descent. One of the first buildings we saw housed a bike shop and we felt as though we could not pass up the opportunity to check it out. I bought a cheap cycling computer (using the iPad to look at our ride statistics has been pretty interesting and I wanted to be able to see our speed while we ride), and we got some advice on our route. We found that there was a bike path that went through a park and followed a river, bypassing some rough parts of the road that have a very narrow shoulder. This was a beautiful ride! (And mostly downhill too)!
GPS data for ride from Telluride to Ridgeway (the iPad battery got too low to keep recording):
Fighting the winds, we continued on a slightly downhill path to Montrose. We were shocked to see such places as Target, Sports Authority, and Chili's as we reached the edges of town. Making good time, we decided on going to an RV park on the far edge of town (Cedar Creek RV Park). We were happy to have hot showers and a delicous Mountain House meal of spaghetti and meatballs. We even met someone from Fort Myers!
Location:Telluride, CO to Montrose, CO
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