Week 3: Monday, August 13, 2007: From the road, Durango, CO to Ouray, CO

It was another early start; Shah, Christy and Marilyn were up by 5:30am preparing for the day. After packing and preparing the car Christy woke up Kristian and Ali who slept in until 6pm. Marilyn prepared a delicious breakfast with banana nut bread she made from scratch. After we finished breakfast we thanked Marilyn and Jim for their generous hospitality and set out for the next leg of the journey.

Kristian asked the team to walk down the driveway and get into Casper when he got to the road. It was a bumpy gravel road and the car was extremely low to the ground when fully packed, the muffler was scrapping against the ground and making an alarming noise. Marilyn and Jim watched from the driveway as we drove 10 miles per hour to avoid wrecking the car on the gravel road. Their house is about 3 miles from the main road; it was going to slow us down quite a bit! After a 20 minutes ride to the gate Marilyn showed up in a jeep to help us get to the main road. She’s such an angel!

Kristian was the first on the road and put in a good 25 miles before meeting Shah and Christy at the next point. Ali was on the road by that time and Shah’s knee was still hurting so he decided not to ride. Kristian and Ali switched up throughout the day and after a crazy 1300ft decent down the mountain we rolled into Silverton. Founded in 1874, originally it was a gritty little mining town with Victorian pretensions. The entire town in now a Historic Landmark and has the feeling of the early 1900’s. We enjoyed a hearty lunch and Shah and Christy both picked up sweaters, it was quite cold due to the rain and wind!

Shah and Kristian cycled over the Red Rock Pass. It was an awesome view not to mention a supreme adrenaline rush for both of them! The rock formations were beautiful and with a 6 to 10 percent grade flying down the mountain at 60 km/hour speaks for itself. The word they used to describe the pass was EXHILERATING! Ali and Christy drove close behind getting it all on tape and nearly got hit by a couple cars doing so.

The second decent down into Ouray was even
more exhilarating. This downhill was 15 minutes
of shear heart pumping excitement. Shah and Ali got the chance at this one first. The drop offs were endless. In other words there was no room for mistakes. There were rock tunnels we flew through and one part where the road narrowed to the point that oncoming traffic was in our path, but being on bikes has its advantages as we smoked past cars and semi trucks down the pass. When we finished Kristian jumped back in the car and said, “Now it’s my turn!” The four of us pilled into the packed Honda Civic and drove back up the mountain. Ali and Kristian rode down together the second time and reached speeds of over 81 km per hour!!! Shah and Christy watched from the car behind as they passed several cars!!! They rode right into Ouray and waited by the side of the road.

By the time we arrived in Ouray, The Switzerland of America it was just after 6:30pm. We were supposed to go another 36miles to Monte Vista. It would be dark soon and we were all tired so we decided to spend the night in Ouray instead. It is a beautiful town at the base of The Rockies that resembles Switzerland because of the views of the snow caps. We got a motel room at The River’s Edge, it overlooked the river and had really comfortable king sized beds. Shah headed to pick up some food while Christy unpacked; Kristian and Ali finished the cycling and met us at the motel. We all headed over the Hot Springs to soothe our sore muscles before heading to bed.