We arrived in Durango, Colorado on Monday, July 9th and went straight to Silverton. We ate lunch at Handlebar's and met Lois MacKenzie at the American Legion Hall, location for picking up aid station supplies for all aid stations. We talked about our plans, told her we would be back Thursday morning early to get some of our stuff and headed over Ophir Pass to Telluride. We had learned the drive up to Engineer is not quite as easy as I was originally told so we rented a Mitsubishi Endeavor. I was anxious to try it out on a real mountain road. I was amazed how well it did. The Endeavor does not have the ground clearance of a Jeep, but it did great.
Looking down Ophir Pass toward "Ophir" headed for Telluride.
Tuesday morning I did a run up the Bear Creek Falls road for a few miles before breakfast. I did not intend to miss any breakfast's this year. We then rode the gondola over to Mountain Village (Telluride Ski Resort Village) for a little shopping. When we got back to Telluride I decided to go for another run while Marye Jo went to a Yoga class she likes in town. I ran up to Bear Creek Falls, taking a few pictures along the way. Then I continued up to the top of Telluride Ski Resort on the Wasatch Trail.
If you look carefully at the top of the cliff ban in the middle of the picture(at the upper left) you can see the trail blasted out of the cliff that leads to where we did trail work last year. The upper section of the gully (center of picture above cliff band) is where we had trauble stabilizing the rock in the wash above. Below is a better pic of the trail from higher up.
The Ballard Mountain Trail. For perspective, those are very large pines.
Bear Creek Falls 1,200 feet above the town of Telluride.
Then I headed back down about 600 yds to the Wasatch Trail and started the climb to 12,200 feet and the See Forever Ski Run at the top of Telluride Resort. I was able to run most of the way to the falls. The rest was mostly a fast hike to the top. The following 2 pictures are of a short section of trail blasted out of the cliff face. Telluride is visible far below.
I realized you could see the location of Kroger's Canteen over 5 miles across the valley on Virginius Pass. Krogers is the dip in the ridge just about one inch right of center.
Next came the old "Stamp Mill," demolished by an avalanche, located at 10,800 ft.
Columbine Flowers, the state flower of Colorado.
Approaching Timberline and the split in the Wasatch trail and the trail up to the ski resort.
Looking back down at the trail I came up.
A marmot hoping for a handout. These little creatures can be a bit destructive. They will eat the bottom out of a backpack if they can get to it. They will also eat the hoses, belts and break lines off a car parked at high elevation. When we left out car on top of Engineer Pass for the race, we sprinkled "moth balls" around the tires, under the car and in the engine compartment. Marmot's don't like moth balls.
On See Forever Ski Run, looking down at the ski-to wine and cheese place and the amazing house built out on the cliffs just off See Forever at about 11,000.
Another shot of the house.
And all this was just the first full day in Colorado. Actually the first half of the first day. I have a few more pictures and will post more later. (a few hundred!)
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