July 9-11 - Gunnison, CO to Montrose, CO to Telluride, CO and Rest Day

Mileage: 70 miles, 70 miles
Terrains: Climbing up and down the Rocky Mountains, Gradual long climbs and descents
Temperature: 75-80 degrees, temperature changes with elevation
On July 9th we got at the KOA camp ground and had two smaller climbs and then descended most of the day. The rocky mountains really are AMAZING. We are seeing so many neat things, for example as we were riding along in the morning some of our group and van were stopped along the road and there were big horn sheep walking on the side of a cliff. It was truly amazing. One of our route leaders Pepper who was driving the van and trailer said that when he got there they were crossing the road and the mom sheep were basically forcing the baby sheep up the side of this cliff. I have never seen anything like them before. I have no idea how they stayed on the side of the mountains. There were rocks falling from the mountains and all. We rode by a huge beautiful body of water, some reservoir I think. Most of the day was descending very gradually, however there was a head wind from the west so we still had to pedal. There was a climb that was about 6 or so miles uphill at mile 40ish and then the rest was a descent so we descended into Montrose and then went to a microbrewery once we got into Montrose. It had been a beautiful day of riding. We then rode to the Motel 6 where we were staying at. We were rather excited to have a motel as it for me was only the 4th motel of the trip. It actually turned out to be a rather nice hotel. They had an indoor hot tub and pool that we decided to take advantage of. There were 5 of us in a room so I choose to sleep on my mat on the floor. Slept really well as it was temperature controlled!!
Got up on the morning of the 10th and the previous night we had met a couple at the microbrewery who thought that what we were doing to raise funds and awareness for MS was neat so they offered to make breakfast for us. We took them up on the offer. They made us Elk Burritos. They were delicious. We then rode out of Montrose knowing that most of the day was going to be climbing. It actually turned out that the climbing wasn’t as bad as what I had originally anticipated. It was fairly gradual for quite some time then it started to go up. There were two major climbs of the day. The first rest stop of the day was in Ridgeway, CO so I ate a big lunch and started up the first climb of the day which was 9 miles up. However, at the rest stop I had drank a HUGE bottle of chocolate milk. Bad idea, I started feeling like it was going to come up about half way through the climb. However, I made it to the top!! I will make sure to not do that again!! We then had about a 12 mile descent to our second stop of the day. It was just glorious! Stopped by the river sat and chilled for awhile and then moved on to ride the last 16 miles of the day. It was all uphill into Telluride. However, it wasn’t as steep as anticipated and I hesitate to use the word steep because none of the hills here in the Rocky Mountains are steep compared to the mountains in Virginia. Then the last three miles we hopped on the bike path into Telluride. It apparently is required to use the path and illegal to ride on the road through this section. As we were riding into Telluride we saw this white thing coming down the mountain. Weren’t sure what it was and as we got closer realized that it is a very long water fall with water from the snow coming down the mountain. Telluride is 3 miles off of the route, however, it is just such a cool little town that we had to stay here. There are soooo many bikes and bikers here!! We are staying at the park/ campground right by downtown and last night we went out in town to celebrate our route leaders’ birthday. Had some wonderful Mexican food as well. I got a shower at the park and you have to pay $3 for a 5 minute warm shower. Which I did, cold showers are free and some of the people in our group did this and basically said that the water felt like it came straight off of the mountain. While we were out downtown some of the other riders blew up balloons and filled up Peppers tent for his birthday. So when we got back he got in his tent to find balloons filling it. It was pretty funny!! Slept in this morning until about 8:45 am got up had some peanut butter and jelly for breakfast. Sat around for a little while and then decided to come into town. Today’s agenda is to go white water rafting at 1:30, do some laundry and possibly stop at some of the bike shops here in town. I am debating buying a different saddle for my bike as my butt is hurting while riding. However, I am not sure at this point if a different saddle will make a difference when you are putting this much time in the saddle. We are all very excited to be in such a neat town and to have a true rest day with no service project AKA yard makeover.