Ouray to Durango

For me, this was a scarier stage than the Grand Mesa stage. Somehow the three mountain passes and the altitude worried me more than the long climb over the Grand Mesa. The map and the elevation profile and a commentary on the route are below.

"72 miles and approximately 6000 feet of climbing.  If the Grand Mesa was the hardest day, this one is a close second.  Not only are you climbing the hard side of Red Mountain, but after that climb, you still have Molas Divide and Coal Bank Pass to contend with.  This is going to be a very hard day. It’s very very very scenic, especially the front climb up Red Mountain, the switchbacks at the top of Red Mountain, the descent down Red Mountain into Silverton, and the view of Silverton climbing out of it.  Every turn will bring  new vistas that you won’t soon forget.  Also, given that you start climbing the second you leave Ouray, you should be able to complete all three climbs before the afternoon rains move in (providing you don’t sleep in until noon).  Get an early start for this day, it is long and hard." 


I've done hard events before (Pikes Peak marathon round trip. flat marathons where I wanted to go as fast as I could. 190 mile one day bike rides, 24 Hours of Booty, etc.) I always get a bit nervous before they start and don't sleep all that well the night before. I had those feelings when we went to bed in Ouray and when I woke up early. I'll admit it, I was nervous about getting over these climbs, and I DID NOT want to use the sag wagon.


We got started a bit before 7 AM. Even when I was young, it took me a while to get warmed up and have my engine work efficiently. The elevation map doesn't lie. The minute we got on our bikes we were climbing and in less than a mile we it got steep. This picture of Ouray is less than a mile up the road. It went up fast!

 It took me a bit to get started, but eventually I found my rhythm (important in climbing) and was headed upward. We followed our usual routine. I ground out the pedal strokes. Luke rode ahead, found good photo ops, and stopped to take pictures. I usually passed him while he was shooting and we repeated that up the mountain. Notice the road below in this picture.

We skipped the first aid station--it was a zoo. I stopped on the other side of it to drink some Hammer Perpetuem and eat some Hammer gel (great stuff--I highly recommend it). Then it was on to Red Mountain. This is picture near the top of the pass. This picture was taken with a decent digital camera. The first two were with an iPhone. You can see the difference. The scenery was drop dead gorgeous. Even in my oxygen deprived exertion, I got to appreciate it.

After Red Mountain, we had a nice fast descent into Silverton. We did stop there for sun screen, food, water, and a rest. Then it was up and away towards Molus Pass. It is not as high and long as Red Mountain, but every bit as steep. And it seemed to be infinite. The road just went up and up.

But, on these passes I reinforced something I knew. When you climb you find a rhythm where your heart rate is under control and you can pedal. Keep that up for a while, stand up in a slightly higher gear for a few dozen pedal strokes, sit back down and repeat. And, the kilometers melt away slowly. We made it to the top of Molus Pass and were rewarded with the best view of trip.

Luke zipped up his jersey to give the sponsors of his adventure racing team some coverage. He actually looks pretty fresh.

We didn't stay too long because it was pretty chilly for a sweaty body that was overheated. So, we put on wind clothing and headed down the pass. After another fast descent, we climbed the relatively short (although steep) Coal Bank hill. After that is was long downhill towards Durango. We had about 24 miles of downhill and I imagine we averaged close to 30 mph or more. We did have a pretty stiff head wind. We got in a few groups where we traded pulls. I felt good, I even did some strong (at least I thought they were) pulls. Luke, on the other hand, was an animal. He would get in front and just hammer away. I had to tell him to let others break the wind for while. The last 10 plus miles were pretty flat in to a head wind and it had gotten pretty hot. That was pretty hard since by this time we were pretty spent. Then, when we got near Fort Lewis college (our stop for the night), we had to climb to the top of a few hundred foot ridge. The Denver Post reported that one rider was so angry that he nearly threw his bicycle into a ditch and quit. I didn't find it that bad, but it was a bit of a nasty surprise at the end of the day for sure.

In any case, we made it to Ft. Lewis, and did our usual routine. I will say that a cold beer and some Fritoes tasted pretty darn good at the end of that.

It was a another confidence boost for me. If I could do that ride, there isn't much in Colorado that I couldn't do. Of course, we still had Wolf Creek Pass to go so the hard days weren't over yet.

Tuesday: Delta to Ouray

On the face of it, this looked like an easy day. Only 67 miles and not a lot of climbing. The map and the elevation profile are shown below.

Here is a description of the route. 

"58 miles and about 3000 feet of climbing.  While there are some interesting sights and scenery along this route, mostly on the approach to Ridgway and definitely into Ouray, by and large, this is a ride through 5000-6000 foot high arid treeless terrain.  Delta to Montrose is a bit of a bore if you like alpine scenery.  The road has a number of rollers, trending upwards, and is wide open.  With the Grand Mesa shrinking behind you over your left shoulder, there is not a whole lot to look at.  As you approach Montrose, traffic increases and you’ll have access to a lot of food and refreshment.  The DQ on the north side of town is great on a hot day (and it will be hot, so try to get an early start). 

Once past Montrose, the view of the San Juan’s  become more and more clear.  The jagged peaks are striking against the skyline.  You are also getting a bit higher and the land is turning, ever so slightly, more green.  The closer to Ridgway you get, the hillier the land gets. Just before the Ridgway Reservoir, Hwy 50 descends toward Dallas and you get one of my favorite photo-ops in Colorado:  the road falling away against a backdrop including the San Jaun’s rock face and Ridgway in the foreground.  You’ll know it when you see it.  Ridgway can be a good stop for food and beverage.  It’s a small little town with a cute Main Street off of 50.

After Ridgway, you come face to face with tomorrow’s nemesis, Red Mountain.  While you’ve been climbing all day, this last segment is steeper and more prolonged than the rest of the day combined.  You’ll gain almost a third of your elevation gain in the last six miles of the day.  The valley you are in is closing in on all sides and you face what is looking like a solid wall in from of you. 

Overall, this will be a fairly easy day.  The climbing is long but shallow (for the most part… there are some steep but short parts).  It’s a good day to relax a bit and recover from the Grand Mesa.  When you get to Ouray, it should be fairly early in the afternoon.  Take advantage of the hot pools and eat well.  You’ll need the muscle relief and the food reserves for tomorrow."

I think this writer took the straight line from Delta to Montrose. The RtR route took back roads adding about 10 miles. The route book said 67 miles. That would have been great--less traffic and better scenery--except much of that road was really rough. I don't suppose it was like the cobbles in Paris-Roubaix, but it had to be similar. By the time we got to Montrose, we were plenty tired of rough roads.

The terrain was lots of rolling hills, but the climbs were generally a bit longer than the descents so we slowly gained altitude. It got to be a bit monotonous after a time. Those mountains in the distance were where we were headed and they just kept getting bigger and bigger all day.

It turned out to be harder than we thought, and was warm and dry. Luke felt the need to stretch a bit at one of the aid stops. What better place than in amongst the bikes?

We knew the next day was going to be tough, and the closer we got to Ouray, the more we could see how hard it was going to be. The mountains begin to loom ominously in front of us reminding us every pedal stroke that we had to go up and up before we could go down again.

We got to Ouray and set up camp.  We camped on a baseball field and it got FILLED with tents. It was hard to walk from our tent to the outside of Tent City.

Ouray is a beautiful town, that has almost no flat spots. Even Main street is about 15 feet higher on one side than the other.

It was off to be early that night because we wanted to get an early start the next morning.

Monday: Over the Grand Mesa

There were 3 days on the calendar that were clearly going to be hard--Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As it turned out, many people think Monday was the hardest. I tend to agree, but Wednesday and Friday were close (more about those later). Here is the map, the elevation profile, and a description of the route.

"85 miles and approximately 6500 feet of climbing.  The Grand Mesa is one of the must do climbs in Colorado.  Rather than repeat what I have already written, click on this link to bring you to my Grand Mesa write-up in this site.  Please note, the write-up is from Cedaredge to I-70, so just reverse it as you read.  The first 30 miles out of Grand Junction are fairly flat and uneventful.  You are on city streets to Palisades, I-70 for a few miles, and then in a spectacular little canyon with impressive rock overhangs and cut outs until you get to the town of Mesa (about mile 31).  From there, it’s up.  And the up is relentless and grueling.  This face is steeper, but a touch shorter, than the Cedaredge side. It will more than likely be hot so bring extra water…  It’s a long hard climb and this IS the hardest day of the ride.  Sag wagons will be in short supply.  Just plan on it being long and hard.  Scenery, on the other hand, will blow you away."


The author was right on all accounts. The day started on flat roads through Palisade with a short stretch on I70. The Colorado Highway Patrol had the right lane coned off so we had a lane between us and the shoulder which we were supposed to ride. As we headed up towards the Mesa, it was clear that the weather was a bit iffy on the top. There were stories of 4 inches of snow on the top overnight so everyone was a bit wary of what we would ride into.

This photo must have been at about mile 30 as we were beginning the serious climb.


The climb was relentless. It was Energizer Bunny-esque. It just kept going and going and going and going. The average grade was 5%+ so it wasn't as steep as some of the later climbs, but it was LONG. And, it was steep enough (as you can see).

Even Luke suffered a bit up this climb. 

But, we made it to the top after well more than 3 hours of climbing and took a welcome break.

It was a bit cold at the top, but the sun was out a bit (you can see shadows). After some photo ops, eating some food, refilling bottles, we headed down the other side. As you can see from the profile, we had a nice long downhill in store that we were looking forward to. As we headed downhill, it begin to rain and after a couple of miles it was raining pretty steady. It made the road a bit dicey and it was COLD. Even slowed down a bit to account for the slickness of the road we were doing over 30mph in a cold rain. The downhill was over 25 miles so it took us close to an hour. By the time the rain stopped and it begin to warm up a bit, I was so cold my arms were shaking a bit and I had little feeling in my hands (in spite of having long glove on. It was a bit sketchy to be riding at 35 mph with arms which shook a bit--makes the bike feel unstable. When we got to Cedaredge, the weather was considerably better, and we were able to warm up, take off the cold weather clothes, and enjoy a warm ride to Delta for our next stop.


We rode for about 7 hours for the day. That much effort requires a lot of calories so you get to eat a lot at night. 

It was a bit of confidence builder to know that I could actually get over the top of that climb and feel pretty decent that night. But, it was only day 2 of 7.

Day1: Colorado National Monument

The first day was a a short day to get us warmed up I guess. I was not an especially easy day because there was about a 2,000 foot elevation gain with lots of ups and downs as well. The map, elevation profile, and  a route description are below.

38 Miles and approximately 2500 feet of Climbing.  I really like this as a first day ride.  It’s just shy of 40 miles and gives you a good amount of climbing and ALL day to enjoy the monument.  No need to get up at sunrise.  You don’t need to take down your tent and set it up someplace else (unless you neighbor snores too loudly).  Even by sleeping in, you can start and end the ride before the heat of the day.  Neat concept and a great way to start a tour. The Monument is a beautiful ride with stunning vistas, switchbacks, tunnels, and scenery.  The climbing can get steep in a few areas, approaching 9% on the southern end, but the extreme grades are fairly short.  There are plenty of places to pull over, take a breather, and enjoy the views.  Please note, there are very significant drop-offs here, so if you don’t like heights, the roads may cause your heart to flutter a bit.  

The day started out very nice. The road was flat for a bit, and then we begin to climb into the monument.

The scenery was just beautiful as we got on top of the monument. I highly recommend seeing if you are close.

We look pretty good at this point. You can see that it was beginning to cloud up and threatening to storm. We didn't stop for very long and headed out of the monument on the long, fast downhill. As we got to flat road back into GJ, we heard some thunder and it sprinkled on us a bit. We didn't think too much about it. We finished and put our bikes away and headed for some liquid and food. When we came back, we noticed lines of people washing their bikes. We couldn't figure out what they were doing and thought they were just some kind of neat freaks. Then we begin to look carefully and they and their bikes were filthy. They had gotten caught in the rain and the hail in the Monument. I'm so glad we didn't dally on top or we would have gotten it as well.


Day one ended with food, and chilling in the tent.

Getting to Grand Junction

We had virtually no Internet connection during the ride so we posted almost nothing to the BLOG. Over the next few days, I plan to write one post per day of the ride. So, if you are interested, stay tuned.

The day before we going to leave, I put new tires on my bike. I had told Luke about the pothole that I hit in a ride earlier. He was spinning my wheel and noticed how out of round it was. As we looked at the rim where the flat spot was, we noticed a crack in the rim. Upon closer inspection, we found a couple of others on the front and the rear rims.

We decided that it as not safe to go downhill at 45 mph on such a wheel. So, we made a quick trip to Old Town and bought new wheels. I told Luke he saved my life and cost me $750.00. But, I now have really nice new wheels that are better than what I had.

We packed up and left Saturday AM. Thanks so much to Bob W. for giving up his Saturday to drive us to Grand Junction. That helped our logistics a bunch. As we climbed out of Denver towards the Eisenhower Tunnel, it begin to rain, and then to snow. I'll have to admit that I was getting a bit nervous as I watched the snow fall at altitudes well below where we would be riding in a couple of days.

We arrived in Grand Junction, unloaded our bikes and stuff, said goodbye to Bob, and begin to figure out how this worked. Every city had what we called Tent City. A field full of tents. Here is the one from GJ.

It was pretty wet on the infield; hence the area in the middle where there are no tents. We walked around, went to REI to get a pillow for Luke, found some supper, and played cards until bed time. I was beginning to get that feeling before a big event. A combination of nervousness and let's get on with it.

Day one complete!

We rode a 45 mile loop out of grand junction up and over the Colorado national monument. Rim rock drive is one of the most scenic places i've ever ridden. The climb was quite steep but never got too bad. We left early enough and were riding fast enough that we beat the thunderstorm that pounded the monument. Now, we are just relaxing and preparing for tomorrows brutal climbing.

a few pictures from day one

Packed and ready to go

Boxed up the bike and packed everything tonight. I thought I packed light and I still have a ton of crap. Can't wait to be in Colorado tomorrow night. Bike-in-a-box: