At Molas Lake campground, the day before we began our ride, Shy Paul complained that he wanted to ride his bike. This was the last we heard about not riding enough. Last year, we did the San Juan Huts ride for the first and had a blast. This year our goal was to spice things up a bit by maximizing single track along the way, as the standard route is mostly fireroads. We achived this as well as adding more climbing, more miles, more drama and more suffering.
I picked up the East Coast contingent at the airport and we drove up to Silverton where I ditched the car for 10 days. We began with a nice 2 mile spin out of town on pavement before heading toward Bandera Mine and picking up single track from there.
Anch gives a BFTU while Shy Paul gets wet...
We picked up the CT and headed for our hut at Bolam Pass.
Anch railing a turn on the CT...
Once again the altitude claimed its victims and the suffering began. Walking and regular breaks were taken. Shy Paul got pretty sick, but carried on. There is not much of a choice.
Anch and Shy Paul take a sit...
The lot of us made it to the hut, some in better spirits than others. Shy Paul went to bed immediately while the rest of us chatted over some pasta and tea. Bob had been waiting at the hut for some time as he took the standard route and Bruce rode ahead of Anch, Paul and myself to get some food going.
Day 2: The Drama Unfolds
From our hut, we picked up the East Fork single track which I give 5 stars for its varied terrain. Fast and swoopy in sections, very technical in others with numerous tricky stream crossings. One of my favorite sections of the entire trip.
Unfortunately, I got no good pics of this trail, but check back later as more photos are coming in. From here, we picked up another single track which appears both on maps and on GPS, but eventually disappears. This created major problems for us as we wasted much valuable time searching for a trail that was no more. At the end of said single track, we had to turn around and back track to within 7 miles of our start for the day. My computer read 20 miles on the day and from where we would be getting on standard route there was over 22 miles left to ride and the sun was setting. Paul was still hurting from the day before and had trouble keeping it together.
Paul gets by with a little help from his friends...
As the sun went down, the temperature dropped rapidly and out came cold weather clothes. The moon was almost full and provided good light to ride by.
Dinner at Burro Bridge around 10 pm. This was our lunch spot last year...
Paul pace was painfully slow, so Poppa Bear Bruce, Bob and myself made the decision to push ahead. The moon eventually set so out came our lights. After 46 miles and 5200' of climbing, we finally arrived at the hut at 2 AM. I hung my red blinking light in a tree as a beacon, for we spent over 30 minutes searching for the hut once we got there. Bruce whipped up some food and hot water. I occasionally wondered about the others, but there was no sign of them. At 8 AM Anch came rolling in looking haggered. He told us of how he and Paul had hunkered down in a ditch for the night, unable to get a fire going. Anch used his lat 40 as a blanket and Paul probably had something in the 60+ lbs of gear to keep him warm. Nobody knows because at this point he began his 2 days of silence. NOT a happy camper. Note: As was the case last year, the most miserable individual also happens to be be the one carrying the most stuff. On day 5 Paul wised up and ditched the rack and some gear.
Day 3 was a recovery day of 35 miles along fireroads. We dropped down to Miramont Resevoir to wash our clothes and bodies. Beautiful weather on the water so we wasted several hours in the sun.
Once we arrived at our hut in the Dry Creek Basin, we hiked up to the mesa to watch the sun set. That night Anch slept under the stars. I was awakened by voices outside late at night. I assumed this was one of the hut guys chatting with Anch as they said they would see us on Day 3. Bruce kept waking up in the middle of the night asking " Whose truck is that?" Nobody answered. Finally around dawn, he asked once again and got a grumpy responce of "Mine!" from the bunk below. The look on Bruce's face was priceless, as if to say, "Not only is there someone lurking around the hut, they are sleeping IN the hut!" I chuckled at this and went back to sleep. In the morning, we would come to find out that the charactor in the hut was the hut boss himself, the kingpin, the man behind the curtain. We chatted over breakfast about single track routes, history and stories of our travels. He even had some friends with him to help do the dishes.
The Big Man's buddies...
There were 3 alt routes Joe suggested, but told us not to do all 3 because water could become an issue. As luck would have it, Joe was going to be playing around in the area and said he would have some water with him. We started on "Gas Roads" which contians a great half mile single track section.
Poppa Bear on the choice single track...
Gas Roads dumps out into Lookout Mines, which appeared to be rarely ridden. trail not burned in and difficult to follow. There was one decent that was much fun and very difficult. Still waiting on those pics...
This eventually dumped out in to the Mexico Mines Road which takes you by some old mining structures, including an old shoe cobbler's house.
Had there not been water waiting, we would have been in serious trouble. 38 SLOW miles for the day.
Sunset from the Wedding Bell Hut...
Day 5 was standard route riding the Davis Mesa/ "Ketchump" trail. We did this last year and enjoyed it.
Anch gives it his stamp of approval...
Yours truely laying down some tracks on the infamous "Ketchump" trail...
We hung out at the Bedrock store for a while before taking a dip in the Delores.
Swamp Thing (check out the thumb) takes the plunge...
Three of us slept under the stars and listened to coyotes throughout the night.
Day 6 began with the hot climb up Carpenter Ridge. I hated this climb last year, but kind of enjoyed it this time around. We swam in the lake just before crossing into Utah, until the storm clouds rolled in. A depression began to set for, as we approached Utah, we got that much closer to the end of our vacation.
A lone rider approaching the La Sals...
That night in the hut, Shy Paul whipped up these spicey soy/ mustard tuna cakes over wild rice that were by far the best food I had eaten in a couple months.
It rained that night and into day 7. Not hard but enough to make everything wet and sketchy. Joe had asked for us to send him our data for Day 7 alt route so I was taking notes. The rain was not a bad thing as it also brought cooler temps and would help us to conserve water on our long decent. We started on the Moonlight Meadows trail which was muddy and packed up our tires.
Rainy day root rollin'...
Climbing up toward Warner Lake...
Poseur shot on LPS...
Lil' Bobbi on Porc...
Anch at the bottom of Porcupine Rim...
Here are a couple sunrise shots from where I camped in Moab...
250 miles and just over 20,000' of climbing. Not bad for a week's work. See you next year.
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