It wasn't a rattlesnake after all

June 26, 2019

Day Twenty-Six: Del Norte, Colorado to Luders Creek Campground

We were up at 5:00 and riding away from the hotel at 6:15. After a few miles of pavement, and then typical Colorado gravel road, we turned onto what our maps described as a “very primitive” road. The first few miles were frustrating, as we were forced to walk and push our bikes through soft, sandy sections, but eventually it turned into a very fun ride, what I believe the mountain bikers call “flowy.”

We met some racers going in the other direction, and one of them told Joy that the road was “gnarly back there.” Oddly, we never encountered this “gnarly” section; if the racer thought it was gnarly, I wondered what he would think when he got to New Mexico, and its washboard, sand, and boulder-strewn “roads.”

Eventually we exited this more remote area and rode into open ranch land, which was alright but not especially interesting. We pulled off the road to look at an informational sign about local trails, and as I studied the section of the sign that described the prevalence of rattlesnakes in the area, I briefly froze as I heard what I was sure was a snake’s rattle. Fortunately it was only the sound of my riding companion peeing on the hard ground. (Note: My riding companion has approved of the inclusion of this anecdote.)

Our maps said there was some sort of food source just off-route, so we rode about a mile to the tiny community of La Garita, and found a small but bustling restaurant. Roger and Lauren, the riders we met yesterday, were there, finishing up breakfast. I was a little disappointed that Joy and I hadn’t started riding earlier in the morning; it seemed a little late for a large breakfast now that the sun was up, and it was hot. So we said goodbye to Roger and Lauren as they rode off, drank a few soda pops, and got back on the road.

The route took us on a dirt road through a very scenic canyon, with interesting rock formations. We had been making good time — almost 30 miles by 11:00 — when we started to climb. Our pace slowed as I grew increasingly worried as the sky became dark; I didn’t want to do another descent down a muddy road in the rain. The clouds never caught up with us, however, and we finally reached the pass and started down.

At the bottom we turned onto pavement for a while, then onto dirt again for the rest of the day. It was now late afternoon and it was hot, dusty and dry. We were running low on water. I rode ahead of Joy on yet ANOTHER stiff climb, and found Roger and Lauren sitting in the shade under a tree on the side of the road. Joy caught up, and the four of us sat there for a while, discussing our options. We were on public land again, so we could camp anywhere we wanted, but the lack of water did not make that appealing. Our other option was to try to make it to a campground that our maps said contained a spring, but it was only two miles below what would be the second high mountain pass of the day. We decided to try to make it to the campground.

Everyone was tired by now after a long day, but we all started up the mountain. Roger occasionally walked his bike, and I was extremely impressed by how fast he was (I’m not being sarcastic — I was riding my bike, and I had trouble keeping up with him.) I felt an inexplicable burst of energy with about three miles to go, and rode ahead of everyone. About a mile from the campground I saw two older couples camping with their horses, and stopped to say hello. They offered all of us as much potable water as we could carry, so when the others arrived we filled our water bottles as we talked to the friendly horse people. In addition to their horses, they had about eight dogs, of comically varying pedigrees (from a tiny dog wearing a sweater, up to a pitbull), and the dogs were extremely excited to have visitors.

We made it to the campground after 66 miles and 5,300 feet of climbing, the most we’ve done on this trip. We got the tent set up, and then Roger and Lauren walked over from their adjacent campsite and had dinner with us at our picnic table.

We were both very tired, and went to bed later than usual (after the sun had gone down!) to the not-so-soothing sounds of nearby cows bellowing, for some reason.

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 856 miles (1,378 km)

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