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Our day started as a dry, but chilly Wednesday morning. We had decided to head back to the western part of Colorado. I have a tendency to migrate that way, usually towards Ouray, or even down to Cortez, and I generally visit Mesa Verde. I knew we could make it if we kept moving and backtracked a bit, which I do not like to do on vacation.
After a short jog back down I-70, we turned south on CO 9 toward Breckenridge. The first few miles had some traffic, but not bad, and the road had several slow turns in it. It was a good way to start a ride, and we stopped for a summit pic along the way.
Breckenridge looks like a fairly developed area, and not surprisingly, with its propensity for snow skiing and even its relative nearness to Denver. Our ride was non eventful, and we headed down CO 9 and turned onto US 285 back towards Buena Vista. No rain in site, and I debated on taking my rain jacket off. We filled up with fuel near Buena Vista, took a break and headed towards Gunnison on the backtrack portion of our trip.
 We made a quick stop after we got over Monarch Pass, and if it had not been too early for lunch, we would have sampled the diner there. We rode and had a quick lunch at Gunnison a some miles later and our Taco Bell meal was well... Taco Bell.
It was definitely warm by the time we hit Montrose, and I was thinking I needed to shed some clothes, but as we headed South away from town, things began to cool off.  Of course the evening showers were looming ahead, and as we stopped for fuel in Ridgeway, I knew we were nearing the end of our day. Once again, we debated our direction of travel. We had thought about heading toward Cortez, which meant we could turn towards Telluride and take a back way or head toward Durango. My riding partner was leaning toward Durango, for I think he feared that we would be caught in the middle of nowhere in the rain. I personally like the Million Dollar Hiway, but I do not care for Durango. Ouray, however is high on my list.
The drive into Ouray from Ridgeway is one of developing sensation, it starts out flat, with the moutains looming ahead, and even on each side as you enter into the valley. The main street is not only inclined, but at a camber, which suggests you pay attention to the crosswalks closely in case of a required yield to pedestrians. Fortunately, we did not have to stop and negotiate the multi-faceted balancing act. Granted, I probably make it sound worse than it is, but the whole town is leaning!!
We were discussing just riding through towards Durango, but I knew by looking at the clouds it was going to rain for a while. And I also knew that the narrowest part of the road was coming and I wanted to enjoy it, instead of worrying about visibility and road construction. read more ...
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