Boggy Draw - Dolores, CO

Sunday morning I woke up after the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde and the subdued chatting with friends from Leadville that happened before bedtime. There were war stories, from me, and from Casey who took 2nd in geared solo men, and from Bridgett who took 1st in geared solo women, and from Bridgett's husband Ty who took pain pills since he separated his shoulder during the race (ouch!).

After a leisurely morning of packing up, eating, and chatting, some went back to the upper Arkansas Valley, some went off to Moab for a few days, and I went to Dolores. My intent was to find the owner of Sol Cycles up there, who had invited me to come ride when we met at Interbike.

I got to Dolores a little after noon and found Sol Cycles closed for the day. Rumor had it that the Corps of Engineers were releasing a big flow of water out of McPhee Reservoir down the Dolores, and that most of the sportos in town were playing in rare Dolores River whitewater.

I set up my little portable grill and cooked some Scanga bratwurst (Mmmm, bratwurst) which I ate with cheese and mayo on stale tortillas. Wonderful.

After eating I sat in a folding chez lounge reading and listening to birds sing and bikers coming and going from the bar and making drunken jokes and comments about each others' bikes. Ah Harley people, they make the rest of us feel so smart and sophisticated ;)

Eventually I worked up a little energy to take a bike ride and find a quiet place to sleep overnight in my truck. I wandered up onto the rim over the Dolores River canyon north of town. There I found some nice, easy, relaxing singletrack to work out the kinks in my tired muscles.



There was a trail system with carsonite signs that pretty much told users what mode of travel was allowed, and gave us no clue about where we were or where we might be going. I intended to ride for an hour, perhaps 90 minutes, but got disoriented and spent over 3 hours. But it was good.

And just as I got back to the truck, a thunderstorm that had been threatening to come in from the West showed up, cracked some really close lightening, then moved past as I sat in the cab of the truck wishing my mom happy mother's day.



Then I found a fabulous, quiet place to park the T100. I ate a huge dinner, then crawled into the back, read until I was sleepy, and crashed good and hard. I slept great, and woke up at around 6:45 to the sound of birds singing.



This morning I debated about riding more. There had been an interesting looking trail junction I had seen that didn't seem to correspond to anything that was on my map, so I decided to enjoy the cool morning with a ride out to check that out. Turned out to be a good idea. I retraced much of my ride from Sunday afternoon, but it was nice and mellow. And the birds kept me company all morning.



After my ride I packed up and drove back down to Dolores. Sol Cycles is not open today either, so I guess that's all for finding those guys. I don't have any other contact info for the guy I met at Interbike.

So now I'm off to Durango. I'm going to ride the low-elevation stuff around there until Wednesday when I'll head home. It's been too danged long since I've ridden in Durango, and I don't think I've ever ridden the low, close-to-town trails.

Off I go!