Telluride from Dolores

Well we had to stay in Dolores afterall. I got another flat and I was running out of day light and inner tubes so we camped along the Dolores River. It was beautiful. The almost full moon crested right over the mountain on the other side of the river. The river glowed in the moonlight. We had a camp fire and then rested for the hike up Lizzard Head.

Yesterday we enjoyed the gentile climb out of Dolores. We were saw that we were lucky not to have pushed on the night before as the place we had planned to stop was closed. We ate lunch almost at the top of the pass at Rico.

The climb was set in a wonderful valley that had the Dolores River running along our side, pretty much the whole trip. Erik and I both missed the climb on the map that was right after the summit and had to put our aching legs back into climbing gear.

Last night we stayed at a friend of a friend of Erik's. Walter and Erin were generous hosts. They gave us a condo to sleep in and fed us. I think it was the company that made the night.

Today we are stuck in Telluride waiting on my bike to be fixed and for Jim to fly in and follow us for a few day in a car. It will be nice to have some company from home.

So one Rocky mountain down... several more to go...

Much love
T

UPDATE: Chrissy Donahue was able to move mountains and got me my tires here, on time. It is a good thing, the bike shop told me that the tires I had on the bike were severely dry rotted and could have caused problems... whew! Besides that they made a few adjustments to Erik's bike and we should be good to go for a while. Jim is on his way and should arrive in Telluride late and tomorrow we should be off into the Rockies!

T