'Rolling on the river.....'

6:39 am - Tuesday - May 19th - Durango, CO - 43° F, 44% humidity, wind 3 mph ut of the north......clear, blue, cold skies this morning with a forecast high today of 76° F.....the view this morning.......↴

Our original plan was to be on the road again Monday heading north through Silverton (completely closed due to COVID-19), Ouray, Montrose, etc., but we decided to shake things up and stay an extra day in Durango.  TLE and I wanted to take a bike ride on the Animas River bike path, and Glenn and Laureen wanted to take a hike.  This is an outdoor recreation mecca, and not taking advantage of some of the local resources would be a shame.....after all, we are not really in a hurry, and really have no short term, or long term destinations pulling us forward.  Since our plans to head to Alaska this summer have been scuttled by the Wuhan Flu we are having to refocus ourselves on the here and now.  Normally at this time of year we have already arrived where we will spend the summer working, but now we find ourselves kind of adrift....in a good way.

We haven't ridden our bikes together since late February/early March in Borrego Springs, and I last rode by myself in April around the Wittmann countryside.  Since we bought our ebikes we have not even carried them on our Kuat bike rack anywhere.  These bikes weigh considerably more than our Cannondales, and I was concerned about how the bike rack would take the extra weight, but I needn't have worried....it handled them just fine.

We arrived at the 9th Street trailhead around 10:30 and began our ride south within minutes.  Our first stop was at a picnic area along the Animas River where there is a competitive kayaking course that is also used by river surfers.  I've heard of this before, but never seen it in person.....

.....very cool.  After that short interlude we continued south along the river enjoying the scenery, the wind in our faces, and just the feeling of normalcy.......

 .....at a junction in the trail we found a 'tiny house' community.  Our plan was to ride as far as the trail went, or 5 miles out, which ever came first.  As it turned out the trail ended exactly as we hit 5 miles on our cyclocomputers.....

.....by the time we finished our 10 mile round trip ride it was just after 12 pm, so we headed back to the RV park to drop off our bikes, and take a drive up to Coal Bank Pass to check out the difficulty of this 4,000' elevation gain climb....a climb we will be making in the Newell on Tuesday as we continue northward on U.S. 550.  Fortunately, the elevation gain is spread pretty evenly over the 27 miles to the top, and get up to 7, or 8% grade a few times.  The most difficult part will be the last 4 miles to the summit (10,640'), which is a switchback grinder......

 Looking back toward Durango

.....I've been thinking about this particular section of our drive since we decided to take this route a week ago.  This will be the longest sustained climb we have made in the Newell since we last made the climb up to Flagstaff from Wittmann a couple of weeks ago, and the highest elevation we have had the Newell at in quite a long time.  Once over the top we will descend over 3,000 feet to Ridgway, CO where we will stay for a few days while we explore the area, including Ouray.

We ended our day grilling a few steaks, and ate dinner with Glenn and Laureen in our coach.  We will, more than likely, leave an hour or two earlier Tuesday than Glenn and Laureen, but will meet up at Ridgway State Park later in the day.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

Kind of normal?

7:35 am - Monday - May 18th - Durango, CO - 45° F, 49% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north by northeast.....clear, blue skies above us today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this day in 2012 we were in Twin Falls, ID on our way to Spokane, WA......

When we arrived in Durango Saturday one of the foremost things upon my mind was to get a haircut.  My last ears lowering episode was in mid March, and my 70 year old mane was getting quite unruly.  Glenn's hair was also getting to that point, so as we set off into town in the VW to visit old town one of the things we were both thinking about was finding a barber, or hair salon which was open and taking walk-in customers.  Before we left for town I had checked on line and found several places open, but they only took reservations, and they were all booked well into next week.....we are not going to be here next week, so a 'walk-in' situation was our only hope.

I missed the turn for the 'old town' area of Durango and we ended up going south on 550 along the Animas River.  I was looking for a place to make a u-turn when we all saw the local Super Walmart, so I turned in there to see if their salon was open.....it was not.   As we were exiting the parking lot Glenn saw another hair stylist (Sports Clips) which was open, so I pulled around to that establishment to see if we could get an appointment, and received an affirmative answer.  I gave them our names, and was advised to come back in one hour, so the girls decided I should take them home to get the Honda Element, and then they would meet us in town after we were done.  By the time Glenn and I returned it was time for our appointments.......

....I opted to get a very short haircut as who knows when we will be able to get one again?  

Once we were done with our cuts we called the girls and met them at the Burger King parking lot, which has access to the Animas River bike/walking path.  We spent about 45 minutes walking along the river before heading into 'old town' to find an open restaurant......

 Animas River

......while Glenn and I were finding parking Laureen did a little reconnoitering and found that the Balcony Bar and Grill was open for takeout so we met her there, and put in our orders.....

.....Yelp gives them 4 stars on 57 reviews, and we would have to agree.  Now, since this was a take-out situation we had to find a place to sit down and eat our hamburgers, and drink our brews......

.....coincidentally, I had noticed a lone table with chairs sitting between two buildings right in front of where we had parked, so we walked over there to find the table still unoccupied, and made ourselves at home....

......so there we were in the middle of 'old town' eating restaurant food (Southwest Burger for moi) drinking draft beer, and sitting at a table.....almost normal, right?  This was my second goal while we were in Durango.....eating a restaurant meal at a table in town.  There were not many people in 'old town', but about 50% of them were wearing masks.....we were not.  Everyone enjoyed their food choices, as well as the chance to sit down (not in a car) to eat.  Our table was just a 100 feet from the Durango train station.....

.....where the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge railroad operates.  Unfortunately, they are not back in operation yet.....

.....by the time we returned from 'old town' it was 4 pm.  It was the most normal town experience we have had since we left Borrego Springs in late February.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

'High Forest.....'

7:50 am - Sunday - May 17th - Durango, CO - 48° F, 57% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, blue skies this morning with a forecast high of 79° F today......the view........↴

 Originally we had planned to drive to Cortez, CO Saturday hoping Mesa Verde National Park would open, but when it became apparent this was not going to happen we jiggled the Jello and headed for Durango, CO making for a 126 mile driving day.  

TLE and I were rolling just before 9 am, while Glenn and Laureen had a more leisurely morning, departing around 10:20 am.  This travel style is working well for us as we are usually ready to leave earlier most days.  Knowing we don't have to sit around waiting removes a lot of stress for us, and for Glenn and Laureen, too, as they have their own routine....everyone ends up happy in the end.

We we left the Bluff town limits, and Utah 163 for the first time in a week turning right on Utah 162 which would take us to US 160, then Colorado 41, and eventually US 491......

.....we hit the Colorado border and Colorado 41 about 9 miles before US 160, and the terrain changed dramatically....it was as if someone had flipped a scenery switch.  The land went from high desert to green meadows, eventually forests, and then snow capped mountains in short order.....

 

.....as we drove slowly through Cortez, CO we could see the local population out protesting the Governor's stay at home orders.  Cortez is in Montezum County which has had just 3 deaths, and 27 confirmed cases.....certainly not like Denver, and yet the Governor is still locking down the whole state as if it were NYC.  In La Plata County, where Durango is located, there has been 1 death and around 60 confirmed cases.  I'm sure you can understand why the natives are getting restless.

We arrived in Durango around 12 pm, and were pulling into the Alpen Rose RV Park 6 miles north of Durango 15 minutes later.  Glenn and Laureen arrived just before 2 pm while we were in town shopping.  The very kind folks at Alpen Rose put us in opposing spots so our patio area is common.......

....after setting up, and before Glenn and Laureen arrived we drove back into Durango to do some shopping at City Market (Kroger).  We had checked the Wuhan Virus stats for Durango before we arrived, and due to the very low incidence of infection, and deaths decided we are not wearing face masks here......

No more face masks

.....of course, if a store has a requirement that we wear a face mask to enter we will, out of respect, but that was not the case at City Market, or the local liquor store we visited.  In Durango I would say about 80% of the people we saw were wearing face masks, which seemed really odd to us considering the previous stats I cited, whereas in Cortez you saw NO face masks at all.....both counties have similar stats, but one is behaving quite differently from the other.  As a side note Cortez is a much more Conservative town, and Durango is a more Liberal town politically.  You can draw your own conclusions........

.....it is good to be back at altitude....it is where I feel the most at home.  For those who may not know our last name, Hockwald, is German, and means 'High Forest', so it is no wonder being over a mile high is where our happy place is.

We'll be in Durango for at least 2 days, and maybe a little more.....we'll see....thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!