Pedaling from Durango to Moab - Day 3

August 12th

Route: Black Mesa Hut to Dry Creek Basin Hut
Mileage: ~35 miles
Elevation gained: 2,100 ft.
Cow vs. cyclist near misses: a few
Crashes: zero (i'd pat myself on the back, but my shoulder hurts....)
SPAM consumed: yes
Lost riders: 2

Today we left the San Juan Mountains

Another 8:00 start, and another fun day of riding. Today we were leaving the San Juan Mountains and descending into Dry Creek Basin. A majority of the route was on fire roads and we had a lot more down than up - no one complained about that.

a view out towards the west

lots of this

and then we were out of the mountains

Once out of the mountains we were in a broad high valley with a few, scattered small towns and cattle grazing. Cloud cover kept the temps reasonable, otherwise it would have been hot.

chatting up some locals at Miramonte Reservoir

Once again, all of us were at the Dry Valley Hut by early afternoon - except for the 2 guys who rode right by our carefully constructed cairn indicating where to turn......... they eventually figured it out and we all spent the afternoon hanging out, doing bike maintenance and drinking (now not so cold) beer. Still hit the spot.

enjoying the view

Bob's frisbee picked up a pokie

hectic pace of hut life

The highlight of the evening was John's SPAM and mac-n-cheese dinner. A hit with everyone.

As was the case with all of the previous days, we got quite a bit of rain from an afternoon thunderstorm, and we could see the rain soaking our route for tomorrow. Little did we know it, but we were about to be introduced to the soul crushing fun of riding in the mud.

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