Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2015, segments 25, 26, 27 & 28, Silverton to Durango

In 2013, four friends planned a first big bikepacking trip; start at two different points - Silverton and Spring Creek Pass, ride up to the Colorado Trail to meet each other, then ride together, west to Durango. Four turned into three, and the weather decided differently, we got to Silverton and bailed, as the monsoon became all-day rain by day three.

Read Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2013, segments 23, 22, 23

Two of us, Mark and I, felt we had unfinished business. We planned to come back and do the final four segments we'd missed, Molas Pass to Durango, segments 25, 26, 27 and 28. We did that July 21, 22 & 23 of 2015. I have a notebook in which I recorded my thoughts during the trip, like I did in 2013. I just transcribed all my notes and I now - it's 2022, and I'm just transcribing these notes and telling the story, so that I can tell my 2022 Colorado Trail story - realize that I was straight up complaining a lot, and also talking a lot about the Moab trip before the Colorado Trail portion, and my notes leave out some critical bits that I remember. So I'm going to edit. Here are some of my handwritten notes in block quotes + remembrances from that trip, photos from my photo album for the trip, and gps records.

Mark and I went to Moab first. We rode the Hymasa / Captain Ahab trails Sun 2015/07/19, then we rode the Whole Enchilada - with the new Jimmy Keen section - Mon 2015/07/20. We'd only been able to do a Half Enchilada last time we were in town for the first Outerbike, if I remember correctly, because of rain. Excellent ride, altho in my notes I run out of water at the end, and it's over 100º.

I don't remember how I first met Frank Leyrer, maybe on the 2013 trip in Grand Junction? Maybe in Downieville? He's from Germany. We took the Coyote shuttle up to the Whole Enchilada start on this trip, and who is sitting across from me, visiting from Germany? Frank Leyrer and his friends. These coincidences happen all the time. I don't think they are true coincidences; there is perfectly sound math, I'm sure, which shows that common interests, and the shared destinations informed by those common interests produce seemingly random 'small world' situations like this; meeting Frank twice, thousands of miles from our homes. There's another one in this story, and in the 2022 Colorado Trail story.

7/20/15

Next morning, 4.5 hours of packing, talking to April (Animas Transportation) on the phone, multiple trips up and down 2 flights of stairs. Finally had heavy bikes packed.

Stuffed them into van, drove to Durango Diner, each had 'The Cure'; hash brown bed, sausage (me) or bacon (Mark), eggs (sunny me, scrambled Mark) and this amazing gravy on top made with salsa verde.

"The Cure"

We got shuttled to Molas Pass, from Durango. What I never told anyone, Mark keeping the secret, is that my last-minute packing and prep involved me forgetting my helmet! I did the three days with no helmet. :-|

No helmet selfie

I rode an XL Canfield Nimble 9, with custom Porcelain Rocket bags made for my Canfield Yelli Screamy, ridden in 2013.

Hubie

It's morning of day two for us on the CT, camped at Cascade Creek bridge, mile 14.7 of seg 25. (We did 1 mile of 24 before 25 began) I am worried about that van & its contents right now. Phil seemed like the kind of guy who would take advantage of the knowledge that we'll be gone for four days. Camped just to the right of CC bridge. Recommended spot had a tent on it. Hubie from VT, a thru-hiker joined us. Nice guy, we had good conversation. He'd just retired from UPS. He's going same way, hoping to make Durango by Sat. We are shooting for Friday, but could push and make it by Thursday. 9:25AM, we are packing as sun has reached us.

We met these hikers who had llamas carrying their stuff.

Mile 15.4 "Cross small stream with milky colored rocks"

Engineer Mountain

This solar panel setup kinda worked. It flopped a bunch, but did charge a battery, which charged my phone & gps.

Almost certainly feeling atrial fibrillation here, or afib.

Mark filtering water

Blackhawk Pass

Beers with dinner in the middle of nowhere, thanks to a Western Spirit guest.

I posed these with middle fingers extended for my Thursday Night Ride friends, because 2015/07/23 was a Thursday, and I was missing TNR.

7/23/15

Camped last night about mile 7 of segment 26. Mark had sidewall puncture right before camp, circa 7PM. Plugged it. Met guy from Denver, been on trail 7 days, was aiming to make Durango by night. It was 5PM, 42 mi to go. Mind blown. We were thing (thinking) two more days plus several more hours riding. Near mile 3 of seg 27 met hikers carrying canned beer. Confirmed; no water on seg 27. They told me Western Spirit truck was just ahead. Sure enough; guide truck, tourists in chairs, cold beers, three guides preparing food that smelled delicious. Offered me pull of tequila, took it. Guests offered us garlic olives. Mark was shelled, had rough day. He and I gobbled olives, I drank juice. Guest Steve from Sun Valley, ID offered us two Coronas. I demurred but he insisted. Put them in Mark's roomier pack. They were delicious with dinner. We'd filled all of our water containers descending Blackhawk Pass. I filled bottle and Camelbak directly from snowmelt stream, not far from saddle, then I filled my 'dirty' water bladder (2L) and Mark filtered and filled his bladder, bottle & also filled his dirty water bag. Investigated possible water source at mile 6.5, per Hubie's 5th edition Databook, didn't find it. At 7:30 PM gained level ground, set up dry camp, slept well. Took two Lorazepam and slept OK, still uncomfortable. Previous (first) night didn't sleep much, or at all, so uncomfortable. Last night also uncomfortable, but better sleep. Yesterday climbing (pushing) Blackhawk Pass felt awful, heart pounding at my ribs. Trails rough, not groomed. Roots, rocks, seeps, creeks, mud, gradient changes, waterbars conspire with altitude & lack of fitness to mean we walk uphill, a lot. If the trails were in 'NorCal' shape - meaning generally ride-able, and maintained, we'd be able to do more riding and less pushing our 'wheeled conveyances.' Today, big day; Indian Ridge, 12,000+, no water. Prob camp tonight and make Durango mid-day. Hope van & bikes & laptops are still there! Solar charger working OK. Phone (camera) and bike gps charged enuf.

3PM, finished seg 27 @ Kennebec road, eating lunch; pizza squeeze (so good, time & place for these), buffalo jerky, freeze-dried mango, some trail mix, water. Mark & I agree we'll make Junction Creek, 7.1 miles from here and camp. Thoughts; Mark had some tire trouble, optimizes for cost. Pedal stompers, 10" trail with 10" walls and dense root system means a pedal strike or wandering tire will stop you. Gradient could be rideable much of the time, but for obstacles & lack of oxygen. See Western Spirit camp @ Taylor Lake. Bit too far, too tired, off course to visit & say hi. Dinged my bell at them as I descended to Kennebec road. No afib! All DH to camp, but for first tiny pitch, according to guidebook. Did get water on seg 27, about 13.4 mi in, just after scenic overlook. Prob seasonal, running due to wet July. Ran across trail, very pretty, filtered. At first M said "What's the problem?" and I said "No problems, only solutions." and he filtered up, too. Was worried about lightning on Indian Ridge. Some early dark clouds had me spooked. Mark lagged, so I kept going. Didn't want to dally up there. Talked to older couple, Steve & Sue at final summit. They took my picture and I theirs. Steve warned me about the descent. I walked the crazy part & rode the rest. Was pessimistic about false summits, so wasn't bummed as Indian Ridge kept going. Things to think about for bike: alt bars, so brake hoses don't rub on bag, shorter fork (120mm?) so tire doesn't wander. Bigger triangle for storage. Lighter overall. Retrotec? Rohloff lowest gear lower than 28x42? For this trip have 28 x 10-42. Could have been lower. 32 spokes, reliable, tubeless wheels. Moto X 2nd gen phone in battery saver. Airplane mode makes great camera, better than my Lumix camera. Solar "PowerMonkey" sort of keeping up with Garmin 800 & phone. Techniques for pushing bike; learn to keep it well away; shins, backs of calves and sides of calves will teach you. Technique for stalling out; ride uphill to obstacle, tip over / backward with foot out for graceful dismount. Big seat bag means exaggerated straight-leg dismount, like figure skater or Bruce Lee. Riding heavy, loaded bike with tall fork & 10x10x10 trail requires concentration to keep tire from wandering. Mark pushes to make hard obstacles early in the day, but fades. I am very conservative; walk everything that is above a minimal exertion limit. Budgeting effort for altitude, load, flatlander lungs.

Above are the last notes I wrote in the book, so I'll finish the story from memory. As I sat at the end of Indian Ridge, mile 20.8, intersection with the La Plata Canyon jeep road, eating food, waiting for Mark, writing in my little book, a family got out of a white suv. As they walked toward me, the man said "Are you Morgan?" We talked, I said yes. He had been out to California from Texas for a NICA national awards event, he'd received a coaching award, if I remember correctly. NICA had put together a ride for all attendees at China Camp State Park, near San Rafael, CA, and I'd volunteered to lead one of the groups. This guy had been in my group, and here we were, meeting at the top of Kennebec Pass. It was just like meeting Frank Leyrer again, on the shuttle in Moab. I would have another experience like this on my 2022 Colorado Trail ride. Commonality of interests and places make these small world coincidences possible.

The ride down Kennebec Pass was glorious. The crossing of the scree slope is one of my favorite parts of the trail. I continued to fight through atrial fibrillation. It really messed up this trip, and the 2013 trip. It's like kryptonite, for Superman; made me weak, irritable, miserable. We got down to Junction Creek, meaning to camp for the night and make Durango the next day, but some guy told us to keep moving, camp sites were full. I was so grumpy at that point that we filtered, did the miserable hike-a-bike up and over the final 1000' high point, then the long and rocky descent to Durango near dark. We rode into Durango, got to my van at 9PM, which was intact, with nothing missing - I'd been panicked about its safety, mistrusted our shuttle driver - found a Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda, that was not yet closed at 10PM and convinced them to feed us.

This trip gave us closure for the 2013 trip. We were able to reach Durango, like we'd planned to do, after meeting Chris and Barry in between Spring Creek Pass and Stony Pass. It also triggered a bigger ambition. Mark and I agreed that we'd someday ride the whole Colorado Trail, from Denver to Durango. At the time he was about six years away from retirement, 58 years old. I was 47.

We eventually did do return to do the whole thing.

Read Bikepacking the Colorado Trail, Summer 2022, Denver to Durango