Durango Friday 20 Jul 18

We are staying with John and Jeaninne Thompson, Lauve’s colleague from early in her career. They have a beautiful house overlooking downtown Durango. The forest fires this year have burned 50,000 acres in surrounding mountains. Recent rains have caused mud slides. The smoke is gone, but the rivers are full of ash, mud and dead fish.

Some of the burn

Mud wiped out this campground

Today we did a ride up the Animas River valley on Route 250. We turned around just past Baker’s Bridge, the sight where the jump in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was shot. It didn’t look as perilous as in the movie. The ride was just over 40 miles with 1500 ft. of climbing. It was a good start on getting altitude acclimatized. 

Jump spot in Buch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid

We had dinner at Ken & Sue’s Restaurant – high quality, reasonable prices.

Saturday 21 Jul 18

We road up the western side of the Animas Valley Hermosa - 28 miles 1100 ft. This took us on a relatively quiet road up to where we could see the fire damage. We had dinner at home with son Joey, his wife Emily, and their two kids plus their older son, Justin, a new OB/GYN from Palo Alto. He may come to Tucson in January with his girlfriend. 

John Thompson and Lauve

Sunday 22 Jul 18

Hiked Powerline and Skyline trails with John and Jeaninne starting from behind their house to the top of the ridge looking west over Durango and the Animas Valley. 6.2 miles and 1100 ft of climbing.

John, Lauve, Jeaninne and their son's dog, Ruby

Drove to Telluride to visit Peter Eisner. Peter and Barbara have a house on the approach to town. They have just recently remodeled it. The craftsmanship and materials are all top quality.

Monday 23 Jul 18 Telluride

Hiked Kilpacker Trail, the approach to El Diente Peak, one of Colorado’s 14er’s. It was about 6 miles of gentle climbing from an elevation of 10,000 ft through alpine meadows and Douglas fur and Aspen trees.

Peter and Lauve, El Diente in the distance

Peter had tickets to a concert – James McMurtry, rock, folk rock. We left early – too loud. The venue, Sheraton Opera house, reminded me of a cross between the Rialto and the Fox in Tucson. The Sheraton Opera house was the host venue in the early days of the Telluride Outdoor Film Festival. The event is much larger now. We may try to attend next year – Memorial Day weekend.

Tuesday 24 Jul 2018

Hiked Hope Lake 5 miles steeper then yesterday. Topped out above the tree line. Hope Lake was down at least ¾. Great wildflowers.

Hope Lake

Wednesday 25 Jul 2018 Transfer day Telluride – Basalt

On the way to Basalt today Lauve and I had a nice visit over lunch with my niece, Holly Carpenter, in Grand Junction where she was waiting for a patient to deliver. On our way we stopped to see her house in Montrose. It was very much under construction, but you could see even from the street that it was cute. Nice neighborhood too! We had fun catching up. She is doing quite well, enjoying her nurse practitioner/midwife job and settling in to life as it is on the “western slope” of Colorado - Trump country.

Holly Carpenter

We arrived in Basalt to heavy smoke due to a wildfire that has been raging for probably 2 weeks.

Thursday 26 July 2018 Basalt

We road the tandem today to Aspen. The smoke was thick enough to make us wonder if we should abort. We started anyway and after 5 miles it cleared up. It was a beautiful, sunny day - 46-mile ride. Aspen was looking prosperous as always.

We stopped for a reflective moment at the John Denver Sanctuary Garden. I’m always moved by this place where lyrics like “Perhaps Love” are carved in stone on a flowered slope of the Roaring Fork River as it runs through Aspen.

View at our hotel at 8:30 AM

Dinner was at our favorite pizza place – Whitehouse Pizza in Carbondale.

Friday 27 Jul 2018 Basalt

We road to Carbondale and on towards Marble on the Crystal bike path. Back to Carbondale for breakfast at The Village Smithy. 30 miles. Carbondale was having a “Mountain Fair” full of arts and crafts vendors, probably some of the same ones we will see in Frisco next week. We bought a poplar salad bowl to augment (not replace!) Lauve’s favorite one.

Farming has drained most of the water from the Crystal