Provo, Utah to Durango, Colorado

Thursday May 31

Moab, Utah & Telluride Colorado - went there last year with Bob Meyer. Wanted to revisit them. Both are incredible beautiful. To learn more go to:

http://www.discovermoab.com

http://www.town.telluride.co.us/home/index.asp?page=1

While in Moab, a German traveler invited me for lunch in his RV. He just walked up and starting talking. Unfortunately I had just eating and was too tight on time to take him up on his generous offer. I sense it was an opportunity lost for me.

Went to Ouray, Colorado for the first time. Located about 75 miles north of Durango. What an incredible location. The town sits at the end of a box canyon. When heading to Durango from Ouray, there is a series of switchbacks. There are several that have a speed limit of 15 MPH and one that is 10 MPH. I learned quickly that these low speeds were not suggestions - any misstep while in some of these turns and a several hundred-foot drop off waits below. These switchbacks seemed to never end. The town sits at 7,500 feet - the switchbacks take a person the 10,700-foot summit. From the summit it is about 15 miles of driving the mountain ridge until a pronounced decent into the little town of Silverton Colorado. Silverton is a major summer tourist attraction. To learn more about these towns go to:

http://www.ouraycolorado.com/Home

http://www.city-data.com/city/Silverton-Colorado.html

For information about Durango, go to:

http://www.durango.org/index.asp

Between Ouray and Silverton, I saw 5 deer. All of the were single sightings, and the animals were at or near the edge of the road. There is an electronic deer whistle on my bike. Most people think the whistle is ineffective. In all five cases, the deer moved quickly away from the edge of the road.

On the way to Telluride, road repair caused a major stoppage. My best thinking caused me to take the dirt road I just passed, because the map indicated it connected back up the main road. The dirt road was 15 miles packed dirt with several areas of loose gravel. After going 5 miles i reach the proverbial "fork in the road". Unfortunately there was no sign to indicate which leg completed the loop. Soooo, I decided to go back to the main highway and deal with the road construction. Yikees.

Daily Miles: 450
Accumulated Miles: 1800