We rode out of Lake City , Colorado on Wednesday 8th July with the thought of riding 130 miles and covering 3 passes in a day. Fat chance! It took us 4 hours to cover 35 miles from Lake City to Ouray and over Engineer at 12,800 ft.
It was an electrifying ride up and a challenging to say the least, ride down in the rain. It's was rocky, wet and muddy, but one of the best rides I have had in my life and a real hoot !
We arrived in to Ouray fatigued from the exertion and altitude and alarmed at the lack progress we had made, so we took the tactical dessiccion to cancel the remainder to the section and spend the afternoon in Ouray, which is a cute old school piece of Americana.
We find ourselves in the Ouray brewery taking in the stunning amphitheater of mountains that surround the town and strike up a conversation with a guy called Dave who turns out to be Ralph Lauren's personal pilot , then we are joined by a women who is in town for some hiking, who is a pilot for United flying 767. It was a surreal evening and a good laugh.
However though we only had 4 drinks, the day's exertion and the altitude took its toll and we all woke with terriable hangovers.
We leave Ouray at 10am and make our way slowly up towards Imogene Pass. It's a beautiful clear day and the ground has absorbed the previous day's rain.
We summit Imogene pass at 13,114 ft after a rock strewn a chilly ride , we stop for a quick photo opp, but quickly get our skated on due to the threat of snow, it's already blowing in the air and apparently the pass only opened for the first time a week prior.
We arrive in to Telluride and due to the exertions of the day and slight hangovers, decide to call it a day a spend the night here.
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