Well Spring has come and, though the temps are holding steady in the 80s, Summer is almost here! We've been camping and hiking and biking and have spent as many possible minutes outside as we can manage.
First there was the not-so-spectacular Bullet Canyon trip which ended with us spending 2 nights in Durango--gotta love Durango...
Bullet Canyon is part of the Grand Gulch area. Most people start their treks here down Kane Gulch and because of that we decided to be rebels and go down Bullet Canyon. As you can see, there WAS water, but it was gross water. We took 10 liters and that got us through 1 night and back out! The area where this picture was taken was cool, but other than this there was a LOT of bushwacking and that got old re
ally fast.Still, the weather was pretty sweet and the sky stayed blue the whole time. You can't ask for much more than that!
Next was our camping trip to Mesa Verde National Park. Unfortunately the sky did NOT stay blue the whole time there! We enjoyed a weekend of ruins and hiking trails interspersed with rain, rain, and more rain. Fortunately for us, our Big Agnes Seedhouse 3 tent was amazing and did not let in a drop of water!
We made a loop of our drive and headed down over lizard head pass and Dolores and came back through, you guessed it, Durango. I'd live there if I could. This time of year heading over all the passes is fun because I can while away the hours looking for runoff waterfalls. The picture on the left shows the impending storm on Day 2 of our trip. Spruce Tre
e House is on the right. It's amaz
ing what the Anasazi were able to do with mud and rocks. The fact that we get to visit these places and see them, preserved for hopefully many many more years, is pretty impressive.FINALLY, there has of course been tons of mountain biking. Only 2 "minor" accidents--okay, I probably could have used a stitch or two one of those times, but still...nothing
horrific or requiring LifeFlight! I've biked everywhere around here so far this season, except out in Palisade. The BF and I have conquered Tabaguache a few times, I've seen Joe's Ridge up close and personal out at 18 road, and have savored the drops and ledges of Horsethief Bench in Loma more than once. Robert S. and I even managed to enjoy parts of the Gunnison/Old Spanish Trail loop one extremely windy day this spring!I think this picture pretty much says it all though. So far the season has been pretty freakin' fabulous.
