The Return to Molas Pass

Well the trip from Taos up to Durango was pretty uneventful, pretty much all two lane roads with a few ups n downs over mountains but the weather played nice. As mentioned we didn’t have any plans to ride, just catch up on a little bike maintenance and princess and I did laundry. Pooh Bear flew in the night before, stayed at a hotel, and cruised around town on his bike and then met us out here at the campground once we got here. The campground is about 2 miles up 550 from Durango, beautiful red rock cliff on either side of us and the narrow gauge railroad that takes tourists up to Silverton passes just on the other side of the road.

The ride today was Howie and my return to the Colorado trail at Molas Pass, the crossing between Durango and Ouray. The ride starts at 10,900 feet so we were sucking wind right from the start. The first couple miles is a bit of grunt climb but with amazing views including a beautiful alpine lake and vistas as far as the eye can see.

Now at about 11,600 feet the trail stays within a couple contour lines, weaving around the ridges and across streams fed from the melting snow. The wildflowers were everywhere and what I think is called tobacco cabbage or something like that was so thick in places you were brushing it with both grips. For the most part the trail is really great single track although there were spots where it is getting rutted and you actually have a hard time peddling without catching on the sides of the rut. Most of the track was pretty smooth but there were plenty of rocks and quick ups to keep you on your toes.

There were also a number of very soft, muddy spots from the melting snow. Our plan was to head out 12 miles then head back. We got a little later start than we had hoped but were still on the trail by about 9am. This was a bit problematic as the afternoon thunderstorms started to build while we were still on our way out. We reached the 11 mile point and were faced with crossing a pretty good size patch of snow so we decided to turn around at that point. This is what it looked like back towards where we were heading

We really lucked out. The sky stayed pretty clear over our heads all the way back but I was able to see about where we needed to end up and made the comment that I was pretty darn sure the truck was getting rained on while we were still about 6 miles out. Sure enough the last mile or so had definitely gotten rain but had moved out by the time we got there so we never did get rained on other than a few sprinkles. 22 miles and about 3300 feet of climbing later we were back at Molas Pass.

As for the critter count, nothing too exciting, a mule deer on the drive up and some kind of western ground hog looking thing on the trail.

Injury report, princess got stuck in some mud and I was a little to close behind and ended up falling over into the mud when I couldn't get unclipped quite in time and skinned up my shin a little bit, but just a slight flesh wound.