Titilating Telluride Is One Rocky Mountain High

Today's story starts with our arrival yesterday in Montrose, CO at the home of Mr. Nick's sister Barb Krebs and her husband Stu.  They built their eco-house over the past 20 years, using emerging techniques including dirt-packed used tires for walls. Just about every other "green home" technique is employed on their property from "humanure" gardening to a gaggle of milk producing goats.

If you want to talk eco-tech, you gotta take lessons from the Krebs.

 Thus it comes as no surprise that Nick's brother in law invented the recumbent bicycle, as this 30+ year old home built jewel will attest. All right, maybe he didn't technically "invent" the device, but we are certain that he rode it from Fr. Collins to Indianapolis for a meeting one time. We declined test drives. Barb and Stu were wonderful hosts and we were sad to leave this morning...

but we needed to get on our way to Placerville, CO to begin our ride up to the fabled town of Telluride.

Fifteen miles of CO145 leads up to the airport and the town of Telluride.  We enjoyed mild, sunny weather and drop dead gorgeous scenery.

The San Miguel River rushes alongside the road. 

 

The Keystone Valley surrounds Telluride.

 A film festival is in sway and tomorrow the gondola begins its free service to the mountain amenities.

Our round trip ride was precisely 50k, and included a challenging 4 km uphill grade en route to a total elevation gain of about 1,800 feet.  And what with the seasonally compressed construction and road building we shared the road with scores of large trucks and commercial vehicles.  But the folks we encountered in town were so nice and the vibe so refreshing that the whole ride felt perfect.

When we got back to the Bigfoot, we high tailed it to Moab, UT for a ride tomorrow and an extra night's rest. More to come.