Day Three of Riding (Tuesday):
After our normal stop at our breakfast café we initiated our run at the most difficult of all trails; Black Bear Pass. We rode U.S.550 up on top of Red Mountain Pass and turned west on the trail. Getting to the top of Black Bear Mountain proved easy enough, we began to chuckle to ourselves thinking how could this be rated difficult? Going down Black Bear Pass was not as easy, loose rock and steep cliffs taxed our abilities. My bike was geared too high for this portion of the trail, and I had to slide down the cliffs with my back brake locked. All this was peanuts compared to what we were in store for. At the very top of the falls, as we looked down at the town of Telluride spread out majestically before us we saw an extremely narrow path down to the main falls. This path was as wide as a jeep with a cliff that had a shear drop off to the left, and a rock wall to the right. Needless to say we hugged the wall. What made it difficult was on the right side of the path were steps in the rock approximately four feet in height. These steps lasted for about 1000 yards. If your throttle stuck or you fell to the left you were gone. Once at Bridal Veil Falls we wound down into the town of Telluride.
We ate lunch there at a trendy spot called Smuggler's Brew Pub. Good food, good brew. Halfway through town we turned north and got onto the trail taking us up to Imogene Pass. At 13,509 feet elevation Imogene was the highest peak we would climb. Going down Imogene Pass had us thirsting to reverse direction and go back up. The Yankee Boy Basin and Sneffels Creek trail beckoned us. Yankee Boy was no easy trail either. There were several routes up the Mountain, and of course we took the most difficult. It was rather difficult to get to the top. As the skies looked about to open up we thought we should start to head back. Obviously we did not make it, going back into Ouray on Colorado 361 we got drenched. That night we spent some time in the hot tub at the campground. This day's ride was the best of the trip.
