Telluride is a really cool place. Basically there is a ski mountain with two sides, one with Mountain Village at the base, one side with Telluride at the base, and there is a free gondola that goes from mountain village, up and over the kinda in, then down into Telluride. And it is extremely beautiful.
The town of Telluride is deemed a historic town (or something of that sort) so it is all preserved from a long time ago (?) and is very lively. So we picked up breakfast (lots of super yummy pastries) and ate them back at the house with Rafaela, Michie, and Tom. Short after eating Alec, Tom, and I headed out to mountain bike -- apparently we hadn't been biking enough lately!! Don owns a bunch of mountain bikes that fit all of us, so it was perfect! I had never actually mountain bikes before, so I was excited.
We were planning on taking a trail that sort of circumnavigated the mountain into Telluride, then taking the gondola up on the other side to do some on the actual mountain. Of course, immediately after picking up the trail I fell on the easiest terrain of the day... twice. Within less than 5 minutes of each other. Both were loud thumps... but I made it out with only minor scrapes, and I am very surprised Alec didn't take a picture of me after either fall!
We actually lost Tom somehow, and waited for him at the end of the trail, then at the gondola base, but with no sign of him we decided to go up anyway. (He called us later from the house while we were still on the mountain.)
At the top we had a fantastic view of the area.
We asked about an easy trail to take down, then immediately forgot what it was called, and just decided to take one. Which was lots of fun, but I have minimal mountain biking skills, to say the least. Well, okay, I am an expert. I was cruising down the mountain at top speed, about 3 mph, and walked every turn. It was a lot of fun, we had some good laughs, and I actually didn't fall (!!), and it was of course beautiful.
We eventually got back down and pulled back into the house right as fajitas were coming off the grill -- perfect timing! The food was amazing. Don had invited two of his friend's families over to eat, on of which was from Mexico and had made incredible salsa, guacamole, and tortillas. Yum!
Later that afternoon Don brought us up to a view from the other side of the valley and taught us all about the different mountains and mesas -- he's really knowledgable about this beautiful area.
After he took us driving around Mountain Village for a couple of hours to get a better sense of it. All the homes are beautiful. We saw Tom Cruise's home, Oprah's, and some other famous people. Pretty cool!
Also, from their back porch there is a view of the mountains on the Coors beer bottle, recognize them? This view is a little different perspective than the actual picture, but I can definitely see it.
After getting back we ate some pizzas that Don cooked up (he was such a fantastic host..) and got to watch some of the videos from Tom's trip -- everybody should really check the videos out on YouTube and check out his website to learn about his cause and his ride. He's an awesome guy, is doing an amazing thing, and has made some really cool videos documenting all of it. www.daringdynamos.com
Then off to sleep! We are so happy we got to spend a great day in a beautiful area with wonderful hosts. Thank you so much Don and the whole Kramer family for showing us so much hospitality.
Daily stats:
Mileage: not sure, but a couple on mountain bikes!
Average speed: TOP INCREDIBLE SPEED OF 3
Elevation gain: mostly in a gondola
Beautiful views: too many to count
Haiku:
Mountain biking, wow,
I'm not quite an expert, yet,
Telluride beauty.
-AW
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