No riding today – hiking instead! We’re going to go check out the Colorado Trail in Durango. It starts just outside of town, so just a short drive. We’re hiking it because we may ride it. Pretty nice trail, except in parts it drops off VERY steeply, and goes down a long way – easily over a hundred feet, and the only thing to stop you would be the creek at the bottom. I don’t like that. Plus, the trail angles to the outside (as it should, so water can run off the trail when it rains, instead of along it to cut it deeper. The only issue I have with that is that where the trail has got itself dusty, it could be very easy to slid off into oblivion. I know, that most likely would never happen, but irrational fears are just that – irrational. The scenery is spectacular! I hate to take photos of things like this, because they never do it justice, but here goes anyway:

Yes, storm clouds were looming, but we braved it anyway.

See the creek way down there?

See how steep? And this is one of the less steep sections …

This was a really cool bridge a couple of miles in.

One of the steeper sections, but at least there is shrubbery to slow you down, so this did not bother me.

In the end, we hiked five miles, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but we did climb (and descended!) a bit over 1,000 feet, so the legs were a mite tired when we got done. A good day!