It was with considerable trepidation that I began the San Juan Huts ride with four companions. We had arrived in Durango a day or so early to get acclimated, loosen up our legs and put our gear in order, but the morning of our departure the reality set in as we pedalled off onto the single track at above 11,000 feet for the first leg of seven days of mountain biking and six nights in wilderness huts. In our short sighted enthusiasm we opted for the "alternate" route that used the Colorado Trail instead of the standard fire road route. This turned out to be a bad decision. The trail even in the best of weather conditions was barely traversable by bike and during the mountain monsoon season we were in the day Quickly evolved into a 20 mile hike a bike. I doubt we rode more than 30% of the trail and the rest of the time was spent lifting and dragging the bike over mud, roots and rocks. The swiftest of us took more than 10 hours to get to the first hut and the slowest was rescued off the trail and driven the last few miles in the dark. A rough start to say the least. The owner of the huts who helped us out also rescued two hikers off the same trail so it was a wet, cold, and tired group of eight that bunked down the first night. Several times during the day I thought to myself, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"
The stunning vistas and the fields of alpine flowers were a beautiful consolation for the arduous day, it must be said. My pal Mike Richmond went on his head hard and had the helmet bruises on his forhead for the remainder of the trip. Mike Dunn and I both went down hard at least once on his part and several times on mine and had the bruises to prove it.
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