Days 14-15: Cortez to Durango and a rest day!

Posted by: Arin 

Riding from Cortez to Durango was my favorite day of riding so far. The day started off with some rolling hills, leading into a little town called Mancos. In town we stopped at an awesome little coffee shop called Farenheit Coffee Roasters. An iced americano and a coconut-carrot-ginger muffin left me feeling an awesome coffee buzz and we headed off. The next 15 miles or so was mainly uphill, but with an amazing tailwind and a few good downhill sections. It was gorgeous outside.

The last 10 miles was all downhill past a ski resort and into Durango. Once we got into town, we stopped into a little mountain bike shop called Pedal to Peaks for some advice on where to sleep. We got a little advice, but ended up just talking to a guy named Cliff about mountain bikes and ski bikes for a while. He's one of the only guys in the country who rents ski bikes. The most useful information we got, however, were directions to a grocery store and the skatepark.

When I got out of the grocery store, Brad was waiting for me with some awesome news. Some guy had ridden up to the store and told him we could stay in his back yard for the night. He also told us about a resource to find places to sleep (warmshowers.org), but we haven't used it yet. With bags full of food and assurance of a safe place to sleep, we headed to the skatepark.

Durango skatepark is awesome. They have a bunch of fun obstacles that caused Brad and I to not want to leave until dark (see Instagram). A bit before we actually left (and a while after we said we were going to), a couple guys rolled up to the park in a huge van and started grilling some hot dogs and skating. We got talking to them and ended up telling them we were staying town in some guy's backyard.

"You can stay at my place" said one of them. "I have an extra bed and a sweet-ass couch." We were sold. We hadn't gotten the first guy's contact info though, so we rode to his house to tell him. After chatting with him about touring for a while, we headed back to the skatepark. The lights weren't on, and the van was nowhere to be seen. Luckily I had gotten one of their phone numbers, so we called them up, got directions, and were on our way.

The guy who we stayed with, Roddy, had a sweet-ass house. First order of business for us was to buy some beer for our hosts. We all piled in the van to go to the local liquor store, where we picked up a couple six packs from Ska Brewing, a local favorite.

The van was awesome too. A huge white monster with front seats from an old bomber and a chromed 302 engine. The thing sounded like a boat. Also note the big bag of candy in the dash.

Back at Roddy's, we drank the beers and made a bonfire. Brad and I finally made the food that we had bought earlier and we all passed out around 1.

The next day, we woke up, had some coffee, and loaded in the van to head to an awesome skate spot. It was this bank to curb right alongside the Animas River. We skated it for a while and got some fun tricks, despite a slam I took falling from the top at the beginning of the session. Roddy was going in to get a tattoo later, so we drove back to his place to make some delicious egg-in-the-holes and potatoes. 

Roddy left for his tattoo with us home alone. We decided to go up the hill and skate the local college. The most awesome spot we found there was this insane hill down into town. It had two 10 mph hairpins and was super fun! Unfortunately I took a pretty hard fall going down the hill and scraped up my forearm, hip, ankle, and shoulder. It was painful, but I was ok enough to skate all the way across town to go say hi to Roddy getting his tattoo. It was my first time in a tattoo shop, and the walls were covered in some bad ass art. We got some groceries on the way back for dinner and to eat the next day.

(Photo by Brad)

Later in the night we went and met up with Justin, the other guy we met at the skatepark. He was at Steamworks Brewery (where he works) getting cheap beer with a bunch of his coworkers. We hung out and played a few bar games before heading back to drink more beer and sleep. Durango was awesome, I need to go back!