DAILY BLOG

It was a most glorious day in the Rockies! This morning at 8:30am (after sleeping in a little), we left Durango for Ouray, a 68-mile ride on 550 North that featured three mountain passes. After 10 miles of relatively flat roads, we began to climb and climb and climb.

Elevation profile of Stage 7

At the start of the first climb, highway 550 was a four lane highway with moderately busy traffic, but by the time the climb really kicked in at a challenging % grade, the road thinned down to 2 lanes with somewhat lighter traffic. Jordan and Justy joined Jared and I for the first summit climb of the day and did a great job—all of us made it to the top!

Rich and Jared climbing in the distance

We made it!

We then had a 2-mile descent followed by a second climb to Molas Divide. By the time we made it to the top of that summit, storm clouds were looming over the area, so we decided to see if we could beat the rain storms to Silverton, where we were planning on eating a picnic lunch. We made it to Silverton by 1pm, but by the time we got our lunch ready, the rain started to pour and pour. So we headed into a restaurant and ate there instead, waiting out the rain, so we could finish the last 25 miles to Ouray in the afternoon.

Jordan, tired after a climb

We had to wait an hour, but the rain left the area. So we headed up and final pass of the day, the Red Mountain Pass at 11,300 feet. It was a tough 8-mile ascent. Besides being a tough climb, highway 550 did not have a guard rail for much of the ascent and the shoulder was only about 1-2 feet. Needless to say, Jared and I did our best to move away from the right side of the road and not look down to the drop offs of hundreds of feet! However, in spite of that, we rode strong and finished well. From there, we had a 15-mile harrowing descent into Ouray on the legendary “Million Dollar Highway”, which had switchback after switchback. We made to Ouray at 5pm.

Scary climbing

Speedy decents

Ouray!

Overall, today was physically demanding, but was oh so rewarding for all of us. We felt God’s hand of protection over us on probably the scariest roads we’ll face on the tour.

Town of Ouray

Ouray