I will note here I didn‘t include my rest days that I spent in Tahoe. I spent either three or four days there, but I ultimately did very little because I was so exhausted from my first three days of riding. I was focused on getting all my supplies together, finalizing my setup on my bike, and recovering, more than anything else. So while I list this as day 18, I think it was truly my 22nd day on the road. I’ll have to go back over these and make everything perfect later when I have more time.
However, now that I had all my gear and setup dialed in, I was far more free to explore in my off days. After eating a delicious breakfast of mushroom sandwiches, pastries, and mushroom+turmeric milk at DeAnne’s bakery, I met up with Dave, where we picked up a final bag for me and some mail. Then he showed me the bike shop where he works, and I got my clean my bike thoroughly before meeting up with Claudia, who had just done her own hike. We bought some food at the local market. More cucumbers for Claudia and some strawberries for me before heading up the free gondola!
While it’s a little difficult to see if you don’t know what you’re looking for, the road I would take tomorrow was visible from from the top of the gondola. It leads out across the mountain on the far side of town in the picture above. And ultimately climbs up over 13,000 feet, all on dirt! There’s also the ghost town of Tomboy on the road, a mining town which people were still in until pretty late in the mining rush. People would try and stay up there in the winters and were constantly having to be rescued. Instead of the mines drying up, the houses of Tomboy were leveled to prevent people from trying to live there and causing regular dangerous rescue operations. Dave had been telling me about the old town since I would be riding through it soon.
Claudia and I explored Mountain Village for a bit before returning to Telluride once again. We hung out in town a little longer and I got double scoops of ice cream at two different ice cream places and then returned back to DeAnne and Dave’s, where we enjoyed a fantastic dinner. As a baker, DeAnne is great at making pizza dough, and we had a variety of pizzas and salad. They also introduced me to kefir water, a drink they make that’s somewhat similar to kombucha. It was delicious and I hear it’s pretty easy to make. Once I’m back home, I'll have to give it a shot with my mom!
All in all, a very relaxing day. It’s a good thing it was, because tomorrow would be one of the most brutal, and yet short, day yet…
Oh yeah, somewhere in my rest day I also fit in another hike to a smaller waterfall…