After a good night’s sleep, we awoke to a beautiful morning and we were eager to get on the trail. We packed up, loaded our packs and trailers, and headed into town.

We went to the Resort Quest office to drop off our keys and to check out. During last night’s unloading of the shuttle in the dark, we had accidentally grabbed our shuttle driver’s backpack. I left the backpack with the attendant at the front desk and Judy left a message with the driver to inform him to pick it up.

I still wanted to see if we could find a replacement chain ring bolt for my bike. Since Rob was the only one who did not want to eat breakfast, he volunteered to ride further into town to see if any bike shops were open this early on a Sunday.

The rest of us got some grub at the small grocery store below the Resort Quest office and ate at the picnic table outside. It wasn’t long before Rob returned, two different crank bolts in hand. Although none of the bike shops were open yet, he was able to find someone in one of the bike shops who had come in early. Fortunately, he had some crank bolts, which he gave Rob for free, and luckily one of the bolts fit my bike. After the bolt was installed, we were all ready to go!

We rode out of town, first on the shoulder of the main road leading into Telluride, then on a paved bike path. I was out front, but should have stayed behind because the peloton rode effortlessly behind big Rob as he pulled the group along a fairly long stretch of the bike path.

Our first climb was the road leading up to the Telluride airport. Although fairly steep, it wasn’t too bad since it was still paved. Upon reaching the top of the hill, we soon turned off the paved road and onto Last Dollar Road. It felt like we were finally hitting the “real” trail and leaving civilization behind.

The day was beautiful - sunny with plenty of blue skies and white puffy clouds - perfect weather for riding. After walking the bikes around a bulldozer parked in the middle of the road and going across what seemed like a dry stream bed (where a lady with her Suburu left only a narrow line through the rocks for Brian and I to pedal through), we began the tough part of the ride. Whether it was the increase in altitude (very likely), people being out of shape (likely for several of us), not being used to hauling such a heavy trailer (for sure), or some other reason, we all struggled up the final ascent. The trail didn’t look very steep, put our legs begged to differ.

We set up a tow system to help off-load the burden of hauling the trailer. In a tow system, an inner-tube (we actually used one from a road bike since they are less bulky than a mountain bike tube) is tied on one end to the seat of the “tow-er”. The other end is tied to the handlebars of the “tow-ee” (the one with the trailer attached).

Sounds like a pretty straightforward technique and it is, except in the case of Brian and Ryan. While towing Ryan, Brian somehow caused Ryan to veer off and nearly crash. We’re still not sure what happened exactly, but it was amusing nevertheless.

We used the tow system during the slow slog up the hill. Brian helped to tow me while Rob and Dave took turns towing Ryan up. It wasn’t too long until we reached the final approach to the hut. We had read about this approach from various trip reports so it wasn’t unexpected. The section is certainly ridable (at least without the trailer), but after all the tough climbing we just went through in addition to the altitude change, no one was in the mood to try. We pushed the bikes up the hill. If hauling a trailer up this far was hard, pushing it up this really steep hill was quite a bit harder - it was quite an effort!

Fortunately, the steep approach was relatively short, only a 1/4 mile or so. We were all really happy when the hut finally became visible at around 12:30 PM. We made it! This being our first hut, we were naturally eager to check things out. The hut size was about what I expected - not too large inside, but not too small either. It was basically a squarish area, with the kitchen area against one wall, food cabinets against another wall, and bunks against the remaining walls. The bunks were two levels, and it was somewhat of a relief that the “mattresses” were actually fairly comfortable. The top bunks, however, didn’t have very much head room. It was imperative that those in the top bunks remember not to sneeze while sleeping.

Most of the food was stored in two large cabinets and the selection was quite varied! Just to rattle off a partial list, there were candy bars (Snickers, Almond Joy, Baby Ruth), M&Ms, Oreos, crackers, Ramen noodles, chips and salsa, and a large selection of canned goods - tuna, salmon, chicken, ravioli, tomatoes, pineapple, oranges, pears. What was surprising was the amount of perishables - a good selection of apples and oranges, fresh eggs, cheese, and even bacon. There was no refrigeration, but since the temperatures never get that high and they stock the huts every three days, the perishables end up not perishing that quickly.

About an hour after our arrival, it started to rain. What perfect timing! We hung out inside the hut, warm and dry, shooting the shit while the raindrops pitter-pattered on the roof.

Hut #1 had a beautiful view that allowed us to see the tough uphill that we just suffered up. After the rain had subsided, Rob was alone admiring the view when a couple of dudes came hiking along and offered to share some “chronic” with him and the rest of the group. Rob kindly declined, replying “Thanks, but not this crew”, the implication of course being that he’d love to do some chronic with them if not for the square pegs that he was with.

Apparently, Rob has not led as sheltered a life as the rest of us becuase nobody else knew what “chronic” was. Rob enlightened us that chronic is in fact marijuana, aka pot, aka weed, aka hemp, aka a word for every letter of the alphabet according to Rob. I did not know that. Huh, you learn something knew everyday!

Each hut has a bunch of water jugs and you’re supposed to try to use the water sparingly because they have to lug these heavy jugs to the hut. Even though this water was fully intended for drinking, Ryan had his doubts and insisted on filtering the water before drinking. So he puts the end of the water filter hose (that typically goes into the “dirty” water such as a stream) into the water jug and starts pumping. Of course, by doing this, he contaminates the water jug. Hmmm… I guess we’ll cut him a little slack because of the elevation.

We went to bed after a hard day of riding and looked forward to the next day…

Cumulative miles: 13.4
Daily miles: 13.4
Mechanicals: None
Casualties: None
Notables: 2,700 foot elevation gain to ~11,000 feet

[Go to Day 2 trip report or go to pics.]

Posted by Roger at 8:51 pm.