Enter Durango
After a few days of shooting what Breckenridge had to offer, we completed the first segment of our Ride Guide expedition, and we had to move on. Eamonn and I banged off some early morning interviews, and we hit the road to our next stop of Durango, Colorado. The drive started with a marathon climb through Hoosier Pass, which is on the continental divide and summits at a modest 11,539 feet.
Cory Horton, myself and Eamonn posing at the Hoosier Pass sign. What a surprise, Eamonn without a shirt!
We rolled in to town at about 10:00pm where we had an awesome dinner, and met with the tourism director of Durango to discuss our plans for the next two days. We were lucky enough to be set up with Matt from Hermosa Tours, who was our official guide for this segment of our trip.
Cory Horton working his magic with an epic view. Colorado has no shortage of scenery like this. Photo: Ian Nelson
Day one started with a shuttle to 12,000 feet, and then a climb up an access road to the Dutch Creek Trail head. It didn’t take long before Eamonn and I quickly realized we weren’t over our altitude sickness. The views were amazing, but the climb took its toll on our bodies. Eamonn was feeling pretty rough, and I thought I was going to die. After a brief rest we started on the trail which climbed along a ridge for another few miles.
First class all the way to the top of the mountain. Matt McFee and Lisa Leib of Hermosa Tours did a great job of showing us what Durango had to offer. Photo: Eamonn Duignan
After about an hour of climbing we got to the goods, the Hermosa Creek Trail. It followed Hermosa Creek down a valley with some spectacular views via some epic trail. The majority of the trail was fast rolling single track with the odd rock garden and creek crossing along the way. One of my favourite things about this trail was that it had some unreal high alpine views, as well as sections that meandered through tightly spaced groves of Aspen trees.
The 12,000 feet of hurt. Ian’s reaction to a few miles of high altitude climbing. Photo: Eamonn Duignan
It was great to finally rip some fast downhill trail, with an overall ride that I would actually call all-mountain. We continued down for another hour till we met up with Cory our cameraman to shoot the lower section of the trail.
Eamonn shredding one of the portions of the Hermosa Creek Trail in Durango. Photo: Matt McFee
When things were all said and done, it had been about 3 hours and about 14 miles of riding. Eamonn and I were beat, but we still had to check out the Durango Mountain Resort (DMR) trails, or should I say trail? The lift access at DMR is very primitive, and has limited options. Though, we did hear from some of the local riders that there are some great DH/Freeride trails on the mountain that aren’t sanctioned by the resort so we weren’t able to ride them. As a result, we filmed the “advanced” trail on the mountain called 1990 Worlds.
The art of filming. Cory capturing the magic as Eamonn and I drop into the 1990 Worlds Trail. Photo: Matt McFee
The 1990 Worlds trail was fun, but it could have been really awesome with a little bit of upgrade work done to it. The trail was fast, but lacked banked corners and had lots of climbing, which I assume is pretty standard for a 19 year old DH trail? The mountain has great potential; however, it would be cool to see the resort put some work into the trails, and promote mountain biking a little more. The next stop was the hot tub at our hotel, then dinner and finally bed to prepare for another long day.
The last shot of the day on the Durango Mountain Resort. Photo: Lisa Leib
Day two started early once again, with a quick breakfast then a huge shuttle. The drive took about an hour and a half up a rocky road to a portion of the Colorado Trail that spans an impressive 500 plus miles from Denver to Durango. Immediately we were stunned by the views this area offered. After a few staged scenery shots we were on our way up the trail with no idea of what lay ahead.
Eamonn soaking it in on the Colorado Trail. Photo: Ian Nelson
Following a short climb we arrived to our first descent, which was a gnarly section of trail that traversed through a scree slope. After dropping in and blasting the first section of trail we had three flats within the first minute and some seriously sketchy moments. Quickly we realized that there was no room for error on this trail seeing as a crash would lead to a very long, and potentially life ending fall into some deadly jagged rocks. After the scree slope the trail passed in and out of forest cover with some fast straight sections of awesome high alpine single track that I didn’t want to end.
Eamonn and Ian cruising through the sketchy scree slope of the Colorado trail. Photo: Lisa Leib
That was a wrap to our fun but exhausting Durango segment of the trip. The trails were a blast to ride and the people were great. Stay tuned for the next leg of our adventure in Salida, Gunnison and Crested Butte.
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