Durango Dirty Century

best views anywhere!

more hike-a-bike

Finishing off my week of vacation I headed to Durango for the DDC. This was a Colorado Endurance series event. Long, self suported and free. I like that in an event! There were aid stations, but I wanted to race this self supported, carrying all the food I needed for the day and filtering all my own water. Opting for the "A" route, I was in for a long day of riding and hike-a-biking! A few downfalls and 20-30 snowbanks made the race slower than the previous year and I had no idea how long I was going to take... hoping for under 15hrs.. Starting with a ride up Hermosa Creek, which I had done a couple of times before, I knew the start and took it easy.. When the trail ended at Bolam Pass the climb up to the Colorado trail began. Riding my pace and feeling a little fatigued from the effort of last weekend it took me a little longer to get up the road than I wanted but I hit the Co trail and got ready for a long day above 10,000 feet. Up the trail, over the snowbank.. repeat. It was here that I started to catch a few other riders.. Running into Jeff Kerkove at about mile 50 we rode the rest of the day within a few minutes of each other and finished the last 30 or so together. It was fun for me to be able to ride a little with him! Riding in with a friend is always a bonus!

spot me in the right bottom corner

Riding the last 50 miles or so of the CTR  was amazing, and an eye opener of what to expect at the end of that 500 mile race.. Hoping to show up for the start of the CTR next summer and a little more knowledge is always a good thing!
So all in all I had a great race and felt  pretty good throughout the 13hrs it took me to finish. Faster than I expected and a very tough event! Thanks for the photos Jeff!
 My GPS download of the race is here

finishing with Jeff

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Dixie 200.. ish..

the whole group at the start

my loaded bike

sara along one the long straight sections

Sara and I drove out to southern Utah on June 24th for the Dixie 200 bikepacking race. Having never done a race like this, we were not going there to be competitive, just to have fun and enjoy the ride. Picking up Eszter Horanyi in Grand Junction along the way. She is getting ready for a record attempt on the CTR race in Aug.. Along with Eszter, only 2 other riders showed up at the start making for a small group. Taylor, raced with him in the 12hr Wild West race, showed up and it was good to have a quick chat with him before he took off fast at the start.. One of the main reasons for doing this race was to check out our bike packing systems and gear. We packed relatively light, knowing we could pick up supplies in the town of Tropic, about half way through the ride. We started out with the group along the paved path for a mile or so before it turned onto the beginning trail, which is where we saw the other three riders for the last time.. Sara and I were enjoying not having to race and being able to just riding through the beautiful country! The first day was perfect with great trails mixed with some great roads. We rode an out and back up to Powell Point, an amazing place!! Riding into Tropic around 8 pm we decided to stop and fuel up on Pizza and cokes. Yummy! Not having to be in any hurry was nice nice, but the service and the little pizza joint was horrific! Being covered in dirt and sweat and having to wait an hr for pizza pretty much sucked!

sara at Powell Point

We continued on until around midnight, when we decided to throw down the bags and sleep. Forgetting how cold it can get in the desert in summer, I realized I need to get a warmer sleeping bag for these trips! Sara was all good, even with out a sleeping pad of any kind.. tough girl! Waking the next morning after 6hrs of sleep or so, we started our ride up the double track until the turn onto Grandview Trail.. This would be the start of some of the slowest hike-a-biking I have ever done. Through the overgrown trail and a few downfall trees we pushed our way, able to ride here and there was a treat! After making our way down we started up one of the last dirt road sections before turning back onto Grandview trail. Well, the preceding dirt rode was so covered in downfall that dragging our bikes up, over, around under and through them took forever! At the top of the pass Sara and I decided we did not have enough time to continue onto the trail section, which continued with a LOT more downfall, and took a dirt road that showed on our map to head back towards where we could catch a paved road to the start/finish.

bivy sport for the night

there is a trail under there

Having smooth dirt to ride lifted our spirits and we enjoyed the ride through this beautiful area! Noticing on my GPS that we were getting really close to the original route, we opted to jump back onto the trail to finish our ride. Riding the Thunder Mtn trail and the end of this race was amazing! Ride it if you ever get a chance!

Sara enjoying the road!

Back at the start finish we called Dave Harris, race director/coordinator, about our trip and asked about fellow racers. Only Eszter and Erin were left on the course and Eszter finally finished around 11 pm or so. After talking with her we were glad we made the decision to skip a lot more downfall hell! She wrote up a great blog on her race here. All in all a great trip and we learned a lot, and had a GREAT time! We'll definitely be back next year for this event!

Thunder Mtn trail, CLASSIC!