Friday

Today we visited Colorado National Monument, we thought it would be fun to take the dog along and do some mountain biking there. Right, first off they didn’t allow mountain biking on any trails in the park, just the main road. Second, was the dog. No pet allowed on any trails within the park boundaries. Our plans were shot to hell. The ranger charging us the entrance fee saw that in our faces. She showed us a spot just outside the east entrance of the park where it was popular to bike. Tabeguache trailhead was a well-maintained system of trails ranging from a simple kids loop to the radically extreme.

We agreed to do the park loop first and I’m glad we did. The road switch backed its way up through the sandstone layers to the top of the ridgeline, from there it followed along the edge of the massive cliffs as it looped its way around overlooks down the valleys to the flat plains below of Grand Junction, Colorado. Erosion had isolated pinnacles from the canyon wall and in the morning light I could see several paintings. Why else would they have an overlooked called “Artist Point”

Okay I may have gone over the top with the picture taking, both Victor and Lina kept rolling their eyes every time I wanted to stop for a photo. Halfway through they were both ready for some biking.

Finally at the end with a view of the town below, we dropped off the edge for the final descent down the winding road. They both looked at me and we stopped the car, unloaded the bikes and then they took off on the downhill coast. I followed along behind as they banked their way around the tight curves to the park entrance at the bottom. They continued on the extra mile to the trailhead of Tabeguache, where we all met up to do a little off road mountain biking.

Within minutes Victor took off on the vortex of death up the ridgeline. Lina and I stayed on the Bambi loop, or kids loop. Even there, some frustrating words were heard from her about the problems of shifting gears up the small hills.

We are now chilling back at the hotel room. Karin, who had to work today, will arrive later on tonight with Markus.

Richard Boyer