Amazing how Spring can finally burst through like these mushrooms pushing thru the road base of a hard-packed forest service road.  I’ve been pushing Spring for about 6 weeks and I finally managed to find a place to get out on the newly rigged mountain bike.  With a little guidance I found a loop below the snowmelt line that was within an hour of Durango, and a wonderful place to to shake down the new bikepack rig.  We often drive by or even through the area west of Dolores, Colorado but have only hiked off of Lizard Head Pass to the north near Trout Lake.  I never imagined how wonderful this lower elevated portion of the San Juan National Forest was for a playground.  In fact I had to double take on the name of the forest since the San Juan range is east of the La Platas and this region is well west of the La Platas.It wasn’t until I’d selected the route that I learned they have a trail over there called Boggy Draw and to this point I’m not quite sure where that trail starts and ends, but I did follow a few Boggy sign markers along the way.  I used Garmin Base Camp software and it’s version of geodesic topos, which are literally either too old or too accurate for contemporary route selection.  Garmin will route you along the most direct road between two waypoints, but what many long haul truckers have learned is, that road may no longer be in service.  Having a mountain bike is much more forgiving than an eighteen-wheeler, when I ducked under the “road closed” sign and slid down the historic wagon road between several of the waypoints.  I only got “stymied” once when the locked gate said No Trespassing and I had to abort in favor of a state highway.  Bike, body and bags held up just fine for an inaugural bash thru the backcountry.  I’ll need to add a charging cable to the list if I want to extend the battery life of the Garmin GPS.  And I found that the front harness straps loosen, and a skid plate at the bottom of that harness would save the fabric from wear.

The original route was 85 miles as plotted but I’m sure I ran a little over with that one backtrack.  As with the Great Divide route the ride was primarily on Forest Service roads, a few logging roads and a stretch of state highway.  Early on the forest was so dense my Spot Locater wasn’t picking up a satellite signal but by mid-afternoon the way opened up into vast high altitude grasslands with grazing game and reservoirs.  Keeping below 9,000′ was the plan so that there wasn’t any snow and camping temperatures would be above freezing.  As with most of my pre-Spring escapades this year it was great making the first tracks on most of the trails, however it also makes for soft ground for the tires which can make handling a bit tricker.  It was pure luck to have discovered this route and even better to be one of the first riders this year.  Not a single bike tire proceeded me anywhere along the route.  I did come across two separate horse riding groups as I got closer to McPhee Recreational Area but not many other recreationalists.

As is customary on these solo ventures, I truly enjoy listening to my selection of Audible Books.  Believe it or not I got thru two great books I’m eager to recommend: The One World Schoolhouse by Salman Khan and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  Wow! both these had been recommend to me and they certainly are worth passing on as great choices.  This was the first prolonged test of my iPhone for virtually non-stop listening and after two books (6 hours and 5 hours) plus a number of podcasts, not to mention several photos, the phone was still at 47% battery life.  Pure joy to lean against a stump after dinner watching the sun set, listening to a great book.  (I had to finish the first one after dark in the tent, it was so good.)  And those books sure made the bumpy freshly graded forest service road slip by unnoticed.  And yes the sights, sounds and sense remain unhindered.