San Juan Huts: Telluride to Moab Day 3

Spring Creek Hut to Columbine Hut

Today was the day I would try some alternate routes, which included single track.  It would make for a very long day, 9 hours, but filled with profanity and giggles.  Because of the weight I was carrying and not wanting to risk a breakdown, I quickly decided single track wasn't the way to go.  So I was happy to find that the longest alternate route was a flowy ATV track that paralleled the standard route.  Btw, the standard route usually was a dirt/gravel road where four wheel drive vehicles would be--annoying at times because of the dust but not too many. Initially on the parallel track, I rode through meadows, alpine, and more cow country, along with little kids riding the tiniest motorcycles.  Cute.  Not so cute was finding out later on this trail big ruts carved out by big people motorbikes.  With all the rain in the area, it created a huge muddy obstacle course.

This is where the profanity and giggles came in.  While learning how to ride in mud without slipping or sinking, I did both at one point.  My left foot went down up to my ankle in the goo as me and my bike slowly followed. Ugh.  Then as I was trying to walk around a huge cow on the trail, my right foot slipped on something more slimy than mud...poo.  I was so exhausted by now and just wanted to get to camp.  When I did make it, I was on the best cycling high.  Thrilled with so much adversity throughout the day and finally feeling totally tired from the exertion.  Adventure!