I just spent a wonderful 3 days skiing at the Great Sand Dunes and riding my bike.
Pam, Jane and I wanted to check out the AMAZING volcanic landscape at Wheeler Geologic Area between Creede and South Fork. Pretty fun, although the bike ride in seemed WAY longer than 14 miles. We rode by many piles of hail from the previous day and the sky slowly clouded up and blackened as we continued on. Of course the low rumblings of thunder started when we got close to our destination......our stomachs turned......
Luckily, when we got there, we came upon a 4 wheel drive truck with a very nice couple in it. We chatted and they said they could fit our bikes in the back with the 2 of theirs and we could ride in the cab. LUCKY US! We ran up to the geologic area for a quick look, but knew we couldn't stay for long because there was something BIG brewing overhead! We got back to the couple's truck and loaded our bikes and moments after we shut the doors of the truck, the rain started! WOW! What a storm! Booming thunder! Hail! Lightning all around us! Slick mud! The puddles seemed to grow as we creeped our way~along with a lot of slipping~back to the trailhead. This 14 mile truck ride took 2.5 hours whereas it took 3.5 to get there on our bikes...with a couple short stops! What an adventure!
That night we went to see Urinetown at the Creede Repertory Theatre. At first I thought it was a bit dumb, but as it continued, it really grew on me. The actors were amazing and the music was awesome!
The first day of school (which was yesterday), we rode out of Creede up the canyon, passing by some cool mines and the old town of Bachelor where we saw great wildflowers, the remains of an old building and a lot of old rusty cans with a lot of history. GREAT ride!
The Sand Dune skiing was fun, but a bit overrated. After loading up boots and skis on our backs, we hiked in a mile on a road before getting to bottom of the highest steepest dune in the Park. My friends had shoes and I had sandals. First mistake! DANG that sand is HOT! I ended up putting my socks on to protect my feet from the heat. It was a long walk up and we got to the top, had a little lunch and took some pix. We were very excited about our 'sand run'! We got to the edge and "pointed 'em down"! You don't go very fast, despite the fact that we had removed all the wax like our friend had recommended. We discovered that the skinnier the ski, the easier it was to turn (unlike snow!) The skis just really ddrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggg in that hot sand! No wonder you want to find the steepest dune that you can....it would have been VERY scary had it been snow!!!!!!!!!!
