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dang where does the time go. I feel like I open a lot of blogs and news letters with that question. I will also continue to do so, as change is tough, tougher than expected at mid life — although I plan on living a pretty long time. experiences like what are being experienced in these photos will make you want to squeeze every last drop of juice out of whatever life is. i am just happy that I can still do it — and I want to keep doing it —

I felt that way in college when I lived in Durango, but that was half of my lifetime ago. what did I think my life would be then? well much different than what it turned out to be … that is for sure … for instance, the internet was still a baby when I chose my major — a bicycle e commerce fashion brand born from a phone app was inconceivable.

I wanted to stay in Durango after graduation, but it was and still is near impossible to earn a living there with the cost of living.. and that was 2003! like most mountain towns where the economy is based on tourism, and with amenities like what you are seeing in these pictures, you really need to be independently wealthy or a high paid athlete to make it work. i know plenty of folks there who aren’t, and I applaud their hustle and creativity. but in many ways it is just not the real world — and thats what makes it so good for visits! there is no other town I have ever visited quite like it — and in many ways it ruined me to the rest of the places I would visit after my early 20s there.

this MTB trip was supposed to be a San Juan Hut to Hut, but a fire near Moab closed the door on us a few days before our flights took off from different sides of the country. a lot of my college friends ended up in Portland OR — makes sense … we are bike people! always have been. When news of the fire arrived, a few of us decided just to drink in some old haunts in the mountains surrounding town — I should also mention this was my 45th birthday day gift. a gift it was! old friendships and dirty ribbons of single track heaven.

we certainly made the most of it! and I was beyond pleased to bring my EVOO 29er out to a place where my ideas of trail scholarship were formed. it is true that I went to college and graduated here — but I majored in Mountain Biking. how can you focus on anything else as a 19 year old?

I was pleased with my spine and joints. long grueling rides in the high country. I could still do it! in many ways, better than I could when I was half a life younger. I weighed a lot more in college due to my muscle development focus, and was generally only doing short rides closer to town in between bench presses. My EVOO handled the terrain better then the most state of the art suspension bike of 2002 — with a lot less technology. of course modern mountain bikes are a whole nother beast, but with this rigid red machine — I feel like it could have won a UCI World Cup back then … or more of a NORBA national??

okay, this blog is running out of words. just musing this October morning. great to connect with old friends and feel the decades behind and ahead of us. we are already planning to give the hut to hut trip another try in 2026. bikes and the friends you meet astride them are forever for the most part.

palisade peaches are among my favorite foods. this one is out of focus, but it doesn’t mean the flavor was!

met Ned again while he was walking his dog. just things that happen in Durango. I know I said I was out of words, but I mean it this time!

XX RR