Todd Wells Blog - Back at Home

Last time I checked in I was in route to my home of Durango, CO. I've been home now for almost a week and let me tell you it feels good. When I left I had ridden in the snow the weekend the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race was canceled but now summer is in full swing.

There is a 4^th of July ride in Durango that climbs a dirt road up Kenebec pass and descends thirty miles back to town on the Colorado trail. Kenebec pass tops out at over 11,000 feet so the weather can change pretty rapidly up there in the summer. The first time I did the ride we got stuck in a thunderstorm with John Tomac, Daryl Price and Ranjeet Grewal and had to huddle under a tree till it passed. This year we had perfect weather and there were about one hundred people out doing the ride including quite a few of the Durango Devo riders.

Durango Devo is a mountain bike development program that caters to junior high and high school kids. They do organized rides all spring, summer and fall. I'm sure more then a few of those kids will be filling the professional mtb ranks when they get older.

So I have been riding quite a bit these past few days and getting in some of my favorite high country rides. Today I did another epic Durango ride, the Hermosa Creek trail. You pick up Hermosa Creek about ten miles from Purgatory Ski Resort. The trail hosted what I believe was Colorado's first mountain bike state championships. I opted to bring an extra water bottle in my only spare pocket instead of a rain jacket since I got a pretty early start and it has been in the nineties lately. I thought I would beat any thunderstorms that would happen later in the day. Let me give you some advice "Always bring a rain jacket on a high country ride in Colorado no matter how clear it is when you leave". I got caught in a torrential rain, hail, and thunder and lightning storm. Since I didn't have a jacket I froze for about thirty minutes before I got to a lower elevation and the rain stopped. It didn't even rain in Durango and by the time I got home I was covered from head to toe in dried mud.

Tomorrow I have a rest day and I'm looking to get out and swing the clubs. My golf game isn't as bad as I thought it would be after a two month hiatus.

Thanks for reading.....

Todd Wells is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This blog was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.