Telluride

Note: "A little help from our friends". As I elude to at the end of this post, we will be in Vail next week. If any of you know of a good winter camping spot in Vail or Avon would you email(underagedrvers@yahoo.com) us please.



After Pagosa we retreated back to Durango. We spent the weekend with Dan’s parents and his sister Tracy who is visiting from her home in Thailand. We are so very thankful that Tracy is safe at home and that her Boyfriend Mot is safe in Thailand.

Dan and I enjoyed an absolutely non-productive weekend. Once we had plopped ourselves in front of the Goddard’s 60” jumbo-tron there was no moving us. We do not have television in our rig, this was a conscious decision, but as a result we are unable to tear ourselves away from the boob-tube whenever there is one around. I am happy to report that nothing has changed in the almost seven months we have been without a TV.

Monday morning we hit the road for Telluride. It had been dumping in Southwestern Colorado for almost a week and we were a bit worried about being able to access our friend’s driveway in Rico, outside of Telluride. When we got to Rico we realized there was no way we would be able to get to anyone’s house, the entire town was snowed in. The main road had snow piles 7’ high down the center lane. We pressed on to Mountain Village/ Telluride because we were sure we could get there.

Our friend Jason is building a house in Mountain Village and he bravely disobeyed the myriad of covenants that address overnight camping, to allow us to park at his unfinished house. The snow just kept falling and by Tuesday all of the passes out of here were closed. Our friends Jamie and Eric (see Grand Post) had invited us to stay with them in Rico, as it turned out they got snowed into T-ride and ended up staying with us.

Three days later and the pass is still closed!! Last night we learned that we got out of Wolf Creek in the nick of time, since that pass was closed for five days! All of our friends up there got snowed-in at the mountain with no clean clothes or toothbrushes. We fared much better. As a result of the pass to Rico being closed some of our friends managed to procure some pretty fancy accommodations. One such friend got a room at The Peaks and Golden Door Spa, which is where I spent this morning. I am soaked and steamed to perfection and boy did I need a day of pampering.


The view, or lack there of, from our camper.

Along with the pass closures and power outages this storm brought with it, came the snow. Blessed, light, powdery snow and feet of it. I have skied Telluride many times, I even had a pass here last year, but never before had I had a powder day worthy of this mountain. Telluride is known for its steeps and bumps. It can handle a ton of snow, because it is steep enough. Yesterday was an epic Telluride powder day, the kind of day I will be talking about for years to come.

Actually Tuesday was such a day as well. So here we are yet again wondering how we continue to dumb-luck our way into the greatest situations. We are having a hard time moving on. We have T-ride passes, a result of that ski-swap we did back in September, and there is so much snow here, that leaving seems silly. A guy we met in Sayulita told us his motto was “never leave fun to have fun.” This is resonating with us right now.

But fear not dear reader we will be moving on this Sunday. Yet again we have proven to be ever employable and we are heading up to Vail for a week’s work. This too should make for enjoyable reading because we are working a ….well you’ll just have to wait and see.