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Your summer has wound down, life was crazy and you’re in need of some serious “me” time. How does riding the world class trails around Durango with a few of your girlfriends sound? Maybe grab a massage or two and relax by the Tourfire under the starry Rocky Mountain night sky while dinner is prepared for you? Oh one more thing – you’ll be accompanied by 3-time NORBA National Series Champion and Team LUNA Chix pro, Shonny Vanlandingham on her home turf!!
Welcome to the Shonny V Durango Dirt Tour. Shonny has designed an amazing tour of some of her favorite rides around Durango with a concentration on FUN FIRST. They’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to hone your skills under Shonny’s expert instruction and she’ll be happy to talk nutrition and fitness along the way, but the main focus here is fun and relaxation.
Our staff will greet you at your gate at the Durango/La Plata County Airport, relieve you of your luggage, and bring you into town where your room at a downtown Durango hotel is waiting. Situated just a short walk from the historic downtown area, you are free to explore on your own as the staff make final preparations and take care of your fellow guests arriving throughout the day. Grab a sandwich and a beer on the patio at one of several local brewpubs, walk historic Main Street, or pick up some last minute supplies at our partner local bike shop.
We’ll check back in with you briefly in the evening to make sure that you are well situated, that your bike and all your gear are ready to roll, and that all your needs are being met.
The Hermosa Tours van will pick the group up at your Durango hotel at 7:00AM sharp. We’ll sit down for a hearty, but nutritious breakfast on our way out of town. At breakfast we’ll have time for everyone to meet Shonny, share a little about yourself, talk about what each of you want to get out of your Tour experience and go over some general Tour details.
Today’s ride starts in the Hermosa Creek drainage area behind Durango Mountain resort. The ride is designed to give you a little bit of everything and help you get warmed up for the week. Shonny will ride amongst the Tourers, taking the opportunity to observe your riding style and discuss your goals and what you hope to learn during the week. From the top of Hotel Draw we’ll begin a pleasant traverse on the Colorado Trail. Stunning views of Blackhawk Pass to the north are seen early in the ride as are long views of the Needles Mountains and Weminuche Wilderness to the east. The trail tilts upward, climbing to the junction of Corral Draw, a lightly-trafficked trail featuring a 5 mile descent on a ribbon of singletrack into the Hermosa Creek drainage. After a quick ford of Hermosa Creek our guides will lead you south down the Hermosa Creek Trail. We’ll finish off the day with this true Durango classic. Like every day, we’ll be at the end of the trail waiting with refreshments and snacks. Once we’re all ready to roll, we’ll shuttle up to Cascade Village where you will find your luggage waiting for you in your condo, which will be your base Tour for the week. Don’t forget to order your packed lunch for the next day from our Trail Menu!! Ride length is about 23 miles. With four more days of riding ahead of us, Shonny and the LUNA staff will host a quick talk and Q&A session on nutrition and recovery techniques for female cyclists.
Fuel up with a tasty breakfast prepared for you at the Village café. We’ll first set out on pavement for a few miles to stretch our legs. You’ll be thankful we warmed up first – the climb up Elbert Creek Trail is challenging. It’s short and extremely beautiful…but challenging. Soon we will top out on the Hermosa Cliffs and stop for a breather and take in the epic views of the Weminuche Wilderness. After a quick traverse on a winding forest service road we’ll swing onto the Dutch Creek Trail. The first few miles of the Dutch Creek Trail are a mix of double track and forest service road, but it quickly turns to singletrack. The vistas from this first leg of singletrack are legendary. The Weminuche comes back into view on our left and the La Plata Mountains reveal themselves to our right. It’s a great place to stop for photos and to “soak it all in.” Hold on to your knickers – the “soak” is over and we’re headed downhill on one of the best descents in all Durango. The trail now hugs Dutch Creek itself, which we will cross many times as we weave through aspen groves, through open meadows and over technical root and rock. On some of the trickier sections, we’ll stop so you can take multiple passes down the trail. Shonny and our other expert female guides will demo their techniques and provide feedback as you give it a shot. A final little climb spills us out onto the tail end of Hermosa Creek Trail and a smooth cruise back to the shuttle van. Ride length is about 20 miles.
Our route today is a Hermosa Tours special. We’ve spent countless days exploring “off the beaten path” trails that give our guests something different. The shuttle van will drop us off at a Colorado Trail junction along a remote forest service road. These first miles on the CT meander up and down with no major plunges or climbs, but as always we will be treated to long views; this time of an almost quilt-like canopy of pine and aspen covering rolling mountains and creek drainages. The view is awe inspiring during late September tours when the aspens turn. Our rolling traverse comes to an end and our downhill begins when we turn onto a primitive, little-known trail toward the Hermosa Creek drainage. While this trail is indeed primitive, Hermosa Tours always takes the time to clear and maintain the trails we tour, so you always get a prime singletrack experience. This descent changes many times along its length – we’ll race through thick pine forest, enchanting aspen groves, grassy meadows and along a pleasant mountain creek. Eventually we will connect with the Hermosa Creek Trail, but head north this time. The climbing is very gentle and the atmosphere of Hermosa Creek at this end is superb. High canyon walls and rocky cliffs surround us everywhere as we pedal along the creek and back to the waiting shuttle van. Ride length is about 20 miles.
Past the half-way mark in our Tour, this afternoon will be a prime time to soak in Durango’s nearby natural hot springs and enjoy a therapeutic sports massage from a expert therapist.
From the Champion Venture Road crossing, we’ll start today with a downhill bonanza through thick, forested singletrack, past a gorgeous waterfall and finally onto the rocky singletrack cutting through the lush vegetation alongside Junction Creek. Wide-eyed and grinning, we’ll regroup again at the Wall’s Gulch Bridge and start a hefty climb away from Junction Creek….sorry, it can’t ALL be downhill!! The top of the climb makes for a great snack location. Refueled, we’ll take our time traversing up and down on narrow singletrack through a variety of aspen and pine forest. The beauty of the singletrack in this area is the stuff of which magazine photo spreads are made. Finally we’ll reach what the locals call “High Point”, named for its status as a turn around for riders climbing up from Durango. They climb, we descend. The downhill buzz continues for another 2500 feet of great Colorado Trail singletrack to the Junction Creek Trailhead, the southern terminus of the Colorado Trail. Ride length is about 20 miles.
The Townie Ride. Sure, Durango is famous for its many backcountry trails, but locals know that a spider web of excellent routes is right in and around town. We’ve found that this is a great way to leave a lasting impression on our guests – live a day in the life of a Durango mountain biker. We’ll start with a breakfast at the area cycling hive, Bread, where there’s a good chance of spotting one of Durango’s many local pros. This bakery serves up a delicious variety of croissants, bagels, cookies, breads, muffins and many more aromatic treats. Once we’ve had our fill and crammed our packs with extra goodies for the ride we’ll climb up the tight singletrack of two new connector trails recently constructed by the local advocacy group, Trails 2000 (we are a proud member and contributor). The top of this climb rewards us with a panoramic view of Durango, the Animas River Valley and the San Juan Mountains. The terrain here is high desert, which you will certainly notice as you snake through junipers and pinon pines. Soon we’ll turn south into the Telegraph Trail System, called Horse Gulch by the locals; a trail system IMBA designated an “IMBA Epic.” The Telegraph Trail System includes over 30 miles of singletrack for us to choose from, but rather than outline our route in advance we like to gauge the mood of the group and pick a few loops to please everyone. We’ll end our ride by way of the Animas River Trail, a paved pathway, or maybe we’ll swing back onto the Rim Trail and loop around Fort Lewis College and down Chapman Hill, the site of many legendary mountain bike races. Again, let’s just relax and see what we’re up for that day. Either way, we’ll grab some lunch at Steamworks Brewery and savor that feeling of being a local Durangoan.
After a great week of riding, we love to celebrate the end of the trip with a group dinner in town. Take a few hours to relax and clean up, then we’ll meet at the hotel to stroll over to our closing dinner celebration. This is a great time for everyone to reflect on their experiences and tell war stories accumulated from the many great miles of singletrack. Hermosa Tours and Shonny thank our guests tonight with some unique gift bags. Cheers!
If you are leaving the next day Hermosa Tours will shuttle you to the airport for your flight home.
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