Mike Hoppe’s Off Road Adventures 

     I arrived in Durango on Monday and got camp set up just north of Hermosa Creek at Durango Riverside Resort.  Eric and Jamie are the managers and are serious adventurers themselves…Eric is also a serious dirt bike rider…how about a 250 mile single track that starts 2 miles from camp…but I digress.  It is an awesome campsite (ex-KOA) right on the Animas River.

     Tuesday was an attempt at fishing at Havilin lake up the road…struck out but got to watch 3 eagles fish for a couple of hours until the heavens opened up again (it rained all Monday night, too).  The rest of the day was spent in Durango doing the coffee thing…and planning today’s ride…

     This morning I took off at 6am first light here heading towards Silverton (slowly, lot’s of deer) to catch a dirt track that goes over Ophir pass to the town of Ophir and then to Telluride.  Absolutely stunning.  The snow pictures are at 11.8k feet.  The front side was pretty narrow and rocky but the big GS is a tractor…the back side was really wet from the rain and snow melt…and steep…interesting slide down to the town of Ophir.  Crossed the road into Telluride and continued on a forest road thru Ames, bypassed Telluride and took another steep climb out the back of Sawpit which put me up on a high mesa and dumped me in just above Ridgway.  Coffee in Ouray and then playing on the twisties back toward Silverton where I took another dirt detour up Mineral Creek.

     Lastly, I stopped in at Electra Lake to find that the clubhouse manager (Scot & Joey Hughes) winters in Sasabe running some high dollar horse/guest ranch in the winter…and rides a GS!!   

     Breaking camp and heading across Utah in the am…probably end up in Panguitch for the night…plan on hitting Montana on Saturday…to be continued.