21 Days in June Day 12 – Rio Rancho to Durango, CO

Story: 21 Days in June

Page 12 of 20 – Day 12

Albuquerque, NM to Durango, CO (245 miles)
Via US 550, SR 537, US 64, SR 539, SR 511, SR 172, US 160

Terrain: Curves, straights, scenic
Date: June 2014
Roads: Paved highway, Interstate, B paved highway (tar snakes)
Technical: Easy
Elevation: 5,102 ft. to 7,766 ft

Our WONDERFUL hosts in Albuquerque. Thanks Sean and Janine! Felt like coming home J

What a blast we had with old friends last night. Our hosts were so gracious to open their home and really take care of us. Thank you, Thank you so much. I remember when we all rode bikes in our early teens. Nowadays, our bikes are bigger, the speeds are faster, the distances that we’ll ride are longer. Same thing, same feeling, same freedom, same excitement, same people… cool.

We didn’t get to bed too early, but woke up at a decent hour. A couple of phone calls and we are getting our Posse together. I have friends in Albuquerque that are moto-enthusasts for sure. We get a couple more good friends to go with us as far as San Ysidro. So cool to have friends like that. Of course we need to talk and tell stories of the exotic orange RC8 and red ST1100. What a group we have going here.

On the way to Durango, there are a number of options. We opt for Hwy 550 to just past Cuba where we eat. It’s all about riding and eating. When in New Mexico, eat New Mexican food. Any town you are in there will be Excellent New Mexican food. We happen to be in Cuba, NM so eat at El Bruno’s Restaurante. We had Red and Green Enchiladas and the Taquitos. Wow. So, top off for gas across the street and head north. 19 miles up the road we turn right onto Hwy 537. This is an older highway that is much more interesting than 550 all the way to Durango. 537 goes past Navajo Lake, but also goes through many curvy hilly roads. Some high speed, some are not. There are a few straights, but it really is mostly curvy roads. The road conditions are not good at all, for cars. But we are on bikes so being intelligent human beings; manage to avoid most of the potholes most of the time. This makes for interesting driving. It must look like we are driving drunk, but we are actually just swaying back and forth missing the potholes and smoothing our ride.

The air gets cooler as we go higher. Past 7000 ft. now. We also go downhill and into valleys where there air gets noticeably warming. Just a sign of things to come as we think of our ride tomorrow thru the Million Dollar Highway into the higher altitudes of the Colorado Rockies.

But first, get to Durango. Where our road T’s, we take the left onto Hwy 64. Some construction, but there aren’t working on Sundays. Turn right on Hwy 539, turns into 511 turns into 172 through Ignacio, left on 160 and continue thru on 550 North to Durango. Easy Peasy. Plug that into GPS!

Navajo Lake is huge. Sort of like a mini Shasta Lake where you’ll see houseboats, floating decks, and many many recreational boats. Looks like fun, but after snapping a couple of pics, just blast on by.

At Igacios, we see a primo Trimph Bonnie 750. Very cool and makes us wish for simpler times. But we are happy that we have EFI and can handle these altitude changes with ease. Actually, without noticing much of anything. I do seem to hear a little pinging from the Harley this high up, but they work themselves out. (Is that a good thing?).

We are in Durango, and you can feel the electricity in the air. We are within sight of the Rocky Mountains where we head up tomorrow, we can feel the cooler air. The weather looks fantastic, tomorrow should be around 70 as we arrive in Ouray, CO. After eating, we stop at the local Walmart for supplies, water is our mainstay and we make sure that we keep hydrated all the time.

That’s it… we must sleep. On to the Million Dollar Highway first thing tomorrow!

We meet up in the morning with Charlie and Michael. So nice to have good friends