This is a cliff squirrel.

I don't really know how to describe this particular weekend. The forests in New Mexico are totally closed due to fire danger. Being the kind of folk that yearn for nature, we had no choice but to go to Durango.

Jack, Chris, and I did a fairly epic ride. Climbing up Jones Creek was hard but fine. Pinkerton-Flagstaff was also a climb and it was a lot harder. It seems a Famous YouTuber was there not long after us, but they didn't go quite as far as we did.

The descent was similarly epic: maybe like three river crossings, some rock and root tech, and even some climbing to push us over 4000 feet of climbing.

Somehow Chris managed to retain his energy after the ride but Jack and I looked thoroughly drained (at least as Caroline later observed).

The next day was for bouldering.

Pretty much everyone had a turn. We were even able to try out two different rocks in the area.

Of note, Emily has access to this blog. However, she has yet to contribute. Perhaps if I start leaving out the bouldering descriptions it will convince her to help with the writing.

Afterward we went for pizza downtown.

On the last day Jack, Caroline, and me and Emily did a ride around Horse Gulch. Or attempted to at least. It just so happened there was a race being held there. At the time of our ride. This made for an interesting 'chill ride' on our part. Because the race crossed a significant section of the trails in the area we actually had to ride a mile or so on the race course. I took it as a challenge and had fun with it but the girls were somewhat stressed by being passed by racers.

Per usual, Durango is great. The Purgatory bike park opens on June 18 at which point I am guessing most of the snow at high elevation will be gone and fun in Durango takes on another dimension.