2016 Summer Road Trip: UT, CO, NM: Day 17: Tues, 6/28 Durango and Bayfield, CO

Day 17: Tues, 6/28: Durango, Co and Bayfield, CO

We checked out of our campground in Durango and drove to the mountain bike trails behind Fort Lewis College in Durango. We pulled over on the side of the road for 5 minutes watching a deer right next to our car eating and hanging out. Then we mountain biked the trails—especially the “pump track” (a small BMX course with berms, bumps, and jumps). We all had fun riding the many berms and doing small jumps for over an hour, improving our mountain biking skills and just having a great time. Then we ate lunch at Ryan’s favorite—Denny’s. After stocking up at Walmart in Durango, we drove about 20 miles to Bayfield to stay at the beautiful Riverside RV Park. We rode our bikes through the campground and enjoyed hanging out with a yak and a recently-shaved alpaca there. We rode along a stream with trout as well which we hope to fish tomorrow. Then we grilled chicken 10 feet from a pretty fishing pond. All 4 of us got bites and temporarily had fish on the line but they all got away since we have barb-less hooks. After dinner, Sam went back out to fish and caught a 14 inch rainbow trout!!! He was huge and heavy—probably the biggest fish Sam has ever caught in his life. About 30 minutes later, Sam caught another big rainbow that was fighting like crazy. Sam gave Ryan the fishing pole to reel it in most of the way. Then the fish went on another run so Sarah got her turn battling the big fish. When he was finally shore side and Sam went to grab him to release him from the hook, he got away on his own. Wow—2 14 inch fish caught! As it got darker, we enjoyed watching a mallard duck that flew into the pond and was swimming around eating things. We also liked seeing 2 large heron fly by overhead. The bats here are much larger than in La Crescenta. It was fun to see them fly over us and eat bugs near us along the pond.