2016 Summer Road Trip: UT, CO, NM: Day 4: Wed, 6/15: Dolores, Phil's World, Besolis

Day 4: Wed, 6/15: Dolores/Cortez, CO

We loaded up all 4 mountain bikes and went to “Phil’s World,” an incredible 30+ miles of singletrack mountain bike trails in the desert. We rode 6.5 miles of beginner singletrack called the Trust Loop and Hippie House. The kids did great! Sarah never had to get off her bike and Ryan only had to walk a few steep or technical sections. It was really fun. We then returned to camp and relaxed with the Besolis in their campground. All the kids were playing “Comedy Sportz” games led by Amy Besoli while the dads were tying on fishing hooks and weights to many fishing poles. A gardener snake out of nowhere slithered really fast straight towards Sam’s foot. Ryan saw it and started yelling “snake.” When it was within about 6 inches of Sam’s foot, it turned a different direction and slithered off. We all then put on mosquito spray and drove 10 miles to a series of ponds stocked with trout. Sarah caught a fish on her first cast. Another boy in our group also caught a trout about 10 minutes later. Then all of us got our hooks caught on rocks on the bottom of the ponds. After a couple hours of retying fish lines and having no luck and being bombarded by mosquitos, we left for home. The man fishing next to us gave us the 4 fish he caught while we were there so we went home with 6 fish. The 3 dads cleaned the fish and then we grilled them in aluminum with lemon slices, olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. They were so good! Fresh and not fishy. We had another campfire and listened to the river and watched the moonlight glisten off it. Today was great—mountain biking, fishing, and hanging out with the Besoli’s and their friends.