Mary and I left early Sunday morning for Cortez CO. We went by way of Gateway which led us through Moab like canyons along the Dolores River. The eastern slope of the La Sal Mtns are visible making it a very beautiful drive.
We met my friend Tim from Moab met us in the Walmart parking lot in Cortez. Driving from there we used the incredibly inaccurate directions from some chucklehead on MTBR.com to find the trail-head for Phil's World. The directions should go like this--go east toward Durango, take a left turn across from the fairgrounds, you're there! How can you mess that up????
I had just a little hope that the trails would be good at Phil's World, a few friends had ridden there and said it was good. However, the trails turned out to be GREAT! I have not had that much fun on my bike in a while. The trails are built for mtbkr's and are directional. You never run into anyone and they flow like Kessel Run all day long. There were sections that were like Upper Porcupine Singletrack, and some Lunch Loop ledges thrown in as well. I highly recommend a trip down there. We put in a good 16 miles and saw a loop that would have added 5 more, plus there seems to be more on the south side of the hwy too.
The trail system sits at about 6000 ft so its a little cooler than here at home, and I would bet an evening ride would be just perfect. It was getting a little toasty towards the end, but it was mid day.
After our ride, our plan was to go to Mesa Verde Nat. Park. I had been preparing my-self for the normal onslaught of "tourons" that you normally meet in a national park. I have avoided Mesa Verde just for that reason for years. However, it wasn't bad at all, aside from the tour through Cliff Palace, where the poor ranger has to spend more time than anything talking about how to survive a 1/4 mile hike, it was an amazing experience.
Cliff Palace is the biggest "ruin" in the park. It has 23 ceremonial Kiva's which are stone circles below ground that would have had stucko roofs 800 years ago.
Spruce Tree House, pictured below, was my favorite. It had a restored Kiva which we climbed down in. 
Spruce Tree house had the most in tact windows. 
In the picture below, you can see a pictograph inside one of the rooms. It is thought to have been a lunar calendar. There would have been a floor, so the pictograph would have been able to have been painted easily.
After coming down from Mesa Verde we set out to find a good camping spot. We found one near the Phil's World trail system and cooked dinner. Just at sunset, we decided that a quick ride on the smoother trails would make Mary and Gus pretty happy. Due to her hands, Mary hasn't ridden a real trail since Tucson in February and since October before that. She was ecstatic to be flowing on a sweet ribbon of singletrack. We only went about a mile, but it sure was good to be on the trail again with my girl. After our ride we decided our camp was to close to the hwy and had too many bugs, so we headed for a camping spot that we found on our honeymoon, in the mtns near Durango.
We camped at 9000 ft, it was a perfect cool night, the crescent moon coming up over the San Juan Mtns at around 3 am on my actual birthday. Not too shabby!
After breakfast we headed into Durango, the plan being to finally ride Animas Mtn trail, a trail i've heard a lot about, and one that pro Trek rider Travis Brown calls his favorite trail. Well, the trail pictured above and below are NOT Animas Mtn, it was an off shoot not shown on the map. However, it was sweet, fun riding through the woods. Once I realized I wasn't on Animas I turned around to find it. I found it all right, a long arduous climb with sketchy loose rocks and a barely climbable grade. From 6500ft to 8100ft I slogged in the hot sun. It wasn't what I expected, but then I remembered that I was healthy, and on my bike in the mtns, and from that point on everything was OK.
Pictured below--The actual Animas Mtn trail, Durango CO.
I finally reached the top. The view was worth it, looking northward toward Silverton and even our home in GJ even farther away. Time to ripp back down!
Well....the descent wasn't so great. I pinched a tubeless tire on the many loose rocks, which sealed up enough to keep going, although slowly. Then I burped most of the rest of the air out of it on a switchback slowing me even further. Long climb followed by slow crappy descent. SUCK! I'm not gonna recommend Animas Mtn, but I will say I still had a heck of good day out in the world. Then Mary bought me a big fat burger back in town and my birthday was completely perfect!
The Mountain House, as Mandela calls it. Our home for three days of relaxing in Crested Butte. Thanks to Sheri and Robby for letting us stay!
Sweet Miss Mandela, she sure is a cutie!
And the whole family.
Crested Butte is colorful, quite a bit more contrast then down below.
After dinner Mary and I took the first dirt road we could find. Of course it eventually involved four wheel drive, but the road took us to one of the most amazing dead ends I have seen. 
Mary made me get all dressed up (I had to tuck in my shirt) and we posed for pictures. Pretty good backdrop.
I tricked Mary into NOT getting me an anniversary gift so that I could afford to buy her these. She likes them I guess, she mentioned something about prettiest flowers ever.
The first "legal" Throwdown was rained out. Greg got these pictures of our practice runs, just before the skies really opened up. 
