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Odyssey 2008: Coming Home To Colorado New |
Dates: (17 days, 16 nights) |
Assembly Point: Boulder |
Tour Cost: $4,800 (includes all lodging, breakfasts and dinners, park entrance fees, support van, shuttles, leaders, tour maps & narratives) |
From our earliest beginnings, we’ve always looked to the “other-than-ordinary” adventure opportunities as the principle that has dictated the development of new programs added each season. Ten years ago, that pursuit led to the emergence of our Odyssey Series of cycling adventures. We launched our Odyssey Series in 1999 with Rocky Mountain Magic, a 14-day ride from Missoula, MT, through Glacier and Waterton Parks into the heart of the Canadian Rockies to Jasper, AB.
In the years that followed, we traced the Pacific shoreline from Seattle to San Francisco, toured the Canadian Maritime Provinces, circumnavigated Lake Michigan, replicated the Lewis and Clark Trail from Wood River, IL, to Astoria, OR, and then spent the next two years focused on Lewis and Clark’s explorations in Montana and the Dakotas. Last season, we marked our 25th anniversary by Chasing the Great Divide over 40 days from Lordsburg, NM, to Jasper, AB.
Clearly, we’ve been chasing all over North America in search of adventure, but, in the process, perhaps we’ve overlooked our greatest adventure opportunity. And so, in the season ahead, the 10th renewal of our Odyssey Series will celebrate the magnificence of our home state. In 2008, we’re Coming Home to Colorado.
Odyssey 2008 assembles in Boulder, site of the University of Colorado and tucked against the backdrop of the Flatirons. Early morning of Day 1, we’ll climb through Left Hand Canyon to the Peak-to-Peak Highway with Long’s Peak, only one of Colorado’s 54 “fourteeners” hovering above us. We’ll overnight in Estes Park and then ride into Rocky Mountain National Park the following morning. In the course of this day, as we traverse the park along amazing Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake, you’ll understand why cycling in Colorado is the absolute best. We could blather on and on about the thrill that you’ll experience as you crest Trail Ridge atop Fall River Pass (12,182') way beyond timberline, surrounded on all sides by the indescribable splendor of the snowclad Rockies. Blather though we might, we would never get it right!
And so, think of the Day 2 experience as just one day in a continuum of similar experiences that constitute the essence of Coming Home to Colorado. As the remaining 15 days unfold, we’ll climb beautiful Willow Creek Pass to North Park, conquer the Continental Divide twice at Muddy Pass and Rabbit Ears on our way to Steamboat Springs, trace the mighty Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon, and the Crystal River above Redstone to its source near McClure Pass, visit Ouray, climb awesome Red Mountain Pass to Silverton, and Molas and Coal Bank to Durango. The legendary San Juans of southwestern Colorado, Wolf Creek, Slumgullion, Monarch, Fremont and Loveland Passes—the at-or-beyond-timberline summits of Colorado—all are constituent elements of Coming Home to Colorado.
We’ll spend our overnights in many of Colorado’s exciting mountain towns, including Steamboat, Glenwood Springs, Silverton, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Lake City, Salida and Leadville—all historic towns with a storied past and a lively present.
As we have done with past odysseys, for those unable to commit to the full 17-day program, participation in Coming Home to Colorado is also available in two segments of unequal duration (segments have been determined by transportation issues):
Segment I (Boulder to Durango) July 4-12
Segment II (Durango to Denver July 13-20
Contact us for details relative to participation in selected segments.
As though there remained any doubt, we could ramble on forever as we attempt to detail all of the “nuts and bolts” of Odyssey 2008, and particularly about Coming Home to Colorado. The better choice, if we’ve whetted your appetite, would be to contact us by phone or e-mail and we’ll fill in the gaps, including a day-by-day itinerary. Most of all, know that we hope to share with at least some of you still reading this, what we expect will be an adventure of a lifetime.
E-Mail: timber@earthnet.net
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