Stephen's Story
Day 5
Today we started our day waking up pretty early in the morning. Everyone took showers and we had a pancake breakfast with sausage links. We went to the Purgatory, which had an alpine slide, off-road track, mountain bike trails, and a lake for kayaking. We did the alpine slide first, which was very fun but not worth the hour wait even though we were close to the front of the line. Then we went to the lake and Kyle did some kayaking for about 10-15 min. It would have been more enjoyable if the water was a warmer temperature. Then we headed straight for the mountain biking trails which was the highlight of our day. The lift was shut down so we couldn’t go to the longer intermediate trails which were all downhill. But we had dad and mom shuttle us up the mountain to the trails that we could go down. They were so fast and you felt so out of control (and out of your comfort zone) but you didn’t even care because there was too much focus and adrenaline always hitting jumps and trying not to die. I crashed 1 time falling off a berm and landing in some big rocks. I almost crashed into a tree 3 times. We hit a black diamond trail, which sounds fine if you don’t know what a black diamond trail means and you forget the fact that we have never done any downhill mountain biking. It was fine. Black diamond trails are the same speed with more turns and more aggressive turns at that. The upside is here are some really big jumps to try and clear. I have Gopro video of every single run we did and mom has video of up at the very start of our runs. The only bad thing about our time at Purgatory was that the off-road course was shut down because it was too muddy and the line for the alpine slide moving slower than a small turtle. We did about 5 runs from the top and halfway thru we got lunch at the resort and it was bad. We all got wraps and everything tastes dry and it all fell apart. After our time at Purgatory was done, we went and visited some friends and played some baseball (I may have hit a couple of bombs with only one hand on the bat) then we went back home to clean up and go get dinner and watch the Suns beat the Clippers by 30 points. Now we just have to wait for the finals.
This is the View you get to enjoy on your way down the mountain.
Amber's Story
June 30, 2021 – Wednesday
Today we spent a large chunk of the day at Purgatory Ski Resort. We bought passes for the boys to paddle board, kayak, pan for “gold”, do the alpine slide and the off-road vehicles. We had to purchase the tickets in advance ($35 each) and chose to go during the morning session from 0900-1300 hours. We woke up early, made the 45-minute winding drive up the mountain and got there a few minutes after 9. We checked in and learned the off-road vehicles that the boys were most interested in were shut down due to too much mud on the track. We waited in line for nearly an hour and the boys road the alpine slide that they enjoyed. They were not interested in waiting in that line a second time so we moved on. Kyle panned for gold with his bag of dirt and Stephen’s and got a huge bag of colorful rocks. Next, we went across the street and Kyle chose a little kayak and a huge paddle board and used them for a little while around the small pond that the resort has. After boredom set in, we moved on to the mountain bike park. The activity pass was a big bust and I would not advise buying it unless you know everything will be open.
We bought separate tickets to the bike park ($30 each). Unfortunately, the lift was broken so the only way to get the boys to the top was to drive them up on a winding, narrow dirt road that took about 15 minutes to get up. We dropped the boys off and they had a blast riding down as fast as their bikes would carry them. They beat us down the mountain every time. They loved every minute of it except for the one wreck Stephen had in front of a bunch of people who were waiting for the roller coaster. After a couple rides down, we had lunch then they were at it again. Mike graciously made that drive up the mountain multiple times and then told the boys we were done. They were cold since it started raining and were tired so they were good with going.
On the way home we stopped at the Alpen Rose RV Park to say hi to our friends who just arrived in town. The Suns were playing tonight so we devised a plan to meet up in downtown Durango later in the evening for dinner and to catch the game. I went back, got a few loads of laundry done and we met up with everyone at Carver Brewing Co in downtown. The pub gave us the whole back room, which we needed because we had over 20 people cheering loudly for the Suns. The Suns kicked butt and advanced to the NBA championship so we were all happy.
Favorite things in Durango: Kyle and Stephen - the mountain bike park at Purgatory Resort, Mike and I - Being on the lake at Vallecito Lake.