We crossed into Colorado and after stopping in Steamboat Springs and buying a new tent, we headed further to Ouray. At the tourist information the lady told us that they had a big bear problem, as they had had an early frost and all the berries had been destroyed – and that it would be safer to camp at the campsite in town. So that’s what we did. In the middle of the night we were woken up by someone or something? trashing through our motorbikes. We weren’t sure what it was – realising the bear spray was not in the tent (for the first time in weeks, because we were in town right?) we got a bit worried. Next thing we saw the shadow of a gun at the side of our tent, followed by a huge bang! We later found out, that someone had seen the bear next to our tent and called 911 – a ranger shot a bean bag at the bear and shooed it of. He told us that it probably won’t be back tonight and that the same bear broke into a house the last night. The bear managed to rip off Flo’s Giant Loop Tankbag from the tank. The lower zipper broke and it is now held on by some bungee cords. Seems like they are adventure proof but not bear proof.
The next morning we planed to ride the Alpine Loop – a collection of challenging off-road trails leading high over many mountain passes. Due to the lack of sleep from the bear incident Kate decided to go hiking – Flo took on the challenge and had a blast! He raced over the mountain passes starting out at Corkscrew Gulch then to Hurricane, California, Cinnamon and Engineer pass then back to town via Mineral Creek. He was back in Ouray in just under 3 hours and encountered amazing landscape with lots of Fun terrain. We set up our tent at a fellow riders place behind his distillery – degustation of his whisky’s and gin included. What an end to our time in the mountain states of the USA!
