Day Twenty

Couldn't sleep last night. Not sure why. This is the quietest and darkest place ever. Eventually got up at 6am. Had a look outside, saw a few deer. Ann got up to have a look as well. She hadn't slept well either. We decided it was because it was too cold so put the big duvet back on and switched the fan off. Went back to bed and actually slept. Dreamt that there was a tiger outside killing a deer.

Got up again at about 7.45am. Had a quick shower and put Everton's game on TV as it was on live in the USA. Same as ever. Only got to watch the first half. Quite glad really, it was awful.

We headed out just before 9am as we had our first activity at 9.30am. Headed down in to Pagosa Springs and then a short distance west.

Arrived here. http://www.outbackatvrentals.com/

Their website isn't much, but the reviews on Tripadvisor were all good. I phoned them last night to book up, so we were expected.

The couple that run it were great. Explained everything, gave us a map of the routes, told us what perils lurked around. We saddled up on our ATV or quad bike and set off. Ann didn't want to drive her own one, so we got a two seater. We followed the lady to the beginning of the trails and then she turned back and we were off.

We spent three and a half hours exploring. Some parts of the trails were dirt roads and others were just piles of rocks. We completed an 11 mile trip to the top of one mountain.

A view from the overlook

When we got there, there was a bloke there with his young son. He started being American and telling us all about all the trails and that he had shot eleven elk on one of them. At this point I could sense Ann was thinking the same thing as me, but neither of us had the guts to actually push him off the edge. He said he was going and that we could follow him back down and he'd show us some other routes, but we politely declined. We waited until he was well gone before we left.

Ann asked me to drive more slowly on the way back down. I said I couldn't promise anything. Covered her in muddy spray. We went back down and then took another route. We had been warned about big ruts in the road and they weren't kidding. We managed to negotiate them with out falling down a gap and tipping over. Burned along a bit and stopped at this view.

Another mountain

It was now time to head back to base, so we turned around and set off. I made Ann drive a bit, which she did, before stopping and making me drive the rest, Back through the ruts and then on then onto the decent roads. Managed to open the throttle up a bit and top 50mph.

Dropped the ATV off and then headed home. It was fairly expensive but worth it. Could have stayed out for hours as it was so much fun. Not sure Ann agrees.

Got back to the cabin and had lunch. Cleaned ourselves up and headed out to Pagosa itself. Went here.

http://bogeyq.com/mini-golf/

The second tournament of the trip. It wasn't as nice as the last course, but it was much cooler. A woman shouted at me because she liked my NASA t-shirt. Bit odd. It was the slowest game ever, as there was a group of five lads ahead of us. They seemed to take an age because they were terrible.

Final scores were:

Roffe - 51
Knightley - 44

We then headed to what only can be described as a woman's shop. Basically had lots of expensive natural food that nobody would ever want. Seemed to be there for an age.

As we left I noticed that I had sunburn just above the knees, caused by sitting on the quad in shorts.

We headed back to the cabin and then into the garden for a game of horseshoes.

Then we made use of the a relaxing bit of kit.

It's a hard life!

Later on we saw more wildlife, more mule deer, hummingbirds and chipmunks. Had tea, watched the highlights of the Everton game which were on TV. Still woeful.

Tomorrow we have more exciting activities planned. Can't wait.

Moose watch - low

Chipmunks everywhere

States Visited - 15