Why We Do What We Do - Hermosa Tours
After 10 years of running mountain bike trips all over Colorado, Utah and Arizona so much has changed...but much has not. I still remember our very first customer in Durango in May 2008: a short out and back day tour for two guys on the Hermosa Creek Trail. You would have thought we were preparing to summit Everest the night before. We did our best that first season to figure out what we were doing and made plenty of mistakes, but what has never changed is our desire to explore and simply spend a lot of time outdoors. 
Through all of those mistakes we finally made a really good decision: launching our self-guided tours. The basic idea was to provide a minimum amount of logistical support to riders and allow them to experience great trails on their own, at their pace and with their group of friends all for a greatly reduced price. Our thought was mountain bike tourism was alive and well: people still load up bikes, a cooler full of beer and some camping gear and head out to a popular destination like Moab, Durango or Sedona. But did they really want to be lumped in with other people in a group, on their schedule and pay $1300 per person for 4-5 days? Most folks did not. 
So off we went. We relaunched almost all our tours as self-guided, do-it-yourself trips. We create the itinerary, we haul your gear down the trail to each camp each day and we provide a deluxe kitchen (you buy and cook your own food) and camp complete with water, firewood, coolers and everything else to “glamp” your way down the trail. When you arrive at camp your gear has been safely stored in our trailer; just pick a tent spot, grab a chair and kick your feet up with a cold beer or a glass of wine. Come dinner time we provide a full kitchen with tables, grill, stove, pots and pans, plates and bowls, utensils…you get the idea! 
The best part of all this is opening up beautiful places and amazing trails to our clients. The Kokopelli Trail, the Colorado Trail, numerous sections of the Arizona Trail, Telluride to Durango, the Black Canyon Trail, Durango to Moab, Flagstaff to Sedona all become more attainable without breaking the bank. It goes beyond, “We had a nice trip. Thank you.” We’ve had countless clients thank us for what we provide at a deeper level. “We simply wouldn’t get out and do this kind of thing without you.” “I’ve always dreamed of riding in the backcountry like this for 4 days, but could never make this happen on my own.” This is what it means to us. This is what it’s all about. Seeing people experience something for the first time and watching it open their minds and hearts to bigger adventures and finding out what they are capable of. It’s truly inspiring to be a part of people’s breakthroughs. 
Photo: Lear Miller of Hermosa Tours Guide JoannaAnd then there are the stories. Oh, the stories! Cactus stuck to butts. Thundershowers that dump an inch of hail. Wrong turns that lead to impromptu adventures for both the clients and us. All retold around the campfire over beers and a lot of laughter. People laughing so hard about their day they flip backward in their chair and spill their beer and dinner everywhere. While it’s always still a “job” we are doing it’s hard not to join in and share in the hilarity. We consider so many of our clients friends over the years simply because of nights like these. Our message is simple. What we do isn’t curing cancer or solving world hunger. What we do is provide the theatre for some amazing adventures on your mountain bike into amazing places you might not otherwise see and experience. If not with us we still think it’s incredibly important in today’s fast-paced world. Don’t lose touch with these places and the opportunity to create timeless memories.
Photo: Lear Miller
