Ouray or the Highway: Jeeping in Colorado

You do not, however, need a mountaineering pedigree to get an outdoor workout in Ouray; hiking boots will do. According to the visitors center in town, 18 hiking trails depart from within Ouray's city limits, most of them beginning with steep climbs.

One clear day, I gasped up one of the more popular routes above town. At the top, the trail crossed a landing between two waterfalls, then came to an old miners' bunkhouse, complete with a coal-burning stove, coals inside. Such ruins are not unusual around Ouray. Nor, for that matter, are the super-fit trail runners who jog -- jog -- to them for exercise.

While I stopped to catch my breath on the same trail, one such uber-athlete, a tanned, shirtless man perhaps 20 years my senior dashed past me, carrying only a bottle of juice.

"Tough one," he said.

Here's one strategy for dealing with such insincerities: Catch your breath. Then get something with a motor.

* * *

Because I hadn't driven a stick shift -- much less navigated a four-wheel-drive trail -- in more than a year, it seemed wise to begin my Jeeping experience with "mellow scenic."

After picking up the Jeep at 5:30 p.m., I spent the evening on one of the area's easier options: the route to an alpine meadow called Yankee Boy Basin. Even on this relatively undemanding trail, though, the road got a little bumpy and narrowed to one cliff-hugging lane, sans guardrail.

Still, riding high in a Jeep makes you feel sort of tough -- tougher, really, than you probably are. So after an evening spent checking out the basin's waterfalls and wildflowers, I was ready for something more challenging.

Although I'd already driven part of the route with Gerry, the next morning I headed for the bone-jarring road to Engineer Pass, elevation 12,800 feet.

While excited, I was also slightly nervous. Although the overwhelming majority of people who explore the area's four-wheel-drive trails do so safely, accidents occur. Last year, two vehicles went over cliffs, and four people died. Local law enforcement officials say the fatalities were unusual, but caution is necessary.

Panic, however, is not. Heavy winter snows were still blocking the roads where the deaths occurred -- two tricky passes between Ouray and the town of Telluride -- and almost all the open trails were easier than those routes. In fact, some of the area's backcountry roads are passable even in normal, two-wheel-drive vehicles.