I ended up taking advantage of the decreased wind that accompanies nightfall in the area of Arizona I was in to push onwards as darkness fell. My goal became to reach Flagstaff, AZ sometime in the morning of Day 29, where I could then take it easy.
The plan started out well, with the wind beginning to drop off as evening fell, and my zipping along at a decent pace. As darkness set in, I saw yet another great shooting star, and with so little light pollution, I could easily make out the Milky Way in the sky. They desert also smelled wonderful as traffic dropped to nothing - a flowery, dry sandy smell I can't easily describe.
The first sign of trouble hit when I stopped at one of the sparse gas stations to refuel my body - just as I was pulling in, my controls started to feel funny. Sure enough, it looked like what amounted to a staple had broken through my back tire and I was sinking to a flat. As I've noted before, I'm not that good with switching flats, so I grimly got ready for the task, first getting a large fountain drink and an egg roll from the gas station to nibble on as I worked. About the time I managed to make some decent progress getting to old tire tube out, I hear a snuffling and look up to see another of the strayish "Res-dogs" as a guy I'd met called them looking at me.
Then I noticed that my yet "untouched" egg roll seemed to be missing. Grrrrr. The dog sure stayed friendly for the next half hour or so though while I fixed up the bicycle, bought a second egg roll which I immediately ate, and reloaded the bike. The dog eventually wandered off as no more food became readily available. Humph!
Sure enough, with my bicycle luck, I made it about 3 miles down the road before something tore (I know I need to work on careful seating, and have been improving with time, but it's a slowish learning curve with me, I guess..) A patch held up for a few miles before giving way, then another patch, and so on and so forth, putting me behind my hoped for schedule.
That led to my most exciting time, at about 1 in the morning. Every time I have a flat, I have to unload the bicycle, get out the gear, remove the tire, etc. etc. Needless to say, it's a fairly involved process. So there I was, close to the Grand Canyon area with almost nothing around and few vehicles passing by, and I start to get barks, yaps and howls first from one side, then another. I know that most animals will leave humans alone, but "most of the time" is not something I like to bet on, and I was feeling pretty vulnerable with my bicycle in pieces and with a lot of excited yipping an barking going on. Finally, when that patch gave way almost immediately, I walked the bicycle, flat and all a ways down the road to a roadside stall. I have no idea if it is normally used for anything during the day anymore, or is just abandoned, but it had walls and a decent roof that looked strong. Working in there made me feel more comfortable and safer, knowing that if I ended up with an angry pack of wild dogs outside by chance, I could climb onto the roof until I could wave down a car.
Sunlight finally came, but with no sleep, it was like moving through a surreal world. At the same time, I finally managed to get a patched tube to hold up well. At this point, I was about 50 miles from Flagstaff (the nearest bicycle shops) and had already decided that if nothing else worked, I'd take the time to walk the bicycle, flat and all, into town so I could still do the entire trip on my own power. Fortunately, I didn't come to that, and I managed to pull off the loooong climb into Flagstaff on my last bit of energy, coming in at around 2:00 local time - a bit late for a real recovery day, but not bad for covering 190 miles since I last slept. I"ve napped since then, getting set up in a hotel for the night and washing off the grit of the road (Arizona has a lot of blowing dust that sticks to your sunscreen and promptly layers you in dirt). Now it's off for dinner.
Tomorrow, I'll hit one of the many local bicycle shops to get checked out and re-up my spares (as well as discussing my tire changing issues), get a good breakfast, then head onwards to the last few days of the trip. As for night riding, I'll try to avoid it as it tends to turn me into a zombie afterwards, but having seeing all of the local wind generators, I might have to just go for whenever the weather lets me leave!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Day 27 - It's HOT (Also, Day 28 Start)
What better time for record setting heat for this time of year in the desert than when I'm bicycling through it. I heard 103 being bounced around around 4:00 today. But I regress...
Waking up this morning, I got a late start, enjoying having a bed and shower for what will probably be the last time in a few days. Checking out, the same lady that I ran across last evening was there and we had another good 30 minutes of stories and conversation shared. I headed over to the diner that was just two buildings down and had a tasty Sunday brunch buffet, then finally took off down the road.
The weather was great and I made nice headway - a given on days I get good breakfast. Fairly soon, I was passing through the Ute reservation coming up on Four Corners. I'd been warned that it was under construction/renovation, and sure enough, I wasn't able to actually get to the corners, being blocked about 20 meters away. Ahhh well, at least I saw it.
Soon after that, the heat really set in for the day. The amount of liquids I drank today was massive, and was truly amazing. Fortunately, all of the scattered towns have had trading posts or gas stations, so I managed to keep my fluid supply high. Progress was a bit slower than I had hoped as I plugged along. I'm in the tiny little outpost of Mexican Water now - not much more than a gas station/shop and a restaurant. Kim - the guy running the shop told me a bunch of bikers go this way and that I can camp out behind the place, as well as giving me a heads up about free wifi that is available here. He's a great guy! We've been chatting about politics and his life (he grew up in Utah and ended up coming out here to help a friend rebuild a sheep herd)
Even with a bit of light left, I'll probably relax here and at least get a nap in. Tomorrow is supposed to have more record-breaking heat, so I'm aiming to get an early start - perhaps even before the sun rises - to get in as much mileage as I can. I'm 190 miles from Flagstaff at this point, and would love to make it in two days. With an inexpensive hotel mapped out, I figure I might be ready for another shower by then. Arizona is also my second to last state. After this, all I have left is California. Amazing...
Well, I didn't get to post yet because blogger is having issues. While I was sitting outside, another local came up. He turned out to be a police officer for the Navajo Nation. He, Kim and I sat around and I got to learn a lot about local politics and how the Native American nations work. To get local perspectives was absolutely wonderful. We talked about the divide between the youth and adults in how they viewed tribal life (interesting parallels with West Virginia politics in some ways), what kind of crime they face and the financial limitations, as well as customs, respect and tourists that pass through.
An education I could get nowhere else.. Wonderful!
Posting was still down, so I've added a little more. I started out the morning after breakfast at the restaurant in Mexican Water and made good time in cooler weather for the first 20 miles or so. Soon though, the winds started up again, holding me back a bit. Also, I ran into "blowing dust" signs, and areas with wind pushing grit across the road. Not the most pleasant of riding conditions. Finally, I got into Kayenta. Stopping at the McDonald's to try to update again, I saw a loaded bicycle outside. A quick check inside found me the other biker. His name is David and he's been on the road for the last 5 months after quitting his job to do this. He started in Chicago (where he's from) and has gone across the north, down the coast, and is now headed home through the more southerly of directions. We chatted and shared route information for an hour or two as the worst head of the day occurred. He just got back from Monument Valley, a side trip he'd done. Great guy with a lot of fun stories to share. I may run through the night to hit Flagstaff tomorrow night. We'll see what the weather and my body is saying.
Waking up this morning, I got a late start, enjoying having a bed and shower for what will probably be the last time in a few days. Checking out, the same lady that I ran across last evening was there and we had another good 30 minutes of stories and conversation shared. I headed over to the diner that was just two buildings down and had a tasty Sunday brunch buffet, then finally took off down the road.
The weather was great and I made nice headway - a given on days I get good breakfast. Fairly soon, I was passing through the Ute reservation coming up on Four Corners. I'd been warned that it was under construction/renovation, and sure enough, I wasn't able to actually get to the corners, being blocked about 20 meters away. Ahhh well, at least I saw it.
Soon after that, the heat really set in for the day. The amount of liquids I drank today was massive, and was truly amazing. Fortunately, all of the scattered towns have had trading posts or gas stations, so I managed to keep my fluid supply high. Progress was a bit slower than I had hoped as I plugged along. I'm in the tiny little outpost of Mexican Water now - not much more than a gas station/shop and a restaurant. Kim - the guy running the shop told me a bunch of bikers go this way and that I can camp out behind the place, as well as giving me a heads up about free wifi that is available here. He's a great guy! We've been chatting about politics and his life (he grew up in Utah and ended up coming out here to help a friend rebuild a sheep herd)
Even with a bit of light left, I'll probably relax here and at least get a nap in. Tomorrow is supposed to have more record-breaking heat, so I'm aiming to get an early start - perhaps even before the sun rises - to get in as much mileage as I can. I'm 190 miles from Flagstaff at this point, and would love to make it in two days. With an inexpensive hotel mapped out, I figure I might be ready for another shower by then. Arizona is also my second to last state. After this, all I have left is California. Amazing...
Well, I didn't get to post yet because blogger is having issues. While I was sitting outside, another local came up. He turned out to be a police officer for the Navajo Nation. He, Kim and I sat around and I got to learn a lot about local politics and how the Native American nations work. To get local perspectives was absolutely wonderful. We talked about the divide between the youth and adults in how they viewed tribal life (interesting parallels with West Virginia politics in some ways), what kind of crime they face and the financial limitations, as well as customs, respect and tourists that pass through.
An education I could get nowhere else.. Wonderful!
Posting was still down, so I've added a little more. I started out the morning after breakfast at the restaurant in Mexican Water and made good time in cooler weather for the first 20 miles or so. Soon though, the winds started up again, holding me back a bit. Also, I ran into "blowing dust" signs, and areas with wind pushing grit across the road. Not the most pleasant of riding conditions. Finally, I got into Kayenta. Stopping at the McDonald's to try to update again, I saw a loaded bicycle outside. A quick check inside found me the other biker. His name is David and he's been on the road for the last 5 months after quitting his job to do this. He started in Chicago (where he's from) and has gone across the north, down the coast, and is now headed home through the more southerly of directions. We chatted and shared route information for an hour or two as the worst head of the day occurred. He just got back from Monument Valley, a side trip he'd done. Great guy with a lot of fun stories to share. I may run through the night to hit Flagstaff tomorrow night. We'll see what the weather and my body is saying.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
End of Day 25 and Day 26
And what a great ending it has been! I ended up fighting headwinds as I made my way towards Durango, getting into Bayfield with only about an hour of light left. I figured I'd get a bit outside of town and throw up camp, giving myself a longer ride on my "recovery day" tomorrow than I had anticipated, but still not bad. Just as I was leaving town, a biker rode up behind me and started chatting. She was a local and (given my reputable look) offered me a shower and bed for the night. Huzzah!
Cindy (my host) first needed to pick up her dog, and I followed her to the local ranger office - A park ranger! Her dog is great - a 2 year old girl named Nelly/Nellie and an incredibly calm, friendly dog. I haven't heard her bark once, she followed Cindy home as she bicycled along, ignoring other dogs and following verbal commands to keep her safe. Once home, she followed me around and is actually sitting next to me, gnawing on a chew toy while completely relaxed.
Cindy and I had a great time discussing how she got to being a ranger as well as her experiences in the service (from trail crew to fire crew to dealing with land exchanges and rights of way), while I shared stories about my trip thus far. She has mainly done backpacking with a bit of bicycling thrown in, and had some exciting stories from her travels. She's also hit a lot of the different parks and forests around the nation, from Florida to the Appalachians to all throughout the West. A great lifestyle to have!
Tomorrow will probably still be an easy day, as it will give my body more time to recover before hitting the desert. Weather has been good but I've gathered that I should expect light headwinds for most of the rest of the trip, which will slow me a bit. Cindy and her dog, Nelly/Nellie(?)
And it is now the end of Day 26. After a good night's sleep I woke up before Cindy left for work, and she made me up a combination breakfast that she often eats - a mixture of oatmeal, cereal, raisins, fruit and yogurt with cinnamon and almond milk - Delicious! She also gave me some of the best description of the road ahead that I've had for the whole trip. Soon, I was off again on the road.
From Bayfield, it is about 18 miles into Durango - miles which flew by after a good night's sleep and one of the better breakfasts of the trip. After Durango, the day got a bit harder. I had been warned of the five mile long hill after the town, and although it wasn't that bad, especially after the passes, I also found myself battling a headwind that stayed with me for most of the rest of the day. Pedaling a loaded bicycle uphill into a headwind is an experience I most connect with what I imagine running in molasses would be like...
Despite the wind, today gave me some great views as I moved along, passing the entrance to Mesa Verde and skirting some federal parkland. In many ways, I feel as though I skipped out on the mountains - I had my first major pass (Norte La Veta), then almost immediately was on the flat San Luis Valley for the day, hit the second pass (Wolf Creek) and then got fairly flat again. Today finally some a bit more of the up and down I was expecting to, but it was still several mile long ups and downs, with no really steep sections. All in all a good ride, headwind or not. There were also plenty of local bikers out and about.
I had been trying to decide whether to skip out on the cheap hotel I'd heard about in Cortez given my recent shower and good night of sleep or not, but after miles of headwind, I decided to splurge and have two days in a row of shower and bed. Getting into town around 2:30, I found a great little motel. The lady at the front counter was an outgoing 79 year old who I ended up talking to for about half an hour on religion, spirituality and politics. Absolutely hilarious and outspoken, the conversation was good.
Now I have the rest of the day to relax before I hit the desertlands tomorrow. For then next long bit, I'm back onto flat land and should soon start seeing cacti again I expect. Tomorrow will also see me at Four Corners! Onwards (after appropriate R&R)!
Cindy (my host) first needed to pick up her dog, and I followed her to the local ranger office - A park ranger! Her dog is great - a 2 year old girl named Nelly/Nellie and an incredibly calm, friendly dog. I haven't heard her bark once, she followed Cindy home as she bicycled along, ignoring other dogs and following verbal commands to keep her safe. Once home, she followed me around and is actually sitting next to me, gnawing on a chew toy while completely relaxed.
Cindy and I had a great time discussing how she got to being a ranger as well as her experiences in the service (from trail crew to fire crew to dealing with land exchanges and rights of way), while I shared stories about my trip thus far. She has mainly done backpacking with a bit of bicycling thrown in, and had some exciting stories from her travels. She's also hit a lot of the different parks and forests around the nation, from Florida to the Appalachians to all throughout the West. A great lifestyle to have!
Tomorrow will probably still be an easy day, as it will give my body more time to recover before hitting the desert. Weather has been good but I've gathered that I should expect light headwinds for most of the rest of the trip, which will slow me a bit. Cindy and her dog, Nelly/Nellie(?)
And it is now the end of Day 26. After a good night's sleep I woke up before Cindy left for work, and she made me up a combination breakfast that she often eats - a mixture of oatmeal, cereal, raisins, fruit and yogurt with cinnamon and almond milk - Delicious! She also gave me some of the best description of the road ahead that I've had for the whole trip. Soon, I was off again on the road.
From Bayfield, it is about 18 miles into Durango - miles which flew by after a good night's sleep and one of the better breakfasts of the trip. After Durango, the day got a bit harder. I had been warned of the five mile long hill after the town, and although it wasn't that bad, especially after the passes, I also found myself battling a headwind that stayed with me for most of the rest of the day. Pedaling a loaded bicycle uphill into a headwind is an experience I most connect with what I imagine running in molasses would be like...
Despite the wind, today gave me some great views as I moved along, passing the entrance to Mesa Verde and skirting some federal parkland. In many ways, I feel as though I skipped out on the mountains - I had my first major pass (Norte La Veta), then almost immediately was on the flat San Luis Valley for the day, hit the second pass (Wolf Creek) and then got fairly flat again. Today finally some a bit more of the up and down I was expecting to, but it was still several mile long ups and downs, with no really steep sections. All in all a good ride, headwind or not. There were also plenty of local bikers out and about.
I had been trying to decide whether to skip out on the cheap hotel I'd heard about in Cortez given my recent shower and good night of sleep or not, but after miles of headwind, I decided to splurge and have two days in a row of shower and bed. Getting into town around 2:30, I found a great little motel. The lady at the front counter was an outgoing 79 year old who I ended up talking to for about half an hour on religion, spirituality and politics. Absolutely hilarious and outspoken, the conversation was good.
Now I have the rest of the day to relax before I hit the desertlands tomorrow. For then next long bit, I'm back onto flat land and should soon start seeing cacti again I expect. Tomorrow will also see me at Four Corners! Onwards (after appropriate R&R)!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Evening of Day 24 and Day 25 First Half
After my last post, I kept right on trucking, eventually making it to Del Norte with plenty of light, then moving on to South Fork against a rising headwind. Between the two, I passed two cyclists going the other way. I only noticed them as we were already passing, and they didn't seem inclined to stop. The two (one guy, one girl, I think) did yell back that they were headed for New York when I asked where they were headed.
South Fork is a tourism town, with the expected prices on both food and lodgings there. With no desire to spend that much on a hotel, and with the promise of campgrounds ahead, I started out on the road towards Wolf Creek Pass. After a bit, sunlight was starting to get thin, but I had made it into National Forest lands. Given that, I decided to go ahead and use an official campsite. The cost of the site usage goes straight back to the facilities that were used, so I didn't feel bad about it.
The campsite was almost completely empty, with one other tent visible, and a family that pulled in in an RV a bit after me. I spoke to the wife of the troupe. She and her husband are from Kentucky and go RVing with their two kids (7 and 9 years old now) to a different state/area each summer. Last summer, they'd done Alaska, and before that the Yellowstone area. Nice people! The view is great, and having a few people around me in bear country as I sleep is comforting too! :) No internet out here, so I'll save this and get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will cross the continental divide and head downhill for quite a bit! With the sunscreen I've been using and the number of days camping out, I decided I was about due for a shower and did some searching online (finding cheaper hotels in tourism country can be challenging). It sounds like there is a good hotel in Cortez, CO, so I plan to pedal hard tomorrow, camp out, and then have an easy day rolling into Cortez and recovering after that. Once that day is over, it's the Four Corners, then Arizona! Onwards!!!
Alright, that last bit was written last evening. I woke up this morning and broke down camp with temperatures that, while cool, were much warmer than they had been when I slept in the pass! South Bend was the last spot I was expecting to be able to get food until after the pass, so I'd grabbed a bit extra in terms of packed food. After eating a mixed breakfast containing jerky, a bagel, candy, nuts and dried fruit, I started my climb. The pass was a bit further off than I'd been led to believe yesterday, but the incline up to it on this side was actually better than North La Veta for bikers. The majority of the approach I actually bicycled, walking the bike only for the occasional break and to cover the steepest parts. Rising higher and higher, I eventually began seeing snow still sitting under trees on the north facing slopes. Near the very top of the pass, I went by the ski area which as apparently already closed down, although given the amount of snow, I was a bit surprised. Finally I hit the summit! (pictures will be forthcoming when I have an electric outlet available)
At the summit, I spoke with two different groups that were touring. One was an older couple from Tennessee. The husband had worked for the road authority(?) until he retired and they were on the road in their full sized van with two small dogs (sleeping in the van as they vacationed around). The other group was a middle aged couple and another woman who I think was one of their aunts - a lady with a great sense of humor who was very excited to get a photo of herself straddling the continental divide (it was shown by a bronze metal line). As I headed downhill, I ran into both groups again - one when I stopped for a photo op at the same spot they were, and the trio at a waterfall a bit further down. After about 9 miles of downhill rolling, things flattened out again and I found myself struggling to make headway.
Whenever moving forward gets hard, my first assumption is that I'm out of calories. I won't be hungry yet, but it won't matter. Sure enough, after pulling to the side and loading up again, I made much better headway, finally rolling into Pagosa Springs, CO around noon. On the way into town, I passed by several cyclists, but none of them had much gear with them, leading me to assume they're locals. One older guy who I had passed on my way into town showed up when I was resupplying on Gatorade at a gas station. I had a chat with him and he gave me some information on the road ahead. Apparently he's a local and likes to get in about 50 miles or so per day. I'm guessing a retired local, as 50 miles takes a bit of time, even without gear on your bike! He warned me that it gets windy around this time, and sure enough, the wind has been picking up. I'm still hoping to get as close to Durango as I can by this evening, as tomorrow is still going to be a "day off". We'll see what the terrain looks like - after 4 nights of camping and another one planned for tonight, a shower is looking very attractive! Good riding!
South Fork is a tourism town, with the expected prices on both food and lodgings there. With no desire to spend that much on a hotel, and with the promise of campgrounds ahead, I started out on the road towards Wolf Creek Pass. After a bit, sunlight was starting to get thin, but I had made it into National Forest lands. Given that, I decided to go ahead and use an official campsite. The cost of the site usage goes straight back to the facilities that were used, so I didn't feel bad about it.
The campsite was almost completely empty, with one other tent visible, and a family that pulled in in an RV a bit after me. I spoke to the wife of the troupe. She and her husband are from Kentucky and go RVing with their two kids (7 and 9 years old now) to a different state/area each summer. Last summer, they'd done Alaska, and before that the Yellowstone area. Nice people! The view is great, and having a few people around me in bear country as I sleep is comforting too! :) No internet out here, so I'll save this and get some sleep. Tomorrow, I will cross the continental divide and head downhill for quite a bit! With the sunscreen I've been using and the number of days camping out, I decided I was about due for a shower and did some searching online (finding cheaper hotels in tourism country can be challenging). It sounds like there is a good hotel in Cortez, CO, so I plan to pedal hard tomorrow, camp out, and then have an easy day rolling into Cortez and recovering after that. Once that day is over, it's the Four Corners, then Arizona! Onwards!!!
Alright, that last bit was written last evening. I woke up this morning and broke down camp with temperatures that, while cool, were much warmer than they had been when I slept in the pass! South Bend was the last spot I was expecting to be able to get food until after the pass, so I'd grabbed a bit extra in terms of packed food. After eating a mixed breakfast containing jerky, a bagel, candy, nuts and dried fruit, I started my climb. The pass was a bit further off than I'd been led to believe yesterday, but the incline up to it on this side was actually better than North La Veta for bikers. The majority of the approach I actually bicycled, walking the bike only for the occasional break and to cover the steepest parts. Rising higher and higher, I eventually began seeing snow still sitting under trees on the north facing slopes. Near the very top of the pass, I went by the ski area which as apparently already closed down, although given the amount of snow, I was a bit surprised. Finally I hit the summit! (pictures will be forthcoming when I have an electric outlet available)
At the summit, I spoke with two different groups that were touring. One was an older couple from Tennessee. The husband had worked for the road authority(?) until he retired and they were on the road in their full sized van with two small dogs (sleeping in the van as they vacationed around). The other group was a middle aged couple and another woman who I think was one of their aunts - a lady with a great sense of humor who was very excited to get a photo of herself straddling the continental divide (it was shown by a bronze metal line). As I headed downhill, I ran into both groups again - one when I stopped for a photo op at the same spot they were, and the trio at a waterfall a bit further down. After about 9 miles of downhill rolling, things flattened out again and I found myself struggling to make headway.
Whenever moving forward gets hard, my first assumption is that I'm out of calories. I won't be hungry yet, but it won't matter. Sure enough, after pulling to the side and loading up again, I made much better headway, finally rolling into Pagosa Springs, CO around noon. On the way into town, I passed by several cyclists, but none of them had much gear with them, leading me to assume they're locals. One older guy who I had passed on my way into town showed up when I was resupplying on Gatorade at a gas station. I had a chat with him and he gave me some information on the road ahead. Apparently he's a local and likes to get in about 50 miles or so per day. I'm guessing a retired local, as 50 miles takes a bit of time, even without gear on your bike! He warned me that it gets windy around this time, and sure enough, the wind has been picking up. I'm still hoping to get as close to Durango as I can by this evening, as tomorrow is still going to be a "day off". We'll see what the terrain looks like - after 4 nights of camping and another one planned for tonight, a shower is looking very attractive! Good riding!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Rest of Day 23, and Day 24 begining
What a day yesterday was! Rejuvenated from my lunch in Walsenburg, I headed off into the mountains. Given the amount of sunlight I had left, I planned to get to the top of the first pass I'd have to tackle (North La Veta pass - elevation 9,400 ft) and make camp with plenty of sunlight left. Starting about 9 miles from the pass, the uphill climb began. I got into a system of bicycling for a bit, then walking the bicycle for a bit, then bicycling again, saving my legs and butt from a long grind up the hill. Despite the walking, I still managed to reach the summit with plenty of light left. I dropped down just a hundred feet or so on the far side before finding a likely camping spot, figuring that even with the elevation, the night wouldn't be too cold.
The night wasn't bad. What was less than pleasant was breaking camp in the morning cold, followed by the long downhill. Normally I love miles of rolling downhill. When I've just woken up, it's cold enough outside to see your breath at times, and your biking gloves are the fingerless kind, it's not so fun! I found myself stopping every few miles to stick my hands under my armpits until I got lower and the day began to heat up a bit. With all that downhill, I made great time to Fort Garland, where I stopped in at Del's Diner for delicious pancakes and oatmeal! After resupplying on fluids, I was off again across the San Luis Valley. It's almost as flat as the plains were! Still, I'll be coming up on more mountains as well as Wolf Creek Pass soon enough. When a man at Del's asked where I was going and found I was planning to use the pass, he started laughing and shook his head. Still, I'm already at over 7000 feet, so I'm not that concerned.
Today and tomorrow should see me crossing two major boundaries on the trip. The first, just a few miles down the road from here (I'm posting this from Alamosa) is the point at which I will have less than 1000 miles left to go on my trip. That is in only about 25 miles! The other big boundary will be my crossing the Western Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass - something I plan to do tomorrow (no more camping out right at the nice chilly summit for me!)
With less than 1000 miles to go as of later today, and over a mile of downhill to reach my finish point, it looks like I will manage to get from coast to coast in under 40 days, something I would not have imagined myself doing when I started!
About two days back, I saw my first cacti, an exciting event that I had been anticipating. Moving up in elevation, I'm out of cactus country for now, but am definitely in scrubland regions, with pines on the mountains. Even looking out the window here, you can still see snow on many of the peaks, and the tree line is clearly visible. I don't think I've had any problems with the elevation, although given changing grades I bicycle on, sleep, and food, it's hard to tell whether this has been any effect. We'll see how things go over the next two days as I reach my greatest heights, then begin to drop again.
The night wasn't bad. What was less than pleasant was breaking camp in the morning cold, followed by the long downhill. Normally I love miles of rolling downhill. When I've just woken up, it's cold enough outside to see your breath at times, and your biking gloves are the fingerless kind, it's not so fun! I found myself stopping every few miles to stick my hands under my armpits until I got lower and the day began to heat up a bit. With all that downhill, I made great time to Fort Garland, where I stopped in at Del's Diner for delicious pancakes and oatmeal! After resupplying on fluids, I was off again across the San Luis Valley. It's almost as flat as the plains were! Still, I'll be coming up on more mountains as well as Wolf Creek Pass soon enough. When a man at Del's asked where I was going and found I was planning to use the pass, he started laughing and shook his head. Still, I'm already at over 7000 feet, so I'm not that concerned.
Today and tomorrow should see me crossing two major boundaries on the trip. The first, just a few miles down the road from here (I'm posting this from Alamosa) is the point at which I will have less than 1000 miles left to go on my trip. That is in only about 25 miles! The other big boundary will be my crossing the Western Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass - something I plan to do tomorrow (no more camping out right at the nice chilly summit for me!)
With less than 1000 miles to go as of later today, and over a mile of downhill to reach my finish point, it looks like I will manage to get from coast to coast in under 40 days, something I would not have imagined myself doing when I started!
About two days back, I saw my first cacti, an exciting event that I had been anticipating. Moving up in elevation, I'm out of cactus country for now, but am definitely in scrubland regions, with pines on the mountains. Even looking out the window here, you can still see snow on many of the peaks, and the tree line is clearly visible. I don't think I've had any problems with the elevation, although given changing grades I bicycle on, sleep, and food, it's hard to tell whether this has been any effect. We'll see how things go over the next two days as I reach my greatest heights, then begin to drop again.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Day 22 and Day 23 thus far
First, the pictures I forgot to put up last time. First is Lauren, second in Ryan.
Yesterday ended on a good note. I made it into La Junta with a fair bit of sunlight to go after an uneventful day. Knowing that Colorado 10 has nothing along it, I got 3 footlong subs at Subway and was off to make a bit of headway before nightfall. I got about 10 to 15 miles down the road before making camp and trying to get a night's sleep. I've found that I've been having very vivid dreams some nights, and my sleep schedule has been strange. After waking up from one of these dreams about an hour before sunrise, I broke camp and went ahead to move forward.
What a slog it was! I wasn't sure if it was the elevation, my poor night's sleep, or lack of a "proper" breakfast, but every mile seemed to be a struggle. Despite that, I managed to pull into Walsenburg about an hour or two ago, got some food and am now relaxing in Mike's Coffee Barn, sipping a frozen drink and using the internet and electric outlet. I also figured out why it was such a slog after calling home to update on where I was - I had gained around 2000 feet of (net) elevation during the ride. I need to get used to it though - this is the last stop before the real mountains!
I'll be crossing the Continental Divide in the next few days using Wolf Creek Pass (elevation: 10,863 feet!) so it should be a tough few days. I'll be interested to see what kind of daily mileages I will be turning out as I hit the hard stuff. For now, it's down the road a bit then perhaps finding somewhere to take a nap. I could use one!
Yesterday ended on a good note. I made it into La Junta with a fair bit of sunlight to go after an uneventful day. Knowing that Colorado 10 has nothing along it, I got 3 footlong subs at Subway and was off to make a bit of headway before nightfall. I got about 10 to 15 miles down the road before making camp and trying to get a night's sleep. I've found that I've been having very vivid dreams some nights, and my sleep schedule has been strange. After waking up from one of these dreams about an hour before sunrise, I broke camp and went ahead to move forward.
What a slog it was! I wasn't sure if it was the elevation, my poor night's sleep, or lack of a "proper" breakfast, but every mile seemed to be a struggle. Despite that, I managed to pull into Walsenburg about an hour or two ago, got some food and am now relaxing in Mike's Coffee Barn, sipping a frozen drink and using the internet and electric outlet. I also figured out why it was such a slog after calling home to update on where I was - I had gained around 2000 feet of (net) elevation during the ride. I need to get used to it though - this is the last stop before the real mountains!
I'll be crossing the Continental Divide in the next few days using Wolf Creek Pass (elevation: 10,863 feet!) so it should be a tough few days. I'll be interested to see what kind of daily mileages I will be turning out as I hit the hard stuff. For now, it's down the road a bit then perhaps finding somewhere to take a nap. I could use one!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Day 21 and start of Day 22
A fine day! I'm sitting at the first rest stop in Colorado, typing this up and will post it when I get internet access next. After all of my rest yesterday and a good night's sleep, I was up fairly early. Taking my time to get ready, I had a large continental breakfast, chatting with a couple who had driven into the area to pick up a small hay bailer (they sell farm equipment) and was finally ready to go, with the time still quite early. The weather was sunny and pleasant, with scattered thunderstorms supposed to roll in as the day progressed. Getting onto US-50/US-400, I found a great shoulder and pedaled along in calm weather, enjoying myself immensely.
A few miles down the road, I stopped to get something to eat at a gas station, noticing a guy sitting with a big backpack in the food court, checking out a map. After eating, I went over to talk to him. His name is Ryan, from Ohio and he is apparently hiking from the Pacific to the Atlantic in a wandering, relaxed style and largely "depending on the kindness of strangers" to make it through, using signs telling what he is doing to get free food from passersby and other support - more daring than I would attempt, but it's good to know that there are so many friendly people out there that you can do that to get by just fine!
Ryan had largely traveled from the way I was heading, so we sat discussing the route I had ahead (along with life, road experiences and many other topics) for a while. While we were chatting, another man came in and asked who had the bicycle outside. It turned out that he was biking from the Pacific to Washington D.C. to raise support for a Constitutional amendment to balance the national budget with his parents riding an RV in support, carrying pamphlets and other stuff for his campaign. His website is www.saveamericasfuture.org. At this point, I haven't looked at it, but the next time I have internet, I'll be checking it out. He didn't stay long before hitting the road again, and soon I was off myself.
Getting a few more miles down the road, I saw another bicyclist heading in the opposite direction with a trailer attached and plenty of gear. This was perhaps my favorite meeting so far. The biker was an older man named Lauren Brown. How much older - he was 67 years old, if I recall correctly. Apparently he had joined the Peace Corps a few years back, ended up in India and liked it so much he stayed on an extra year beyond his contracted time. Once he came back to the states, he decided to do this bike trip to try to rainse scholarship funds for Village Children in India! I think what really made him stand out to me was that most riders I have met, especially those with causes, have support vehicles. Not Lauren! He carries not only all of the gear he needs for the trip, but also all of the papers and pamphlets he needs for his cause with him! You can check out his website at www.bfki.us. I'm sure planning to when I can!
We only chatted for a bit, as there was a storm looming to our south and drifting slowly in our direction. Soon we were off on our separate ways. One more meeting capped off the day. Stopping at a Subway for lunch/dinner, two motorcyclists pulled up and got to chatting with me. They were doing a ride across the country from East to West and were happy to chat for a bit about my experiences on the trip as well as what areas of the country they had liked most. Once again, I set off, hoping to make it to the state line before too long.
Sure enough, with the bad weather having missed me all day long, but with some cloud cover to protect me, I pulled across the state line, finding the rest stop that hiker Ryan had suggested to me to be nice, and setting up for the evening despite the sun still being up for a few hours (see, I can take it easy if I really work at it!) The bathrooms here have running water, no warning about the water being non-potable, and best of all, and electric outlet, so I can read some ebooks without worrying about battery life! I've also discovered just how prolific prarie dogs are in some areas! They were all over the place as I went along on the last bit. Grasslands have finally started to give way to scrubland as I'm heading farther west. The two pictures I'll hopefully be able to upload when I get to internet should be Ryan the hiker and Lauren the biker from today. I did get one warning as I was setting up my tent - apparently there's supposed to be hail tonight - my first of the trip! If so, I plan to retreat to the shelter of the bathrooms or one of the picnic shelters, so it shouldn't be a big deal! I'll probably add onto this with tomorrow's experiences before I put it up on the net. Life is good!
Day 22 begins
I managed to miss any hail that fell last night, although it did rain a bit. I woke up partway through the night and could see the incoming storm front, so I moved my tent under one of the picnic shelters, staying dry the whole time. Next morning, it was packing up and off on the road again. Hopefully I'll make it to La Junta by this evening. For now, I'm sitting outside of a gas station in Lamar, CO mooching internet off of a nearby hotel. A few wispy clouds are in the sky, and there has been a light breeze all day, mainly against me, but not too bad. For now, I'm still in the flat part of Colorado, although I have been gaining elevation for the last few days, and am now over 3000 ft above sea level. It will be interesting to see what kind of mileage I get over the mountains! I'll post again when I can!
A few miles down the road, I stopped to get something to eat at a gas station, noticing a guy sitting with a big backpack in the food court, checking out a map. After eating, I went over to talk to him. His name is Ryan, from Ohio and he is apparently hiking from the Pacific to the Atlantic in a wandering, relaxed style and largely "depending on the kindness of strangers" to make it through, using signs telling what he is doing to get free food from passersby and other support - more daring than I would attempt, but it's good to know that there are so many friendly people out there that you can do that to get by just fine!
Ryan had largely traveled from the way I was heading, so we sat discussing the route I had ahead (along with life, road experiences and many other topics) for a while. While we were chatting, another man came in and asked who had the bicycle outside. It turned out that he was biking from the Pacific to Washington D.C. to raise support for a Constitutional amendment to balance the national budget with his parents riding an RV in support, carrying pamphlets and other stuff for his campaign. His website is www.saveamericasfuture.org. At this point, I haven't looked at it, but the next time I have internet, I'll be checking it out. He didn't stay long before hitting the road again, and soon I was off myself.
Getting a few more miles down the road, I saw another bicyclist heading in the opposite direction with a trailer attached and plenty of gear. This was perhaps my favorite meeting so far. The biker was an older man named Lauren Brown. How much older - he was 67 years old, if I recall correctly. Apparently he had joined the Peace Corps a few years back, ended up in India and liked it so much he stayed on an extra year beyond his contracted time. Once he came back to the states, he decided to do this bike trip to try to rainse scholarship funds for Village Children in India! I think what really made him stand out to me was that most riders I have met, especially those with causes, have support vehicles. Not Lauren! He carries not only all of the gear he needs for the trip, but also all of the papers and pamphlets he needs for his cause with him! You can check out his website at www.bfki.us. I'm sure planning to when I can!
We only chatted for a bit, as there was a storm looming to our south and drifting slowly in our direction. Soon we were off on our separate ways. One more meeting capped off the day. Stopping at a Subway for lunch/dinner, two motorcyclists pulled up and got to chatting with me. They were doing a ride across the country from East to West and were happy to chat for a bit about my experiences on the trip as well as what areas of the country they had liked most. Once again, I set off, hoping to make it to the state line before too long.
Sure enough, with the bad weather having missed me all day long, but with some cloud cover to protect me, I pulled across the state line, finding the rest stop that hiker Ryan had suggested to me to be nice, and setting up for the evening despite the sun still being up for a few hours (see, I can take it easy if I really work at it!) The bathrooms here have running water, no warning about the water being non-potable, and best of all, and electric outlet, so I can read some ebooks without worrying about battery life! I've also discovered just how prolific prarie dogs are in some areas! They were all over the place as I went along on the last bit. Grasslands have finally started to give way to scrubland as I'm heading farther west. The two pictures I'll hopefully be able to upload when I get to internet should be Ryan the hiker and Lauren the biker from today. I did get one warning as I was setting up my tent - apparently there's supposed to be hail tonight - my first of the trip! If so, I plan to retreat to the shelter of the bathrooms or one of the picnic shelters, so it shouldn't be a big deal! I'll probably add onto this with tomorrow's experiences before I put it up on the net. Life is good!
Day 22 begins
I managed to miss any hail that fell last night, although it did rain a bit. I woke up partway through the night and could see the incoming storm front, so I moved my tent under one of the picnic shelters, staying dry the whole time. Next morning, it was packing up and off on the road again. Hopefully I'll make it to La Junta by this evening. For now, I'm sitting outside of a gas station in Lamar, CO mooching internet off of a nearby hotel. A few wispy clouds are in the sky, and there has been a light breeze all day, mainly against me, but not too bad. For now, I'm still in the flat part of Colorado, although I have been gaining elevation for the last few days, and am now over 3000 ft above sea level. It will be interesting to see what kind of mileage I get over the mountains! I'll post again when I can!
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