The turnover never stood a chance.
A little packing and bike cleaning and we were ready to hit the road. This was going to be another long day mileage wise PLUS we had a mountain pass to tackle. Dave had never been on this stretch of road before so we weren't sure what to expect.
The road proved to have very little traffic and shoulder enough to ride on. More shoulder is always better, still it was good since the traffic was so light.
As with all the days before, the views were beautiful. Nice flowers and vistas. So gorgeous.
Today's mountain pass was called Cochetopa Pass (elevation 10,032'). It is found in National Forests between Gunnison and Saguache on the Continental Divide. According to Wikipedia, is named after the "Cochetopa Hills that it lies within with Cochetopa being the Ute Indian word for "pass of the buffalo". I read a pretty interesting story about when early settlers tried to find a pass through this area. Suffice it to say, it got cold, they got hungry, they ate one another. Nice.
This pass, though not as high as the earlier ones was still work. First, we were tired, our behinds ached, it was broiling hot and those flies. Those pesky, biting flies were everywhere. How is it one can be peddling about 20 mph and those things are still zooming circles around a person? And biting. They never stopped.
Before the pass, there were many rolling hills to keep us entertained and our legs working hard. The summit of the pass was 31 miles into the ride and I was worked when I got to the top. I had the mental capacity to speak single words only. Dave fed me a power bar and gave some water and I started to come back to life.
Now that we had summitted, we had only 40 more miles to Gunnison and several more miles to the car to go.
Neither of us wanted to say anything and jinx ourselves, but happily our tires were looking good. Hopefully no more flats would grace the trip!
The ride down was the best section of road biking I've ever done. No cars, good grade, lots of turns, clean and smooth pavement. I got up to 42.4 mph (Dave was going over 51 mph - he's even faster than me DOWN hill!). All of this in the confines of a rocky canyon. It was amazing.
We stopped 18 miles later and enjoyed the view and a snack. Happily a lot of traffic went by then. It was nice not passing them on the road since there is no shoulder on the downhill part of this road. That combined with continual curves is a scary thing for a cyclist.
After about 20 miles of fun downhill, we got into rolling hills once again. This provided many beautiful vistas (as if we could possible see anything new vista wise). With ten miles remaining, we turned west on Hwy 50 and headed to Gunnison. This road had some decent rollers but was largely a gentle downhill ride. We stopped when we got to town and enjoyed some tea.
Two more miles to the car and we were loading everything up for the drive home. I think our smiles are bigger on the return than they were on the departure. It was a great bike ride - one that we'd both recommend to anyone!
Here is a cartoon I drew of the uphill + man-eating flies portion of the ride. It captures the feeling of it. Heh heh. Enjoy!
1 comment:
Absolutely beautiful!! When I have a few seconds, I love catching up on your blog. It seems you guys are having the times of your lives. I am so jealous! But don't worry, when I am sitting in my office and writing a boring paper later today, I will be sure to think of you crazy monkeys out on the roads and rocks! Keep it up!
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