Bye-Bye Mountains. At least till Vermont or so.
Friday we rode 96 miles from Salida east to Pueblo. Literally dropped over 3000 feet down from the Rockies onto the Eastern plain. We're still at over 4000 feet elevation here, but the terrain changed drastically the last 40 miles of our ride to high rolling dry hills of dry, hot country.
We started the first 35 miles through beautiful canyon following the Arkansas river from it source in Salida as it raged down the canyon swollen with tons of snow melt and rains from the thunderstorms that ran though Thursday afternoon. Red rock, green valley, steep cliffs. This is where a lot of rafting happens so we saw lots of raft outfitters putting boats in the water and screaming people filled boats careening down the rapids. Looked fun ... it was hot. If we weren't going 96 miles I was considering walking in on a half day raft trip to cool off. But 96 miles can be a long day in the saddle. The river was running too high to swim in. So a huge chocolate milkshake at Big Daddys diner in Canon City had to suffice to cool off and fuel up for the last 4o miles in to Pueblo.
The riding was easy ... a slight downhill for miles as we followed the river down. One 3 mile climb and them more downhill.
We mountain folks are all gritting our teeth and wondering what it will be like riding for days through flat, hot windy cow country. Kansas ... day after tomorrow. East Colorado ... basically like Kansas riding wise. We've been talking about how to amuse ourselves ... road games? Punchbug on the bike? Judy my roommate says the best way is to meet and talk with as many of the locals as possible. Which sounds fun except with temps over 100 degrees I want to get done with riding by early afternoon everyday cause I can't tolerate heat anymore even though I grew up in North Carolina humidity. I have visions of begging people to spray me with their garden hose as I ride by.
Today we had a needed rest day in Pueblo. I know my legs are fatigued because when I leave my comfort zone at all when riding - like getting out of the saddle on a hill - the lactic acid just burns like crazy. That's usually not a problem. So today was leisurely.
Slept in till almost nine. (If you haven't tried the MACs wax earplugs do - much better than the foam plugs and you can sleep through anything). Then headed to the grocery store and bought some Greek yogurt and raspberries and a peach. Talked the nice girls at the hotel desk into taking the delicious bread and scones Tracey, Neil and the 3 little Snyders sent as a care package (THANK YOU!!!) to the kitchen and warming it up for me, and then I set up Pate's breakfast buffet in the middle of the lobby. Didn't take long for all that bread, jam, double creme, scones and granola to disappear from a lot of happy cyclists with eyes half closed going "oh man, is this good".
Then off with Jack, Chuck and Dr. Shawn to the street rodder car show. These cars have been driving past us for 3 days coming to Pueblo for their national convention. We got to the fairgrounds and there were over 3000 cars pre 1949 and most fully restored with loving owners just waiting to talk about their baby. It was pretty fun, even for someone like me who who drives a beat up 10 year old Honda civic and generally could care less about cars.
On a sad note, we lost another cross country rider today, Jim. Super nice guy from San Francisco. He has a pacemaker that started malfunctioning during the ride. But he climbed Monarch pass anyway wondering why he wasn't feeling very strong ... his heart rate was 56!! Unbelievable. To put that in perspective, a really strong athletes resting heart rate is around that rate. My heart rate when I climbed the pass was probably around 140 beats per minute. Crazy he was able to do it. But now he's off to get "tech support" as I was calling it and hopefully they can fix the problem quickly and he can rejoin us.
We also lost all 13 riders who joined us in Salt Lake City and left in Pueblo. Best of luck to them - and great riding with you if you are reading.
Tomorrow we do the longest ride I've ever done though not by much - 120 miles to Lamar, CO. Again a lot of elevation loss. Hoping for a nice tailwind.
