It is hard to believe that I have to continue to find words to top the previous day's ride. Today is no exception. This may have been the best day yet! We loaded our luggage at 6:00am, I hate that, and then went about a 1/2 mile up the road for breakfast. It was a very good breakfast place. After breakfast, we went out to get on our bikes and we ran into two young girls who were going into the restaurant. One of the girls commented to Meiri that they had identical bikes. We started talking to them and they told us they were biking from New York to Eureka CA. They were carrying all of their gear and camping along the way. They left New York on May 21 and expected to get to Eureka around July 20th. I must be getting old as they looked awful young to be doing something like that.
We started out and after a few miles entered the Arkansas River Gorge. It seems strange that The Rocky Mounains are now to our backs. As I previously mentioned, this is the headwaters for the Arkansas river. We rode downhill for around 37 miles to the first Sag. Yes I said 37 miles of continuous downhill through the most gorgeous canyons you will ever see. We paralleled the river for the whole time. They were multiple rafting trips taking place along the river. The water was up but the rapids were not as large as the ones at home on the Yough.
After the sag, we went down another 5 miles or so then we had a six hundred foot climb over 2.5 miles. Of course this was nothing after climbing up Monarch Pass yesterday. We then had another five mile descent into Canyon City where Bob, Meiri, Carole and I stopped in Big Daddy's diner for lunch. We were there for about an hour before we left. We had about 20 miles to go before the last sag. We began to hit hills with about a mile down hill then a mile uphill. We also started to pick up a tailwind. We could get up enough speed to carry to the top of the next hill. It was a lot of fun. We were averaging 20 mph or so. About two miles before the Sag my rear tire went flat. I told the others to keep going and changed the tire. Bob stayed back to help me. By the time I got to the Sag, A thunderstorm was coming up fast behind us. I pumped up my tire, filled my water bottles and took off after the others. By now the wind was really starting to blow. It was probably 35 to 40mph. It was a direct tailwind. We had 20 miles to go to get into Pueblo and we started to average 30mph. The wind would blow me so fast, I couldn't pedal fast enough to go any faster. I was cruising along on the flat at about 30mph when Gerard passed me going about 40mph. He has a giant chainring that enables him continue to pedal at that speed. He said he was able to get up to 50mph at one point. We were out running the storm when I got my second flat. I did not have a spare tube as I had already used mine. Luckily, Carole came by and gave me on of hers. I quickly changed the tube and took off again. We covered the 20 miles from the Sag into Pueblo in 45 minutes on a bike. That was the fastest I have ever gone for a sustained time. Fantastic!!!!!!
Well we have gone from the Rocky Mountains to the high plains. We are back in the desert. We began to see cactus along the road. Only one more riding day in Colorado!
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