Rob was up and gone by about 6:30 this morning. I slept in and got up about 8 and had breakfast here in the hotel. Supposed to be sunny and 90 today which shouldn’t be too bad since I’ll be gaining more altitude today…am at about 4,500 feet now and should be at around 7,000 by the end of the day. My lips are chapped and wind burnt so bad June could tell I was talking funny when I called her yesterday…need to get something better than chapstick today.
Was at the bike shop here in Pueblo when it opened at 9:30. Best bike shop I’ve been to yet on this trip. They custom cut 10 spokes for me and I picked up another riding jersey to replace the ones I lost and picked up a warm shirt to go under my jacket….was on the road by 10am.
Passed a Starbuds on the way out of Pueblo and was going to stop for coffee, but something told me they may not be serving my brand of java :-). 7 miles out of Pueblo this morning and let the climbing begin 🙂
16 miles in and a flat tire…ran over a piece of wire that stuck all the way through my front tire. Changes it and decided since it was a clean puncture in the tube that I would just patch it. Now, I haven’t patched a bike tub in about 40 years. They last time I did it you had to rough up the tube with the top of the patch kit (surface like a cheese grater) then spread glue over and around the hole, let it sit for a minute then light it with a match and let it burn. Then you stick a piece of rubber over the hole and pressed it down for 5 minutes or so with the top of the Patel kit. Well, patches look a little different today and you don’t set the glue on fire any more. But I read the directions and figured it was pretty easy, so I patched it, put it back on and aired it up. Lasted about 5 minutes and was flat again. So, I took the tube out, threw it away and put on a new one. I’ll only attempt to patch again if I run out of new tubes 🙂
Topped a huge climb at about 1:50pm just outside of Wetmore and had a great view of the mountains ahead. Off to the right we’re two antelope just looking at me like, what’s that fool doing? Got a couple good pics of them.
Stopped in Florence at 42 miles in for a late lunch. Having a Italian Grill Panini and three diet cokes at The Pour House—a cool little coffee shop that plays good Irish music. Florence looks like a great little town—lots of antique shops and little cafes.
Passed a Bird Millman memorial in downtown Canon City and had to take a pic—I guess she was a famous tight rope walker—pretty cool.
First serious climb of the day coming out of canon City reminded me that we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto. My climbing muscles got a wake up call. About half way up I saw a mule deer by the road trying to reach leaves on a small tree. She couldn’t have been more than 30 feet away and hadn’t seen me yet….I was able to stop and get a couple good pics before she saw me and took off into the mountains. Saw probably two dozen more throughout the rest of the day—after 5 or 6 I stopped taking pics of them.
At 5pm its 87 degrees, sunny, with a cool breeze. I’m at about 6,300 feet and it’s perfect weather.
I have a feeling the daily picture count on this blog is going to go way up. Every 5 minutes I’m wanting to stop and take a photo of something and I’m just getting Into the mountains. Just now I was screaming down the side of a mountain and I stopped have way down to take a pic of the mountains ahead….I never stopped in the middle of a downhill in the before.
Getting late in the day and I needed to make it to Guffey….lots of climbing to reach my destination. Pulled into Guffey about 8:30 right as the sun was setting and the Bull Mose Tavern was about to stop serving dinner. They made me a BBQ sandwich and I drank about a gallon of tea. Rob was there and after we ate I followed him to where we are staying for the night—it’s an old, rustic cabin a guy rents out mostly to bike riders for $10 each….no electricity or heat. And it’s cold here at night…we’re at about 8,500 feet now….I started seeing Aspens (those trees with white bark) as I was making the final, never ending climbs into town. I’ll have to take some pics of this place tomorrow and post in tomorrow’s update—too dark now….am writing this update using my head lamp.
A good day….feeling strong and am glad to be in the mountains. Will be climbing to over 12,500 feet tomorrow….not sure how long the climb will take, but it’ll be hours. The reward of going down the other side should be cool 🙂
