Del Norte to Salida, CO

Hello Everyone!

We are feeling much better now! Andrew's advice is always good advice. The extra day in Del Norte helped us out in our recovery and we got to meet some more wonderful people!

Gary Blakley and Patti Kelly are two very nice folks in Del Norte that have a soft spot for Great Divide riders and allowed us to sleep in their spare bed, they fed us, AND I got to use Gary full on bike shop! Gary then schooled me on what Ultra-light backpacking is all about. I got a lot of ideas but still enjoy the extra comforts allowed by our items. He did inspire me to go through all our stuff and we were able to throw out/ship home about 5 lbs worth of stuff. I then did what I said I wouldn't and I weighed all of our gear. The trailer (18 lbs) + equipment + 2 days food (but no water) = 65 lbs. Jamie's gear with 2 days food weighed in at 32lbs. For those that were curious at what this stuff weighed there you go. To provide a comparison, when Gary goes backpacking, his base load including pack comes in about 10 lbs.

Big thanks to Gary, Patti, Renee and all her wonderful sisters at the motel in Monte Vista for getting us to the doctor's office when we got sick and another big thank you to Dr. Holdsworth at the clinic for treating us and driving us to Del Norte on his lunch break!

The rest really paid off for us and we had a great ride out of Del Norte. We did a pass that took us over 10k again (these are getting routine now) and we felt great, the grade was not nearly as steep as what we have done before. It appears that we have fully acclimated now to the altitude! The scenery is still breathtaking but now it doesn't take you breath away to climb it! The next day we did another 10K+ pass and then just kept riding and pulled a 70 mile day. The mountains are just as tall but the climbs aren't as steep so we're starting to really pick up the pace. People tell us the hardest climbs we're in New Mexico, it appears they were right.

The hard part was yesterday.

Yesterday we left the little town of Sargents, CO (sign out side reads: Elevation high, population low) elevation actually 7800ft. We were supposed to climb over Marshall pass (10k+) on a dirt road and then into Salida but the people in Sargents told us that a 40 ft section of roadway had been washed away and that it was impassable. Fearing another Indiana Pass dealing, we elected to take the paved alternative on hwy 50 over Monarch Pass (11,300ft). We figured it was Sunday morning, not too much traffic, 9 mile climb at 6% grade isn't too bad (think of it like a long Neels gap but three times the elevation). We were wrong. Traffic was horrible up this pass. Lots of tractor trailers and RV (the RVs are the worst!!!) traffic. With a sheer cliff, no shoulder and NO guard rail on one side, we rode in the middle of the right lane to force people to ACTUALLY use the passing lane. It surprises me how few people actually take advantage of this, resulting in several near misses and a very rattled Jamie. We did make it over the top though and into Salida unscathed but it really surprises me how little regard people in cars have for the lives of others. In hindsight, we'd risk a washed out dirt road over attempting that again.

Despite the near death experience of Monarch pass, we rode into the beautiful little town of Salida. This town is my favorite so far. Really cool downtown area with a river running through it full of kayakers, LOTS and LOTS of folks riding around on bikes and one of the best bike shops I've ever been in. Big thanks to Greg and Scot at Absolute bikes! Great shop, very helpful staff and lots of good advice. This was the first bike shop we've seen since Silver City 810 miles ago so we ended up buying a lot and changing things up a bit.

Later we met up with Lara Schrock, one of my former GT classmates currently in residency in Colorado Springs, for some great pizza, beer, coffee, ice cream and good times! Lara also showered us with a big bag of homemade peanut butter and chocolate chips cookies!! Needless to say, we love Lara!

This morning we will resupply and then pull a short day of only 12 miles (with a 2000ft climb) up to a campsite that I'm told has a great view of a row of fourteeners known as the collegiate peaks.

Hope everyone is doing well, we'll be in Breckenridge, CO by Thursday.
-Lee

I've updated the post titled "Journey Stats" so check it out for the day by day.