10,857

Well, I rode out of Durango towards Pagosa Springs, accompanied by my friend Mark, who happened to have the day off work. Just as we got out of town, Mark presented me with an option: continue on the shoulder of the busy highway or climb a steep hill to a road that parallels the highway with little traffic. I figured that I should ride up the hill, especially since I was just coming off of the longest break (4 days off) since I started on May 31st. Mark had his cycling GPS on for the ride, and by the time we got to Pagosa Springs, we had climbed about 3,000 feet for the day. The road between Durango and Pagosa isn't exactly flat. When we got to town, we stopped to have a bite to eat and check out a bike shop before Mark turned around to head back home, giving him close to 120 miles for the day (with a little bit of climbing). I kept going through town along hwy 160 towards Wolf Creek Pass.

The valley that approaches Wolf Creek Pass from the west is very beautiful, but also a little ominous for a cyclist. As I biked through the valley, the mountains kept getting bigger and closer on every side. Eventually I reached the point in the road where I would start to really climb. Lucky for me, there is a campground there. At the time it was inhabited by a bunch of elk hunters. When I pulled up I saw three men standing by the tailgate of a pickup. Resting on the tailgate was the severed head of an elk, upside down with it's antlers resting on the ground. As I explained how I got there on a bicycle and what I was doing, two of the men went to work with a battery powered saw, removing the antlers from the skull.

After registering for a site, I set up camp for the evening and headed for the shower. Later, when I was preparing my usual camp meal of beans and rice on tortillas, a man came from his camper across the way to offer me a lantern to use while I camped that evening. I readily accepted his offer. A while later he came back over and asked if I'd like to join he and the others for supper, but I had already prepared my meal. I agreed to come over for dessert when I was done. I ended up spending most of the evening with their hunting party, reluctant to leave the warmth to crawl into my tent. They said that the temperature would get down to 26 degrees.

When I woke in the morning, everything outside my tent was covered in frost, including the rain fly of my tent. I, however, stayed quite warm. I've been impressed with my 20 degree bag thus far. I was moving pretty slowly that morning, a little intimidated by the two huge hairpin turns looming up the road, visible from the campsite. After a late start, I began the crawl up the mountain. I stopped at the second hairpin turn to look out over the valley and chat with some more tourists. According to the signs at the top, it was 9 miles of 7% grade that I climbed to get to the top of Wolf Creek Pass, crossing the continental divide for the last time at 10,857 feet above sea level, my highest elevation of the trip.

At the top I chatted with a few people that probably thought I was out of my mind and to layer up for the descent. It was a beautiful, clear day despite the weather forecast, so I worked up quite the sweat crawling up the mountain, but the air had a bite to it when the wind blew. Coming down off of a pass like that at 40+ miles per hour, the wind is in your face. I cruised down the mountain and into the San Luis Valley to Monte Vista, Colorado. In town I stopped at a grocery store to get some breakfast for the morning before heading to the edge of town to look for a place to camp.

At the edge of town I saw Calvary Baptist Church. The front door was propped open, there was a truck parked in the lot, and their lawn looked soft. I wandered inside and eventually found the pastor, Tommy who readily agreed to let me camp behind the building and even offered me a shower. They were scheduled to have a service at 7pm, and Tommy said I was welcome to attend. After getting myself cleaned up and getting camp set up, I headed inside for the service. I really appreciated what Tommy shared with the sparse crowd, sticking mostly to Ephesians with a brief jaunt into Revelation. After the service I stayed and mingled a little. As I was getting ready to go out to the tent to make up another batch of my beans and rice, Tommy asked if I was interested in a warm place to stay. I told him my tent would likely keep me alive for the night, but if he had another option, I'd probably take him up on it. I ended up packing my camp up and throwing everything in the back of his SUV for a drive back into town to the Rio Grande Motel. A woman from church runs the place, and they gave me a room for the night. It was a wonderful surprise. I especially appreciated the room when I woke this morning to find rain.

I wheeled my bicycle out of the room just before 8am to hit the road in the rain. After I dropped the key in the drop box, I noticed that one of my tires was low. It's pretty disappointing to start a day by changing a flat tire before you even cover a single mile. I changed it out and hit the road. In Alamosa, I saw a clock in front of a bank at 10:00am that read 44 degrees. Cold rain. It was 43 miles from my starting location to Fort Garland where I had lunch. About the time I ducked in for lunch the rain quit. After Fort Garland was a 47 mile stretch with no services. In the middle of that 47 miles was La Veta Pass at 9,413 feet elevation. I was back on the road just before 1:00pm to get the last 47 miles knocked out. La Veta Pass is pretty mild coming from the west, so it wasn't a bad climb. The descent went by pretty quickly. The sign at the top said "6% downgrade next 4 miles" but to me it may as well have said "downgrade next 1,600 miles". Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see that sign.

I rolled down and down until I got to Walsenburg, Colorado. At this point I am at a junction. My route I had formerly drawn up had me turning south, working towards the norther corner of Texas and the panhandle of Oklahoma. I think I'm going to go straight into Kansas, then when I get to Missouri and turn south, I can hit the eastern edges of Oklahoma and Texas, and the eastern edge of Arkansas on my way down to my final destination of New Iberia, Louisiana. This route will give me a little more flexibility with my time in Kansas, and I'll spend less time in the desert.

Next stop: Hesston, Kansas