After a sound sleep night of sleeping in the trunk of my car I was ready to get an early start on the day. I, honestly, had no idea what to expect on this short bike tour. I felt I had done my homework in researching the route, weather, towns, etc. Soon enough I would realize all the preparation in the world can go out the window....or, off the side of your bicycle.......off, rolling down the rio grande bicycle trail for about 9 miles or so. the weather, cooperative. blue skies, scattered cottonball clouds. mt. sopris, standing tall and proud. watching. waiting.... luckily, the rio grande trail was flat, flat, flat for my out-of-shape legs. sage brush and million dollar houses lined the majority of the the first 9 miles. as i veered off the bicycle trail and down rt. 133 i told myself if things went as planned I'd connect back with this turning off point. gotta love how circles work, eh?
rt. 133 proved to be somewhat shoulderless with scattered traffic, if any at all. this allowed ample time for mountain gazing and fishing day dreaming. the crystal river was flowing high and fast. i continued to follow rt 133 through a narrow, canyon like area where it was wide enough for the river, road, and myself.....impressive mind boggling, snow capped mountains appearing with each bend in the road, and seemingly to disapear just as easily when I rounded another bend in the road.
the terrain? a gradual and hardly noticeable uphill. I was, afterall, biking against the flow of river. by 0900 i was taking a break at a historic area called Redstone, where there was a state of the art mansion nestled in gorge. according to roadside signs, much coal was turned into a usable form here and proved a good business back in the day.
I pedaled on.
the next thing I knew i was gritting my teeth and up, out of the saddle. up, up, and up i was going towards the summit of mcclure pass (elev. 8,755 feet). the road offered the most amazing and pristine views of the elk mtns. i stopped several times, not just for pictures, but to rest my dead legs. the entire climb was up 8% grade road. this proved for very slow progress, but thank goodness for the Grateful Dead covering Bob Dylan songs, time seemed irrelevant.
Finally, the summit appeared and an overwhelming sense of fatigue left as I leaned my bike and trailer against the sign and took a nap beneath the shade of a fir tree.
the rest of the day proved to be downhill....a nice long, gradual downhill. the road seemed to swing around the entire elk mtn range. the temps crept up near 90 degreess as i cruised through several coal mining towns (somerset, bowie, paonia). quite ugly structures to say the least. made me think i was biking through kentucky again...blah.
of course, no shoulder around the last 20 miles. and, of course, increased traffic. coal trucks. big ford trucks, fast cars, etc. those twenty miles crawled. maybe it was the rollercoaster-like terrain? fatigue from the climb up mcclure pass finally setting in? the 90 degree temps? regardless, i was glad to reach hotchkiss and take another nap beneath the 'visitor information center' kiosk for an hour or so.
I was shocked when i found it was only 2pm upon arrival to hotchkiss. what to do with the rest of the day? press onward down the road? i was already fried, but figured i could manage alright if i went slower than slow. set up camp and sleep? appealing enough.
i opted to press on after 2 hrs rest and adjust my route so to keep me closer to the rockies rather than heading off towards grand junction and the more desert like terrain.
that's when a storm started a brewing and prevented me from leaving. i set up camp behind the towns elementary school and watched a little league game for the remainder of daylight hours. luckily the storm produced more drizzle and wind than anything else.
overall, a good first day. i made it up the first mtn pass. made it to the town i had wanted. time for sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment