Day 36 : Hills, Wind, and Beauty...

From Royal Gorge, CO to Fairplay, CO - 71.6 miles

Story [in numbers]:

Time on bike: 9:18:19
Average speed: 7.7 mph
Max speed: 38.1 mph


Story [in words]:

in a nutshell, today was incredibly tough. we climbed a lot of feet and fought head winds pretty much all day. the saving grace of the day was absolutely the beauty of God's creation.

we started the morning with breakfast at the cafe that was connected to the cabinground that we stayed at...including some of the biggest blueberry pancakes i have ever had! the people working there were absolutely wonderful. because we had a long distance to go without any services, they were willing to make us sandwiches off of their lunch menu...and they even packaged them really nicely for us to take along with us. and on top of that, they allowed us to substitute huge brownies in place of the sodas that were supposed to come with the meal.

we left from our beautiful cabin getaway and promptly descended for 2 miles. then the climbing began. the next 5-7 miles were the most intense climbing for sure. we climbed and climbed...and as we climbed, the winds began to pick up, and they were pretty much straight into our faces. it was challenging cycling for sure...but the further we went, the prettier things got!

at about 2 in the afternoon, we were continuing to fight the winds and climb the hills...and in the middle of the beauty of the mountains...cailyn got a flat rear tire. so, we pulled into a driveway and began to get the tire changed. we had multiple spare tires for with us for cailyn's bike, and so i figured it would be a good time to go ahead and change the tire and tube. it made for a little longer stop, but probably a wise decision. while i got the tire changed, cailyn got our food out and we got some filled up with energy as we still had quite a distance to ride.

we got back on the road and continued to battle both wind and hills. we finally got into hartsell, the only town between our starting and ending points, at about 5 pm. we quickly got some trail mix and filled up water, and then got back on the road because we still had about 17 miles to cover to get into fairplay.

just before leaving hartsell, we began talking to a guy named jeremy who seemed quite interested in what we were doing and where we had come from and where we were going. we had a little conversation with him and then he asked us if we were logging the trip in any way. we told him that we were writing a blog as we went...and he was immediately interested in knowing what it was. we told him the address while he programmed it into his iphone. then he asked us if he could take our picture...and he told us that he would pass the blog on to a bunch of other people. which we thought was a little out of the ordinary...but very cool. and then, we found out that he was originally from the area, but now lived in new york and manages all of the blogs for the new york times. pretty crazy to say the least!

as we headed towards fairplay, the winds seemed to just get stronger...and it was starting to get somewhat demoralizing. it was particularly tough on cailyn. but the further we went, the more beautiful it continued to get. we cycled past amazingly beautiful mountain streams that seemed to just wind through lush green pastures...all while the snow-capped mountains grew closer and closer.

we finally pedaled into fairplay at just a little before 8...with probably just 30 minutes before darkness set in. as we arrived, we really had two major concerns on our minds. first, we needed food, since we hadn't eaten in more than 5 hours...and secondly, we had no idea where we were going to camp for the night. after not having any luck on either front at pizza hut, we went to the gas station to see if we could call the fire station to see about housing. luckily, the guy working at the gas station told us that he knew of a place where cyclists usually camped. he told us that we just need to go down the road that was just across the street for about a mile, down to the reservoir and he said that there were campsites by the reservoir. we thought that would be great...so we picked up a bag of fritos and some dip, and a couple of drinks, and headed to where he directed us.

as it turned out, we were down just next to this amazing river (where apparently you could pan for gold) that was just off the reservoir. the view was amazing and we could hear the water as we set up camp. when we entered the camping area, we noticed a sign that said, "camping by permit only"...but we had no idea where or how to get a permit. so, we decided we would just give it a try and see what happened. it was getting dark and cold and had no other option to try. all in all, a pretty good situation, considering we had no idea what we were doing as we came into town.

i was thinking today...if you consider yourself an avid cyclist...your cycling life is simply not complete until you have cycled through the rocky mountains. the sights, sounds and smells are absolutely amazing! the things that we have seen, heard, and smelled that we would never have, had we been driving in a car, are just amazing!