2000 down, 700 to go

Well I wish I could post and tell you that the mileage since Salida has been pleasant but well, it's been tough.

After we left Salida we immediately started climbing on Poncha Pass and then continued to climb on Marshall Pass. As soon as we hit Marshall Pass it started raining, big surprise. The thing is that from Salida to the top of Marshall Pass is 32 miles. You go from about 7,500ft to 10,600ft without much of a relief from climbing. So when you throw rain into the mix, it doesn't make for a very fun day. 3 miles or so into the climb once we split off of Poncha, there was a sign saying the road was closed ahead. This is nothing new for us as they are usually closed do to over use (ATV and dirt bike) or it's just a road that they no longer have a use for so they are shutting it down.

When we finally reached the top of our climb, we were drenched. We were happy to be at the top but it was starting to get cold and the thunder and lightning was starting to pickup. The usual picture from the divide (crossing 17) was taken and we crossed the 'road closed' gate and began going down. The road was very sloppy and so it took a while to make mileage.


Mile 4 of the downhill stopped us dead in our tracks. The road just disappeared. It had been washed out earlier in the Summer and no one (not even the bike shop in Salida) had the thought to tell us that part of the trail we were on was gone, completely! Our hands and toes were starting to freeze and that's when we decided to set up camp. It was getting dark and we were forced to set up near the washout as backtracking up the hill seemed useless. We quickly made dinner, opened and ate a half of box of Oreos (thanks mom and dad!) and headed to bed. The sleeping bags were wet, the tent was wet, we were miserable but it felt good to be horizontal.

We woke up early the next morning but the clouds beat us to it. They were already out (7am) and threatening to drench us again. We packed up camp and found a very sloppy trail that lead to the other side of the washout. It took us an hour or more to get all of our stuff about 50 yards up a embankment. Then we had to camelbak-hose off the drivetrains so that we could even get a couple of gears.

The descent started just as it had ended the night before. The clouds were holding their rain but the unused roads were super soft and wet and the descent was again very slow. It almost felt like we were going uphill in some parts because of the effort it took to pedal a sinking BOB across the muck. Finally on the horizon we spotted a small town. Sargents, CO was where the pavement began again for a few miles before diving back into the dirt.

We pulled into the first and only store in town, Tomichi Trading Post, and saw they had cabins. Nat and I joked that if they were cheap enough, we would spend the night and dry our stuff out. Well after getting a quote, I went outside and talked Nat into it. So we hunkered down, laid our stuff out, and got some hot lunch. You have no idea how good a cheeseburger tasted after the hell we had been through!

We pretty much lost the day as far as mileage goes but we felt like we gained a moral boost. The stuff got all dry and we got a great nights sleep in our own beds. I also got to talk to some loved ones back home and just made me smile before heading to bed.

4:30am came very early as we wanted to make sure we missed the rain! We jumped on our bikes around 6am and hit the road. I was barely awake but it felt so good to get a jump on the day. It was very foggy out and continued to be until we hit the bottom of our climb around noon. The rain clouds were starting to gather in the distance but we knew we could outrun them. We rode very quickly up the hill, hit the top and divide crossing 18, and started down the backside. We could hear thunder approaching and it just made us pedal faster! We hit the main road again and kept up quite a quick average pace before dodging back into the rocks and desert of southern Colorado.

We were exhausted when 4pm rolled around and looked for a place to setup camp. We settled on a spot inside the Rio Grande National Forrest and setup just in time for it to start sprinkling. We slapped each other five because for the first time since we got to CO, we had beat the storm! A loud and echoing electrical storm followed that lit up the canyon walls around us. It felt good to be in a nice dry sleeping bag again!


This morning was the same drill, we got up at 5:30 and were on the road by 7am. It didn't work out quite as planned though as 50ft out of camp, my BOB tire was completely flat. Luckily I had a spare but after locating the hole, it was a quick patch job before heading on the uphill to Carnero Pass (10,167ft, no divide). It was tough going as the road was still wet and the uphill was pretty steep. Nat sped ahead as he had his eye on the summit. We both reached the top before 10am and had some awesome GORP courtesy of Uncle John. Then came the rolling downhill that brought us through some beautiful canyon lands and then back into the desert. We stopped for lunch and had some great PB&J and hit the road as the clouds seemed to be gathering around us. The sky is very big where we are right now (picture desert) and so you can see storms from very far off in the distance. We packed up our lunch things and headed off with our sights set on Del Norte. We rode some very technical roads that hadn't been grated or seen maintenance in a very, very long time.


Nat popped up on a hill and stopped. When I got up to see what he was looking it, it felt like Emerald City. It was Del Norte at the bottom of a hill. We knew we were home free and the sun was still shinning! We headed down through the washout and sand and finally hit some pavement again. It was a short pedal to the town center where we popped into the City Hall to see about camping opportunities. The lady looked at us and asked if we wanted to sleep in the city park. We were puzzled but said sure and she pointed out her back window to a pavilion in the park. "You can sleep there tonight, I will let the police know you are in town." A free camping site under a roof, heck yeah we were going to take it!

All in all we have done about 2000 miles of our 2700 mile trip. I would be lieing if I said he didn't miss home and all our friends back East. We are going to try and push hard to get done and try and get home around the 20th of August. I cannot wait and after a 3 day Greyhound ride, it will be sweet to sleep in my own bed again.


-Keith and Nat