We had a wonderful breakfast at the Leichnetz residence, but I think we may have offended Athalie. She anticipated (based on Dr. Haar's ride the previous year) that we would want a farm-full of bacon, eggs, pancakes, etc. Larry and I, however, have been eating so much of that stuff that we really wanted to have cereal, fruit, English Muffins, and the like. We still ate a farm-full, don't worry.
The weather was cool and cloudy when we left, which was nice for the first part of our ride. We had 35 miles from Keystone to the top of the Hoosier Pass, which was our grand challenge of the day. The Hoosier Pass is 11,539 feet, and we sat around 9,000-10,000 feet. The climb was tough but manageable, and I was definitely a proud dude when we finished. The Hoosier is the highest peak that we climb on this journey, and a lot of downhill awaited through Pueblo, CO, which we wouldn't see until the next day.
At the top, we got a couple of pictures and enjoyed some delicious sandwiches prepared by Mrs. Leichnetz. Unfortunately, the weather became reminiscent of the Togwotee Pass in Wyoming. As we were eating it began to rain and the temperature dropped a little. We started descending the pass and it rained harder, then hailed for a few minutes, and then went back to rain for a total of 3 hours. This is miserable riding, as I've mentioned before, because you can't feel your hands or feet (not good when you need to brake), and your glasses are covered in raindrops so you can't see very well. There's a balance between moving quickly enough that you've covering some miles, and going slow enough to ride safely.
Around 5 the rain stopped, and the evening was very pretty. I actually dried out pretty well, too, and regained the feeling in my hands and feet.
It was late when we arrived in Canon City, and only the Burger King was open. Quite a downgrade from the past couple of days, but they do have shakes...
The weather cleared as we entered Canon City
Switchbacks climbing the Hoosier Pass
George and Athalie Leichnetz, our wonderful hosts. As I've said, they made us feel like we were on vacation!
June 21: 85 miles from Canon City, CO, to Fowler, CO
*Father's Day! Yes, Larry and I both called our fathers!
What a difference some elevation makes! After being at 6-11k feet, we're now in the 4000 feet of elevation range. There was a high temperature in the low 90s, and it was very sunny. The ride was also very flat, so it was not a challenging ride by any means.
We stopped in a small town outside of Canon City for breakfast, where we ate at the Two Sisters Cafe. The price was very reasonable, and the breakfast was DELICIOUS! I had these two eggs and two massive pancakes (pictured below) that were 10" in diameter. By the way, this was the "short stack".
We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Pueblo, and met a guy who told us initially that he was a fisherman whose home port is in Astoria, OR - the beginning point of our trip. This was kinda cool that he knew about Astoria, and then he told us what kind of fishing he does. He's apparently a deck boss on a shrimp, tuna, and crab fishing vessel like you would see on the Deadliest Catch, who claims to have worked on the best boat: The Northwester (captin: Sig Hansen).
The rest of the ride wasn't too bad, and we had enough time to veg out for a while in the room, watch tv, and enjoy dinner. We wanted to stay in Ordway, CO, but the hotel was full, so we cut the day short by 16 miles to stay in Fowler. This meant that the next day's ride would be longer.
June 22: 138 miles from Fowler, CO, to Tribune, KS
The high was around 100, so we decided that an early start would serve us well, and it did. Other cyclists had this idea, too. We saw 10-15 of them riding East to West in the morning; before 9:00am, I think we saw more cyclists than cars.
There were two long stretches without any service stops, so we planned ahead. The first stretch was from Sugar City, CO, to Eads, CO. This was still morning, so it wasn't too hot and tiring. There were a couple of "towns" along the way, one of which was Arlington. Arlington has a small area with trees, a picnic table, and an outhouse (with guestbook). The shade was very nice for a little break.
We had lunch in Eads, and the shade and pitcher of water was lovely. From Eads to Tribune was another 58 miles, and we thought this stretch had no service stops but there actually was one half-way through at Sheridan Lake. It was hot but we had extra water and lifewater/gatorade (I like the lifewater, Larry likes the gatorade). The store is owned by a very nice man, and we got some soft-serve ice cream and cream soda. Yes, ice cream is awesome.
I haven't emphasized this enough, but the roads in Colorado aren't very good. The highways on which the map takes us are paved with chipshale, which is very grainy and slows you down (plus hurts your butt), and every 5-30 feet there will be a crack. The cracks slow you down and also hurt your hands + behind.
By 7:30p on this day, with 122 miles under our belt, we had had enough of these crappy roads. Entering Kansas was a welcome treat: the roads had been rumored to be wonderful and we found it very true. All of a sudden I switched from riding 11mph to 18mph, and my hind end didn't hurt nearly as bad. It was a physically- and mentally- satisfying end to the day. We arrived at like 8:45p in Tribune, and the very nice owner of the Trails End Motel took our picture and emailed it to our families. Kansas has treated us very well so far...
June 23: Resting in Tribune, KS
We're resting in Tribune because Larry's ankle is swollen and painful. We were very worried that it was an injury and would require extra rest days or possibly an end to Larry's trip. Fortunately, the clinic at the hospital was able to see us (quickly, I might add), and they found out that it was actually just some cellulitis. Larry's got some antibiotics and is good to go!
As I've said, Kansas has treated us well!
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