DAY 38 - OH, THOSE MOUNTAINS

Ahh, a nice short day to Pueblo!  Everyone woke up at Gillian's around 6am and was ready to go around 8:30am.  The Schroeders and Halvorsons needed some work done on their tandems and trailers and new tires & tubes, so they were planning to stop in Pueblo and enjoy a rest day while the Great Divide bike shop worked on their stuff.  I also figured a nice 60 mile day to Pueblo would be good as there was a state park a few miles past I could camp in.

The day's riding seemed very similar to yesterdays, except for the large deep blue mountain range appearing out of the lighter blue sky about half way to Pueblo.  Oh yeah, I'm going to be doing some climbing soon... 

I rolled into Boone for some lunch and there was only one general store in the town and their food selection was very limited.  The families stopped at the post office where they received a care package and then joined me at the only place for food.  I looked over my maps and noticed that we were already at an elevation of about 4,500ft, not too bad coming from Kansas without any serious climbing.  


After lunch everyone started on the last 20 miles to Pueblo, where the traffic became pretty heavy the closer to the city we got.  Everyone met up at the bike shop where I did some browsing but eventually parted ways with the Schroeders and Halvorsons.  It was a lot of fun to ride and chat with them and I have a feeling I might see them again on the road.

I left them and grabbed some food at a Mexican restaurant (rice & beans!) and made the mistake of trying to ride directly afterwards.  I felt like I crawled 5 or so miles to the state park, where I started seeing large elevation changes and started wondering how the next few days of climbing will go.


The state park had some great views, but the sites were $20 and pretty barren, a half-covered picnic table and a fire pit and no real vegetation between the packed campsites.  It seemed everyone else there was in an RV, then myself in my little tent, but at least the place was only 1/3 full.  I went to take a shower and found out they cost 50 cents/3 minutes.  I didn't mind the cost, but I was low on quarters.  There was a chance machine in the laundry room but it was out of order.  I had to buy some sodas from a machine to get enough change for 2 showers, so lame!  After an almost too warm shower (you couldn't control the temp), I jumped into my tent and fell asleep around 9pm, wanting as much sleep as possible for tomorrow.

Start: Ordway, CO
End: Pueblo, CO
Distance: 62.08 miles