Fun with Friends on the Front Range... The last several days have been the most fun of the trip so far. I've been able to see and stay with friends in the Boulder and Fort Collins area. In a couple of cases, I got to see people I hadn't seen in more than 15 years. Having this opportunity, I took advantage of it and stayed two nights in Boulder and two nights in Fort Collins. It was great to catch up with folks and relax. In Boulder, there are two couples that I...

Today, I completed the first 1000 miles of the trip. Only about 3000 more to go! Since leaving Salida, I haven't seen much of the sun. The weather has been gray, cold and rainy. Everyday, the thunderstorms build up in the afternoon. If you've seen the news lately, those thunderstorms turned into tornadoes and hail a few days ago in the suburbs north of Denver. Every afternoon, my ride starts to feel like a race to see if I can get to my destination before the n...

The High Point of the Trip... Riding from Telluride to Salida has been a series of long climbs followed by fast descents. But the big one was today. Monarch Pass (at 11,312 ft) is where I crossed the Continental Divide. From here, it's all down hill! Over the last few days, I seemed to be alternating between reasonably sized towns with real hotels and cabins in the middle of nowhere. Montrose was the biggest of the towns and accordingly had the least personalit...

Takin' Time in Telluride... Why anyone would call this place 'To-Hell-You-Ride' is beyond me. It seems more like heaven to me. The only reason I can guess has more to do with the route to get here than the place itself. I 'got' to climb my first 10,000 ft pass of the trip, called Lizard Head, which tops out at 10,222 ft. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The grade for this climb was pretty moderate and I gave myself two days to make it from Dolores...

Playing Ancient Chutes & Ladders... I've arrived in Cortez, Colorado ahead of schedule thanks to a couple of ladies in Bluff, UT. While in a cafe there, they were asking me about my route. They suggested I take a road through McElmo Canyon from Utah to Colorado that would cut 1 to 2 days off my planned route. My map showed this road as unpaved, but they assured me it was paved all the way and was the route locals used to go to Cortez. This turned out to be ...