Day 31 - eventful but slow
Grueling. It actually wasn’t that bad, but that’s the
first word that comes to mind. Today we biked to Rand,
CO. It took us a long time to get there: over five hours of biking
to go 57.2 miles. Our slowest pace so far. The day consisted of a slight climb
compounded by a head wind. During the day we had to stop once for a
cattle drive, and twice for thunderstorms.
We saw the first thunderstorm coming
at us from our right. It was dark and
ominous. We were four miles from the town of Cowdry, CO and we pedaled
as fast as we could. When we arrived we found that the town
consisted of a half dozen houses and a very small post
office. With less than a minute to spare we dashed to the shelter of
the post office. There we spent over a half hour waiting out the
storm. Extremely high wind, thunder, driving rain, and hail. So
glad we didn't get caught on the road in that.
We were lucky, and happy. The
local postmaster was most hospitable as we waited it out in her tiny post
office. Can’t thank her enough.
About fifteen miles further down
the road we saw very similar clouds ahead of us. We stopped on the road for
about a half hour and watched the storm pass from right to left in front of
us. We escaped a second unpleasant experience.
All and all, an eventful day,
but a slow day. We had hoped to climb Willow Creek Pass today but
thanks to the wind and interruptions we stopped about nine miles short. So
that will be the start of our day tomorrow.
Willow Creek Pass, at an elevation of 9,621 feet, is the third highest
pass on our route.
We did have one other highlight
today. We passed from Wyoming into Colorado, thus completing our 4th
state. We will continue to ride south
toward Pueblo, CO and then we will turn our bikes east for the rest of the
trip.
Not a great picture because I took the picture as I was riding by. The cowboys had just moved the cattle off the road for me to pass so I figured they wouldn't be happy if I stopped to take a photo. |
The storm that almost got us. |
Way to make it to Colorado! What a journey.
ReplyDeleteChelsea Manke
Way to dodge the storms! Congrats on another state too.
ReplyDelete