Day 42: The mile high club

Day 42

Pueblo to Canon City 50miles

Was hoping to try and have lie in this morning, but I think my body clock is now conditioned to waking up at stupidly early times! Oh well, at least I could watch a bit of the Open Golf before having some breakfast. Eventually packed up and headed out about 9am, with the weather a lot hotter than I was expecting

Yet again I was following route 96. Although there was a definite change in the environment, with a much much more 'desert' feel to things. Everything had a more sandy colour to it. And farms had now changed into ranches. But still some very impressive views.

Things are less green round here

As I set out, there was also a definite change in the roads. There was more up and down, and the actual quality of the road surface seemed pretty poor today. Lots of cracks and very bumpy. My legs were also feeling quite tired after yesterday's big effort. Today just felt like everything was a little slow going. I think some of it is that I am now comparing today with my most recent ones where it was very flat. Today I climbed around 400metres in the first 25miles, so clearly my progress was bound to be a bit slower! At the highest point of today's ride I was at almost 1,900metres above sea level. Even after a bit of a downhill (very welcome) in the last 20miles, I'm still at 1 mile of elevation. I also finally left route 96 today. And in doing so, began the much more north-west bearing that I will be following now all the way to Montana.

Getting closer!

However, I did decide that I would take a day off tomorrow once I got to Canon City. The Rockies seemed to always be ahead of me today, so it made me think my legs might want a little rest before attempting them! Although it had only been 6 days since my last day off, it's been over 430miles. I've also got a healthy surplus in the mile bank. It took me 41days to get to Pueblo, which leaves me 47days to do the second half of the ride.

And Canon city seems like a really nice place to spend a day. It actually seems to have a proper 'main street' with a decent selection of shops. It also has a bike shop, so I put Whiskey in for another service. Nothing really wrong with him, but be good to get everything tightened up before hitting the mountains. After leaving the bike shop, I noticed a sign for trains to the Royal Gorge. I've been told this is a very spectacular piece of scenery, so after getting a bit of information from the ticket office I am booked for a 2hr train journey into the heart of the gorge tomorrow afternoon. As in Hutchinson, it will be good to do something interesting on my rest day. Tonight I'm planning a very quiet night though. Hopefully get an early night, catch up on some sleep, and feel refreshed tomorrow.