Month: September 2010

I started off the day by getting a ride from my brother out of the city. We said our goodbyes and I headed south.

I connected to a bike path that would take me maybe 30 miles through the Colorado Springs area. It was a beautiful path, with the mountains to my right and plains to the left. It wound through lightly wooded pine trees and was probably the most scenic bike path of the trip so far. The path went right through the air force academy, where signs warned of no unauthorized entry and of patrols. That was kind of weird, but I made it through with no issues.

Trail eventually died out a ways south of the city and I was dumped onto roads. It was already getting late because I had started so late and took a long lunch, but I pressed on towards Pueblo. After winding around a bit, I finally hit the road that would take me 25 miles south to my destination. It was dirt.

I was counting on being able to speed to Pueblo, but the dirt road was very bumpy and had lots of soft dirt so my speed averaged 8 mph. Darkness fell and I continued down this lonely road, barely being able to see ahead of me. As the full moon rose it was slightly easier to see and I had a distinct shadow from the moonlight.

Eventually the road turned to asphalt and I entered the city and found a motel. Went out to a bar and met a couple teachers at the local college and had a good time before getting back to my room and falling asleep at almost 1 am.

Today’s mileage: 73 miles
Total: 2424 miles

I stayed in Denver with my brother for the better part of a week to get some much-needed rest.

Visited downtown Denver, ate a lot of food, met up with Justin from Devis, and got a lot of much-needed downtime. Got my bike looked at (pro-bono) by a mechanic at a shop and installed a handlebar compass that my uncle found and shipped to me (thanks!)

I’ll be heading south to meet up with the Adventure Cycling Association’s route across the Rockies on Friday.

It was chilly today, even when I got on the road at 11:30 after an early lunch, so I used my long sleeved shirt for the first time.

The first 10 miles of the day were on pretty terrible dirt roads and I had to proceed on them slowly to make sure I stayed upright. Eventually though, I hit a highway and was able to ride at a decent pace. The terrain was rather hilly today. Lots of very large hills, on some of which I was able to coast down at nearly 40mph without pedaling or trying to be aerodynamic.

One nice thing about Colorado is that it doesn’t have nearly as much farmland as Kansas, so I get to see what things were like before humans got here. Unfortunately, most of it so far has just been plains, but today I finally reached some areas with pine trees as the silhouettes of the Rockies appeared on the horizon.

I stopped after 40 miles for a second lunch before heading into the outskirts of Denver. I tried to take some bike paths but they meandered a fair amount. Wanting just to get to my destination, I hopped back on the roads and made my way through the suburbs to my brother’s house, arriving at sunset.

Today’s Mileage: 85 miles.
Total: 2351 miles.

I will be staying in Denver for a few days to get rested up, so don’t expect any updates for a bit.

More late starts. I’m in a new time zone too, so heading out at 11 means it’s pretty much noon and it was already very hot out.

My first stop for the day was a small town 20 miles down the road, where it turned out that the only restaurant had gone out of business. Gas station hot dogs it is. Back on the road and the miles are going by pretty quickly. Get chased by a big dog but manage to outrun it, which causes me to get tired and I slow down for the first time of the day.

The road, route 24, disappears and turns into a dirt/gravel road paralleling I-70. It’s not very fun to ride on as most of it has dirt too deep to safely ride on and so I dart back and forth to stay on the hardest surface to prevent from wiping out.

30 miles since my first stop and I pull into another town, this one has a diner that’s open so I pop in for a real lunch. During lunch I research the legality of riding bikes on interstates in Colorado and call my brother to inform him that I’ll be arriving in Denver on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Turns out that it’s generally not illegal to ride on interstates in Colorado and so I take the remaining 33 miles on I-70 since my only alternatives are dirt roads. I don’t know how but I managed to average 17 mph for two hours to my destination for the evening, Limon.

Today’s mileage: 77 miles.
Total: 2266 miles.

We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Got a late start and before long the road I had been following for a few hundred miles merged into I-70 and I was forced off onto a side road. The surface of this road was gravel on top of pavement. The gravel wasn’t loose, except on the edges of the road, but the bumpy ride slowed me down.

The miles went by very slowly and I ate a late lunch and pressed on. The crosswinds from the south were strong here and gusts of wind buffeted me to the side. At one point I tried to compensate for the gust of wind, but my tires found nothing but gravel and I wiped out, landing hard on my left side.
I scraped up my left shoulder pretty badly and was cleaning and bandaging my bloody arm on the side of the road. About a dozen cars went by but none stopped to ask if I was okay.

Anyways, after my crash the miles went by even more slowly but I eventually made my way to the town of Burlington, CO.

Today’s mileage: 69 miles.
Total: 2189 miles.