Great Outdoor Images

Today’s Highlights:
After eight days of riding from Salt Lake, we had our second rest day of the trip. Since June 2, we covered 1460 miles and climbed over 53,000 feet. I spent 100 hours on the saddle and pedaled 367,970 strokes. That number doesn’t really mean anything – just a little trivia. With two sections complete, we had our highest total elevation gain of the trip (almost 8,000 feet back on June 5), our highest summit (11.000 feet on June 20) and our second longest distance (118 miles on June 12). Looking forward, there are still challenges ahead of us, with some very long back-to-back rides.

My day in Pueblo was simple. I had to catch up on some work and mail, and I generally just took it easy. Some of the riders went to an antique car show in town.

Today’s Highlights:
We had a very enjoyable 94-mile ride today. It was mostly downhill, dropping from 7000 feet to 4800. It included some great scenery. And everyone seemed to agree that the best thing of all was a very helpful tailwind that we had been hoping for!

We started our morning at the Patio Pancake house for a very nice breakfast, and appreciated the change from the usual hotel continental choices. At 7:00, we were on our bikes for a very chilly start. Thankfully, the smoke that filled the air in Salida yesterday afternoon was gone and the sky was clear and blue. Some smoky haze veiled the mountains that were far in the distance. A few miles from town, we entered Bighorn Sheep Canyon, where the Arkansas River carves its way east toward the Mississippi. We followed the Arkansas almost all day, and were in the canyon for the first forty miles. The canyon ride was thoroughly enjoyable. First of all, it was downhill almost constantly. The canyon walls were impressive, and the river was soothing and sparkling in the morning sunlight.

At mile forty five, we had our only climb of the day, and it was only three miles long. It was getting very warm by then, and the temperature continued to climb from the 80’s to high 90’s. After the climb, we had an incredible descent. It was long and fast, and a pleasant surprise. Near the bottom, the town of Canon (Canyon) City came into view. We rode through the middle of it. It seemed like a very nice little western town. By now, we had dropped to about 5500 feet, and the landscape changed dramatically from the previous two days. We were back in an arid environment. Leaving Canon City, we had rolling hills, but this is where the tailwind really picked up. On gradual downhills, I could easily ride above 22 mph and sometime over 30 mph with little effort. Then rolling uphill, it was still easy to stay near 20 mph. The ninety four miles were going by quickly.

Near Penrose Colorado, the landscape was getting very stark. The land was practically barren. Not even sagebrush grows here! I saw a “scenic overlook” sign, and pulled in to take a look. There was really nothing to see except a barren plain and small distant mountains. They set the bar very low here. I guess it’s all relative. Anyway, I continued the great wind-assisted cycling into Pueblo, just enjoying the ride.

I finished today’s ride in only six hours (5 hours of pedaling time), with an 18.6 mph average, thanks to the favorable wind. My bike computer registered 111 degrees near the end. The air temp was probably in the high 90’s, but the heat from the road and traffic raises the temp around us. You can really feel it in our feet. I was very happy to end before it got even hotter.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
We had a fabulous ride today, with great scenery, some very easy cruising, one very challenging climb to new heights, and ending with a great downhill.

Herb and Rick joined us today for the sixty-four mile ride on US 50 from Gunnison to Salida Colorado. It was an invigorating 39 degrees when we departed at 7:00 am, and the sky was clear and deep blue. We started with a 30-mile gradual climb, so after a couple miles of warm up, the cool temperature was ideal. We rode through a bucolic valley where the Tomichi Creek meanders. It stretched for thirty miles, all the way from Gunnison to Sargents, like a ribbon of heaven laid down on the valley floor. Large farms and ranches were spread out like patchwork one after another. Rolling hills and mountains created a magnificent backdrop. The ride was easy, peaceful, and immensely enjoyable.

We had a rest stop at mile thirty one. From there, we started the big climb of the day – a nine mile climb to the 11,000 foot summit of Monarch Pass. The road was a constant grade, since it is a state highway that trucks depend on. There were no flat or downhill breaks, just a steady seven percent. It took me about 1.5 hours. At some curves in the road, there were views far down into the valley. There was a dense forest of tall pines for the entire climb, and occasional aspen groves. The scent of pine filled the air. The mountain air was clear and crisp. Best of all, it was free, so I sucked it in like a glutton at an all-you-can-eat salad bar.

At the summit, we had our final rest stop for the day, and briefly celebrated with some photos at the landmark. Then we were rewarded with a big, long descent of similar grade, winding for about ten miles. Traffic was light, so it was fun to get some speed and just enjoy the ride. I only stopped a few times for photo ops. The next fifteen miles into Salida were also downhill, but not as steep or winding. It was a very easy finish.

I got to town around 1:00 and joined a few other riders at Subway. The weather was still nice, and in the eighties and clear. However, a couple hours later, the air filled with smoke and some ash from the fires to the east. We are hoping it clears tomorrow for our ride out.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
Today we had some of the best scenery since leaving the Sierra Nevada Mountains two weeks ago. We are in the heart of the Rocky Mountains and it is just beautiful. The price of admission for today’s visual feast was high though. We started the morning with a stronger headwind than yesterday. I did not think that was possible. The first nine miles were flat or slight inclines, and I could only ride between six and eight mph. For the first time ever I used my granny gear on a flat road. Then we hit a four mile climb up to Cerro Summit, and I worked very hard to go 4 mph. It took one hour, fifty minutes to cover the first 13 miles. That was quite tiring and we still had fifty three more miles to go. Once at the summit, the day improved dramatically. The wind was very light and we even had a tailwind for the last thirty miles. Temperatures were comfortable throughout the day – a little cool at the start and a little hot at the finish, but nothing extreme.

Leaving Montrose at 7:00, there was a thick haze in the distance, presumably from the fires on the eastern side of the Rockies. We rode passed many farms and ranches, and it was nice to see the tall grass, aspen trees, and all the shades of green. Once over our first summit, layers of mountains and cliffs spread out before us. We had an enjoyable descend off Cerro and coasted into the little town of Cimarron. We followed the crystal clear Cimarron River for a while. Ranches were common in this area, although they are so large it could have been a mile or more between each house I saw.

We had our next big climb starting at mile twenty, and climbed for seven miles. I made better progress on this climb since there was no wind to contend with. Just before the summit, there was construction that we had to stop for. I had about a ten minute rest there. Just over the summit, our rest stop looked down into one of the most peaceful valleys I have seen. It had a small lake, a single ranch, and acres of lush pasture land. One of the workers there said he saw 300 head of elk down there when he arrived at 5:30 in the morning. Another great descent took us snaking through a canyon, and when we popped out the other side, it opened up into another large valley with more cliffs and mountains layered one after another. Aspen trees became more prevalent. A long stretch of gentle downhill then brought us to the Gunnison Lake, created by a dam on the Gunnison River. We followed the lake shore for nearly twenty miles, crossing over it at one point. The entire area was quite beautiful with its blue water, grassy and sandy shoreline, and colorful cliffs and mountains rising out of the lake.

After we passed the lake, the terrain continued to be relatively flat, and an easy ride. We passed more ranches and a resort or two. Then we had another nice treat, cycling through the Gunnison River Canyon. The road hugged the river and tall cliffs rose from each side. I found it very peaceful to ride through. I met up with Dave and Chris on this section and finally got some pictures of them riding.

Once out of the canyon, we entered more lush farmland. It was a pleasant easy cruise into Gunnison. The town looks very nice, with wide streets, and a real western feel.

Two ABB alumni met up with us today. Herb and Rick, who I rode with last year on the Ride-the-West tour, will be riding with us for a couple days, then going on the Tour of Colorado bike trip. It is great to see them again. Herb is 81 years old and is everyone’s bike hero. I hope I enjoy cycling as long as he has.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
Good old headwinds! It was very easy to fill our lungs with fresh Colorado air this morning, since we had a 20 mph wind directly in our faces. On the other hand, it was quite a challenge to make forward progress on a bicycle. It took me 3-1/2 hours to ride the first thirty-eight miles to our rest stop. On a calm day, a route like that might have taken 2-1/4 or less. I had made up my mind that it was going to be a very long day. Fortunately, after leaving the rest stop, the wind calmed down and was much less a factor for the remaining thirty six miles. I finished the 74-mile ride around 1:30 pm, averaging only 13 mph.

Leaving Fruita, there were some beautiful views of the eastern edge of the Books Cliffs lit by the morning sun. It’s quite a spectacular backdrop for the farms and homes in the area. We crossed over the Colorado River as we left the frontage rode and cycled onto US route 50. We will be following US-50 for a few more days. After several miles through a commercial zone in Grand Junction, we reached wide open space with an occasional ranch or home. This part of the ride was quite scenic, although consistent for miles. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of pavement as I had my head down pushing hard into the wind.

As we continued south, approaching the town of Delta, we crossed over a small canyon and passed more ranch land. Close to Delta, there were large farms with very scenic mountains in the background. In front of use, the Rocky Mountains grew closer and closer. We will be climbing over them for the next couple days. It’s hard to believe, because they still look very far away. We crossed the Gunnison River and entered downtown Delta. It looked like a very cozy little town with shops and restaurants. They were proud of the nice murals they had on many buildings.

Continuing from Delta to Montrose, farmland was the predominant scenery. We rode down into Montrose on Rt 550, then down Main St. Montrose is also a very nice town, much bigger than Delta. Main St had architecture from its early days and looked quite fun to walk around. However, I pressed on looking for the hotel and trying to be careful in the traffic. It would be a nice place to come back and visit.

At the end of the day, most of the riders diplomatically describe their ride as “not their favorite”. The wind was really the culprit, because otherwise it was a nice road with gentle hills and pleasant scenery.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
The highlight of today was entering Colorado! It’s a great place to be. We worked very hard today to get here, but it was worth it. Our ninety mile ride started at 7:00 am. We immediately got on Interstate 70 and stayed there for the entire route. The first ten miles were freshly paved, making it very nice to ride on. A slight headwind kept our speed down. The next fifteen miles were on a rougher surface and the wind picked up. That first 25 miles was also a long gradual climb. Our rest stop was near the top of it. Next, we had a long gradual downhill to mile 40, however a strong headwind still held my speed down near 15 mph. The second half of the ride consisted of long rolling hills with less effect by the wind, and the temperatures were in the nineties. Still in the high desert environment, we were in full sun all day.

Along our route we had views of the Book Cliffs again to the north. Far to the south, the La Sal Mountains rose abruptly from the desert basin. The cliffs and other land formations were interesting to see. Vegetation was still very sparse. As we neared Colorado, the landscape got more hilly, with more variation of grasses and shrubs. There were some signs of ranching, but no significant structures other than fences and a few empty corrals. We crossed the Colorado boarder seventy miles into our ride, and continued another twenty to Fruita. Farms and other signs of civilization appeared as we neared town. A few miles before the end of our ride, we came upon the Colorado River, with Cottonwood trees along the banks and colorful cliffs in the background. It was a refreshing site to see flowing water and trees and green grass again.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
Today is Ken Harris’s 70th birthday. He’s riding strong and is quite an inspiration.

Yesterday I mentioned how refreshingly green our route was, and I was optimistic that the trend would continue. However, we once again entered the desert, riding sixty-five miles from Price to Green River Utah. Early in the ride, we rode past some farms in Wellington UT, where the irrigation created an oasis of green. However, about ten miles from the start, we were in the wilderness again with sparse sagebrush dotting the landscape. From my perspective, this area of Utah was even more desolate than our route through Nevada and western Utah. We passed a sign that said “Price River”, and it was barely a stagnant three foot wide stream.

However, about fifteen miles into our ride down Rt 6 we were presented with a view of a grand escarpment in front of us. Eventually, the highway paralleled it and our view to the east became more and more interesting as we got closer to the cliffs and the sun moved far enough overhead to highlight its features and color. They are called the Book Cliffs and are one thousand feet tall. They wind for 250 miles across Utah and Colorado, and it is the longest continuous escarpment in the world. On the west side of the highway were other colorful cliff far in the distance. I saw two deer today, but no other wildlife or livestock. Some people saw antelope.

We passed a sign for the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, but it was actually too far off our route to visit. It contains the greatest accumulation of Jurassic dinosaur bones in the world. I would have liked to learn more about it. Maybe another time. Although this area now seems desolate, it is rich in geological and archeological treasures.

For the last forty miles of the ride we had a constant headwind. It has just become a normal condition of the ride and I hesitate to even mention it anymore. But we all wish for tailwinds.

We entered the town of Green River and crossed its namesake just before the hotel. The river is about 100 yards wide there and flowing fast. A few of us had lunch in a restaurant beside it and enjoyed the soothing view for a while. Green River is known for the melons grown there.

We had a special extracurricular activity today. Since our ride ended relatively early, the staff drove some of us to Arches National Park. We had a couple hours to visit some popular overlooks, and it was spectacular.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
We had a chilly 46 degree start this morning with the sun still behind the Wasatch Mountains, only streaming sunbeams through the canyons. Once it was high enough to shine on us, it warmed us up a bit. The coolness was refreshing though, as we had a lot of early climbing to do. The first several miles of our route took us passed some farms in Springville, south of Provo. A little further, in Spanish Fork, we came upon a windmill farm. It was appropriately located there, as a very strong headwind gave us a good workout for several miles until we were high enough in the canyon where the wind was milder.

Our route was very scenic today, up a canyon where the Spanish Fork River flows. A rail line parallels the river. There were only a couple small towns and several ranches along the way. It was nice to see so much green after our journey through the desert. Trees are still rather small in this ecosystem, but more of the terrain is covered with grasses and wildflowers, and rarely were there barren spots. It is also refreshing to be in the mountains rather than viewing them from afar. While most of the mountainsides were rich in vegetation, there were also areas where the red and yellow sandstone came to the surface. There were some steep cliff areas and even some very interesting hoodoos. Sheep ranching is common in this area, although I only saw one herd. I saw a pen with six large llamas who intently watched Dave and I ride by. You would think they never saw a cyclist before.

We climbed for the first 45 miles of our route, reaching an elevation of 7434 feet at Solider Summit, with roughly 3500 feet of total climbing for the day. Our one rest stop was at mile 36. The climb was mostly gradual since it is at highway grade, but of course that is still a long distance to climb. The scenery made it enjoyable. The last thirty miles of our 75-mile ride was mostly downhill. However, we got cheated on the descent by a headwind much of the way. Sometimes it was so strong that I think my bike would have stopped right on the hill if I wasn’t pedaling so hard. For several miles the single downhill lane was narrow, just wide enough for a tractor trailer, and the shoulder was only one or two feet including the rumble strip. We had no choice but to go slow and negotiate the poor, narrow shoulder in order not to get hit by a truck.

The east side of the Wasatch Range was just as nice as the west side. At higher elevations, there were gentle foothills with plenty of grazing areas, and we passed several ranches again. The White River flows through the valley on this side. I spotted a deer in the river, which was a treat to see since there is so little wildlife visible. Other than that, there were a few cattle and horses along the way. Lower in our descent, we entered another canyon area with amazing cliffs and rock formations. There is coal mining in this area, near Helper Utah, and we saw one active mine. Once into the town of Price, the landscape was more arid. The valley floor is dotted with sagebrush and low-growing bushes, while very weathered, figured cliff surround it.

It was a rather long day with all the climbing and then the unexpected slow descent into the wind. I arrived at the hotel around 2pm. It was another great day on the bike seeing the beautiful countryside!

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
Today’s 64-mile ride was fun and easy, especially the bike path along the Jordan River. We all wore our red America By Bicycle jerseys today in honor of Flag Day. It was also requested that we ride the first segment of the route together, because many junctions of the trail were very confusing. That turned out to be true, and at least once we all got lost together. For me, it was really nice to parade with the others for a couple hours, because I have so often ridden in solitude on this trip. It also gave me a chance to get pictures of several of the riders.

We started our day on an unusual bike path that was in or along the SLC airport. There were a few security gates we had to enter or exit along the way. After a few miles, we left that path and rode streets through a commercial area. Then at ten miles, we hopped on the Jordan River path. That was a lot of fun with many curves as it followed the river, twisted through trees, and crossed meadows. It included elevated boardwalks over wetlands and several bridge crossings over the river. There were ducks, swans, sandpipers and other birds along the way.

Once off the Jordon River path, we had a short ride on busy streets again, taking us to our one rest stop for the day. From there, people continued in smaller groups and I left with Ken, Bud and Emma. We soon came to our last bike path for the day, a short 2-mile path in Jordan Meadows (the Draper City Trail). Although it was short, this trail was high above the valley and had very nice views north to Salt Lake City, east to the Wasatch Range and west to the Oquirrh Mountains where there is a huge open pit mining operation (mostly copper).

The final thirty miles of the ride was on a small stretch of highway and a very long stretch of four-lane strip mall thoroughfare passing every store and service imaginable. The traffic was very heavy too. There was one peaceful section through the campus of Brigham Young University. Five miles before the end of our route, we stopped for ice cream at the Creamery. It was awesome!

With a late 7:30 am start and a slow pace today (and a nice ice cream break), we completed the ride around 2:00 pm. We had a nice blue sky, comfortable temps, and sometimes a helpful tailwind. I’ve reached the point where I can say a 64-miles was simply pleasant. I guess that also means we are well conditioned now.

Pictures Of The Day:

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Today’s Highlights:
We had our first rest day of the trip after riding for eleven days in a row. My primary goal for today was to not sit on anything hard. Mission accomplished.

I slept late – until 6:00 am. The morning was leisurely. Cleaned and lubed my bike. Cleaned up some gear. Caught up on email, etc. Nothing exciting.

We are staying on the west side of the airport, far from town, and there is really nothing else around here except for four or five hotels and one Subway shop. A few people shuttled to the airport and took a bus into town for some sightseeing. This afternoon, several of us were shuttled into town to visit a couple bike shops and pick up some needed supplies. We did not stop at any other sights though. It’s unfortunate that we were not staying downtown to allow more options for things to do. Although resting was just fine with me.

We had dinner at the hotel. It was very good. We enjoyed Dave’s humor during dinner.
Dave: “I’m a little dyslexic. One time I tried to commit suicide and I jumped in back of a bus.”

Two of our riders are returning home today, as planned, after completing the first segment called Western States Tour. Andy Hiroshima will return to Sacramento, and Meaghan Fondiller to Brooklyn NY. We will miss them. They always brightened the room with a big smile and cheerful camaraderie. Unfortunately, we have one unexpected departure. Jed had a crash only 100 yards from the hotel in Wendover. He was injured enough to inhibit riding, but he leaves in good spirits. He plans to continue next year from Salt Lake.

We have one new rider, Millard, who will ride this next section, the Rocky Mountain Tour.

We will have a leisurely start tomorrow. 6:30 breakfast, 7:30 load and leave. Nice! I am looking forward to cycling through Utah.