Day 88

Miles 43.45 Total for trip 3402.34
Avg spd 7.11
Max spd 36.74
Climb 3389
Alt chng ++271 The above picture is of O'Haver Lake on my way down Marshall Pass. It looked like a great place to camp, but the day was young so I kept on riding.

Today out of camp I had a 17 mile uphill that covered 2300 ft of altitude. Lucky for me my food pickup is today in Salida(the end of the downhill after the 17 mile uphill) and I only have 1 day of food left so my trailer is the lightest it has ever been. I did the best I have done on a big uphill. I would say I only walked around 1 1/2 miles of the uphill today. I passed a few ATVers and they yelled their support. I got into Salida with time to spare and hit the Post Office. I got my food packed and was happy not to have the extra weight for the trip up the hill today.

Salida didn't have any camping so I was going to get out of town a couple miles and set up camp. Boy was I wrong. There were not any good camping spots out of town. It was private property and very steep. It was probably twice as steep as the hill earlier today plus I had 25 more pounds in my trailer. I walked quit a lot out of town. I ended up going 1300ft up and 4 miles out of town before I got to San Isabel National Forest and was able to find a place to set up my tent.

Day 87

Miles 69.5 Total for trip 3358.89
Avg spd 9.37
Max spd 33.56
Climb 3055
Alt chng --774
Today was decision time. I could either have an easy day of around 25 miles or a tough day of around 70 miles. I decided since I did the pass yesterday that I would do the 70 miles since there was only 1 pass in the 70 miles. I got done with the 25 miles in good time so I stopped at Luders Creek Campground for a break. Sure enough a lot of mosquitoes. I ran out of bug repellent a few days ago and keep forgetting to get some when I get into a small town. I cut my break short and hit the road. There were a couple of nice reservoirs, Upper & Lower Dome, along the way today. Not a whole lot happening today. I met another biker going South. He was doing a lot of miles per day. He started around June 8th and was flying back on July 18th and was hoping to finish the whole ride.

I camped at Sargents and talked with another biker who is doing a route through some major parks. He is taking a couple weeks off in Michigan to get his wisdom teeth pulled and then is off to Massachusetts. He didn't bring a sleeping bag, because he was only going to be at high altitudes for a few days. The day before at the campsite it got down to 29 degrees. Lucky for him I don't think it got down below 40 the night we were there.

Day 86

Miles 40.4 Total for trip 3289.39
Avg 7.16
Max spd 30.95
Climb 2692
Alt chng ++1351
I left Del Norte knowing I was only going around 32 miles so I stopped and read the paper at a gas station. I made good time the first half of the day so I went off track to La Garita to get a bite to eat and a soda. While I was there I ran into the last(really the last) Divide Ride Racer. He was around 55-60 years old. He asked me about the Indiana Pass. I told him it was ok when it wasn't raining. He was thinking about take tomorrow off in Del Norte. I also ran into a group of 15 motorcyclists who were using the same book I am to cycle the divide. I got out of La Garita after about an hour. I had a 1500 ft climb to get to Storm King Campground, my site for the night. When I got to the campsite I rested for a few and found the mosquitoes to be very bad, and when I saw the cost of $5 for the campsite I decided to push on over the pass. It was only another 500ft to the top off the pass and after a couple miles downhill I found a nice hunter's campsite. For dinner I tried anchovies with my pasta. It will probably be the last time for that combo.

Day 85

Day off. Did laundry and watched some TV.

Skype Snapshot

I was talking to Aaron on Skype and took advantage of the opportunity to snap a picture of him. He is starting to look a bit scraggly.

Day 84

Miles 51.04 Total for trip 3249.99
Avg 7.7
Max spd 33.56
Climb 4019
Alt chng --1987 The above picture is of my gear after about 25 miles of rain and mud. I was happy I was in Colorado where the road is hard dirt/mud instead of New Mexico where it is clay and I would have had to pull over and wait it out.

I had to climb down a couple hundred feet to get the picture above, but it was worth it.

Today I was to climb to my highest peak of the trip. It is called Indiana Pass. I passed the above private lake at around 10,000 feet. It was great. There were signs saying do not get out of your vehicle, but since I was on a bike I thought it was safe to take a couple pictures.

The above picture is of Platoro. It is a nice little fishing and mountain village. There is a nice reservoir a couple miles past the city. It would be a nice place to spend a couple weeks.

I decided I needed a dry place to sleep tonight so I stayed in the local Del Norte Inn and uploaded everything. I see a day off in my future.

Day 83

Miles 20.5 miles Total for trip 3196.95
Avg spd 6.43
Max spd 19.09
Climb 1538
Alt chng ++1026
I started a little late today to give my gear a chance to dry out in the early morning sun. I had a 1000 foot climb to start out the day. I was riding in a canyon that had an honest to goodness river running through it. There was great scenery all day today. It was probably the prettiest 20 miles of the trip. I stopped a few times to take pictures and could have stopped even more. There was a lot of traffic today, all the 4th campers getting back into town. I wanted to get about 20 miles out of Platoro today, because I get to my highest elevation of the trip tomorrow at 11,910. I pulled into Platoro at around 12.30 and saw an RV sign that said showers, laundry, wifi, and more. I decided to see how much it was and it only came out to $14, boy did I need a shower and laundry. I decided to stop for the day, with the big downhill I could still get to Del Norte tomorrow.