Luxury Kamping

We're sitting here at a KOA (Kampground of America) in Cotopaxi, Colorado. The campground is right on the Arkansas river, and we even have internet access! The campsite is complete with a pool, mini golf course, horseshoe pit, showers and laundry.

The last few days have gone as follows:
Telluride-Cimarron
Cimarron-Sargents
Sargents-Cotopaxi

We left Telluride around 9AM for a beautiful ride down through the mountains. Last year's crew made it to Montrose, but thanks to a VERY hefty tailwind, we made it there by 3. We decided to push on a bit more in order to make the climb over Monarch Pass a bit easier (we were able to rig our route so that this huge climb was early in the morning). We also feared the winds might change on us and we wanted to get as many miles as possible under our belt with the conditions. In Montrose, we met up with Ed, a touring cyclist who has ridden across the country 5 times! This is his sixth. He was packed useful information, and it was nice to have another rider along with us for the afternoon. We all arrived in Cimarron around 7pm, thoroughly pooped after a 90+ mile day. Cimarron wasn't much of a town, but more of a gas station/general store/restaurant/campground similar to Cook's Station in the Sierra's. We were all famished and managed to each put back a cheeseburger and a large slice of homemade pie. Tony was so hungry that he drank and entire half gallon of whole milk while we waited for dinner. He says that he will do anything these days to make sure that he consumes enough calories! He calculated that this was a very cheap source of said calories: 1080 for $2.89. This has become a game between Tony and Drew. Each time we head into a gas station, they compete to see who can find the cheapest calories.

The next morning, we set off early, knowing that we had a climb in the morning, and wanted to get it out of the way before it warmed up too much. We made it to the top by 10, and were very excited to know that the rest of our 70 mile day was pretty much flat (with an uphill so slight that it was difficult to notice). Again, we had a great tailwind that propelled us towards Sargents, a town at the base of Monarch Pass. Again, this town was nothing more than the Tomichi Creek Trading Post, complete with all services mentioned above. We camped last night in Sargets at about 8,500 feet. We had no idea how cold it could get! We woke up this morning to find that it dropped below freezing last night. The grass was covered in frost, and all of our clothes that we had left to air out were frozen and crispy. As soon as the sun rose over the mountains, however, it warmed up significantly, and we were able to shed our hats and gloves.

We set out this morning to head over Monarch Pass, at an elevation of 11,312. We climbed over 3,000 feet in 10 miles to reach the top. Even still, it did not seem like the worst hill we had climbed. We're still not sure if this was due to the fact that it was the first thing we did this morning, or if it was actually less steep than some of our other climbs. We made it to the top by 10:45, and were pleasantly surprised to find a tourist stop at the top, where we all grabbed some needed snacks. We headed downhill for the rest of the day to Cotopaxi, where we arrived around 3PM. We could have pushed another 21 miles to the next town, but it involved at 1,500 foot climb. Our legs were pretty shot after this morning, so we decided that it would be best to rest up for some long days that we have coming up ahead of us. Today, Tony attempted to turn Drew on to his milk trick, and bought a gallon for the two of them to split. Drew is waiting on a stomach ache to decided if he likes the idea.

Tomorrow, we are going to shoot to make it about 30 miles past Pueblo to Fowler. This would be a 110 mile day, but aside from a climb and a downhill in the morning, it would be primarily flat. We'll see how the winds treat us before we make a decision. If we are able to do this, it would make our next day to Eads much easier (it would be 125 miles otherwise).

We'll keep you posted as we have internet access!!