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.
Another thunderstorm last night woke me up at about 2am and kept me up until 5. As a result I was unable to get the early start I wanted, and didn’t head out until 10.
As usual the morning hours seem to be the easiest and the 35 miles to my first lunch went by quickly. Because towns here are so far apart and there are so few places to eat in each town, the employees are used to seeing touring cyclists. I’ve been on route 24 for a few hundred miles and haven’t seen any other cyclists but apparently they come through once every couple weeks.
The second town I passed through – about 65 miles in – had zero cell reception and I didn’t see any restaurants so I stopped at a gas station for some junk food.
Rolling hills had continued for the first 65 miles, and coming out of that second town I had a long gentle climb and then the hills stopped. This was the flatness everyone said Kansas would be like, and it only took me 3/4ths of the state to find it.
I came across some road construction at one point, they were re-paving the road. After getting to ride on the opposite side of the road for a few miles a construction worker waved me over onto the newly paved part and the roads inaugural vehicle was a bike.
I finally made it to the town of Colby, KS at 7:30 and found a motel. 98 miles today, the hundred mile day still eludes me.
Today’s mileage: 98 miles.
Total: 2120 miles.
