Sargents, CO > Westcliffe, CO
Miles Ridden – 80.7
Mileage to date – 1,544.5
John passed the 1,500 mile mark today. He estimated his trip will be about 3,600 miles so he is closing on the halfway mark. Another key milestone, was reaching what will be most likely be the highest elevation of the trip on Monarch pass (11,312). Since we are nearly half way through September, it is nice to get over the Continental Divide before snow flies.
Today was the 3rd day in a row of poor internet connectivity for John so I don’t have much to share. I did hear from him mid day when he reached the top of Monarch Pass –
He looks pretty fresh despite climbing nearly 5,000 feet today.
From John –
“The climb at monarch was steady but not terribly steep. We’d guess it was at 5% grade but none of us are certain. The weather was great for the climb and the descent was epic at 30 miles. The ride was pretty great overall and the only negatives were the traffic on highway 50 and we all worked hard to out run the rain getting into Westcliffe.”
He is still riding with Jaime and Heather. Ethan is still the sag driver. Tomorrow they will reach Pueblo where they plan to take a rest day. It sounds like Ethan will be finished as sag driver, but John plans to keep riding with Jaime and Heather. They are headed to Virginia so in theory John can keep riding with them until Kentucky, but they will need to carry their own gear as soon as Ethan departs.
At the risk of jinxing John, he has had no flat tires since Cedar City when he switched to the new tires that Cindy brought out. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for continued goo fortune in that department!
A photo from Westcliffe –
A couple of photos from earlier in the week that finally made it into Dropbox –
