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The Train Rolls On

9/17/17

Pueblo, CO > Eads, CO

Miles Ridden – 116.4

Mileage to date – 1,712

Perhaps this should have titled “Egads he is in Eads”?  Too rhymey I think.  In any case, John was back in action yesterday with Jaime and Heather after a well deserved rest day.  The terrain is flatter for the coming days so John and team decided to celebrate by riding 116 miles!  The made good time, but that is still a lot of riding in one day.

Speaking of trains, Eads (population 609) per wikipedia “was established in 1887 as a railroad town and was named after James Buchanan Eads, a structural engineer with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, who designed and built the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis in 1874″.  That is pretty much all Wikipedia has to say on Eads.  Not a lot going on there as you can tell by the photos.

John spent the night camping in the town park.  He should be in Kansas tomorrow and apparently many of the towns in Kansas on the route also allow camping in the town park by cyclists.

John’s account of the day –

“The day started cool and overcast and the skies cleared as the ride unfolded.  All in all, a great weather day for a bike ride thru eastern Colorado.  While the terrain was flat we still managed to climb 1650 vertical feet over the course of the day.  We were all a bit surprised to discover 2 of the towns did not have convenience stores as the map suggested making all of our water supplies a bit tight for the end of  the ride into Eads.”

Yesterday was the first day in quite a while without the services of Ethan the friendly sag wagon driver.   John and team are back to carrying their own gear on the bikes.  Hopefully as they get further east the towns with services will be closer together.

Photos from yesterday –

 

 

 

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In the Nick of Time!

Westcliffe, CO > Pueblo, CO

Miles Ridden – 51.1

Mileage to date – 1,595.6

Per John, today was an easy day and a well deserved one at that.  He dropped nearly 3,000 feet in elevation day on the ride to Pueblo.  I am sure it was nice to have an easy day after so much climbing and long days of riding in the past few weeks.  Tomorrow is a rest day.  By my count, John has ridden the past 23 days straight without a break.  I think a rest day is long overdue.

This was the view to the west that greeted John and crew this morning –

Yep, that is snow up there.  They got over Monarch Pass in the nick of time.

My apologies to John, I did jinx him yesterday by talking about how he had not gotten a flat on the new tires.  At the end today when he reached Pueblo he had a flat tire….sorry.

John did manage to stop by the Pueblo Post Office to pick up the maps for the next section of the trip that Cindy and I had mailed out.

Here are some photos from the last couple of days –

I have no idea what this is, but I think it is an example of the stuff you are willing to eat when bicycling all day –

I am not sure if this is a real fire department or not, but the “closed” sign does not give me a warm fuzzy –

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All downhill from here?

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 –

 

 

 

 

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The Series of Tubes May Have a Hole in Them?

Cimarron, C0 > Sargents, CO

Miles Ridden – 77.6

Mileage to date – 1,463.8

The internet was once famously described as a “series of tubes”.  If so, then there may be a hole in them in Colorado where John currently is.  The wifi connection is very poor where he is and he could not share much in the way of pictures for the 2nd day in a row.  I did get the following update form John describing the riding the past 2 days –

“Tomorrow we climb Monarch Pass in the AM and head to Westcliff. The last 2 mornings have been in the 40s. Leaving Telluride was particularly cold because my gloves were still wet from Lizard Pass (when they cycled in the rain). Fortunately, after an hour an half or so it warmed up and feeling was restored in my fingers. The rest of the day was beautiful and we arrived in Cimarron around 4pm. Today was beautiful throughout and consisted of gentle climbs thru Curecanti National recreation area.”

Monarch Pass should be the highest point that John reaches on the trip.  It is at 11,312.  He is currently at an elevation of 8,500 so tomorrow will be a climbing day.  The Monarch Pass is located on the Continental Divide so I think it is fair to say the rest of the trip is downhill? 😉

Here are a few photos that John was able to share.  Completely unrelated, but I also added a couple of my own from a boat ride on Lake Champlain tonight  with some friends of ours.

Curecanti National Recreation Area –

Near Cimarron, CO –

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Radio Silence Broken

Telluride, CO > Cimarron, C0

Miles Ridden – 87.0

Mileage to date – 1,386.2

He is alive!  I heard from John this morning.  They camped out last night in Cimarron and had no internet access.  They are headed towards Sapinero, CO now.  This mileage data is for yesterday 9/12/17.