July 7 Crossing America

Westcliff, CO – Monarch Pass Campground, CO Distance 70 miles, rode 52 miles. Total distance traveled through today 2,397 miles, by bike 1,970.

One of the worse nights ever tossing and turning wishing someone would just shoot me and put me out of my misery.  My head felt like it was going to explode from either a sinus or stress headache, probably a combination of both.  When I went home between Ash Grove and Pittsburgh I left my sinus Netty Pot as I hadn’t had any headaches and wanted to lighten the amount of gear I was carrying.  Now I wish I had it.  By the time 5:00 AM came I was a total wreck and did not want to ride but decided to give it a try anyway.  There was a slight hill, maybe 50 feet in elevation leaving the campground and 50 yards in length.  By the time I climbed it I thought I was going to have a heart attack as I couldn’t breathe, my chest was pounding and I was seeing little round bubbles floating around my eyes.  It took me the three miles back to the route to recover my breathing.  Told myself I’d
ride as far as the first water break, about 28 miles, and call it a day.

The hills for the first 28 miles were mostly gentle and I even felt like I was going downhill
over-all.  There was a nice Country Store at the water break and they made an awesome BLT sandwich which made my spirits rise a bit.  Maybe I could make it to the next water break which would be Salida.   Before heading onto there I decided to install the new, actually purchased a used one, saddle post which has more adjustment for tilt of the
saddle I had purchased in Pueblo.  The additional tilt adjustment I hoped would help me deal with a saddle sore on the right side sit bone I’ve been dealing with for most of the trek.  To my dismay the saddle post was too long to allow my short legs to reach the pedals.   In disgust I threw the post into the back of my mini-van, big mistake as it hit a can of coke and ripped the can in half spurring sticky gooey pop all over the back section of the van.  I won’t share with you how many adjectives I used for being so stupid.  Reinstalled the original saddle post, fiddled to get it adjusted best I could and set off still talking to myself for making a mess in the van.

To my surprise the ride to Salida was reasonably easy but my head still felt like it was going to explode anytime.  Walked around the downtown historic area looking for a place to eat, found a deli advertising Chicago hot dogs and went in.   Asked the clerk how they made their Chicago dogs and it was all the right ingredients so ordered one.  I wish places who advertise Chicago hot dogs would order Vienna hot dogs and steam their poppy seed buns to make it right.  It still tasted OK but not as good as the real deal.  After eating I wondered around the downtown area a little more.  Had a Smoothie at the little shop our vans were parked in front of.  Wish I could remember the name of the shop and the owner as he was very nice gave us a discount and was interesting to talk too for an hour or so, must be the headache which keeps me from remembering the details.

The Smoothie shop owner told me to check out the Arkansas River a block away as it was
really high this year from all the snow and rain they have had.  As I was walking down to the river Pepper was walking back and told me there was a really nice bike shop Absolute Bikes next to the river I might want to check out.  I still need a fully adjustable saddle post and went to directly to the shop.  Yea, they had a post and it only set me back another $58.00.  Not totally true as I also purchased some Jelly Belly Sport Beans to eat for instant energy while riding and a couple inner tubes for Spirit, too.  Oh right, I had my first flat tire today.  Have I mentioned the cost of maintaining my bikes on this adventure are far greater then I had anticipated?

Checked out the Arkansas River and sure enough it was running wild.  There was a canoe and kayak salaamon course set-up and many whitewater canoe and kayak enthusiast enjoying the great water.  I told a lady standing on the bank, waiting her turn, to run the course in 1987 my wife, 11 year old son and I had canoed this section of the river in an open canoe.  She looked at me and said, “no way” but the gospel we did.  I didn’t mention we swamped the canoe just before the bridge.   That said we did run successfully about 10 miles of the river.

Back at the van I was still debating if I wanted to ride then last 18 miles up to Monarch
Pass.  My decision was quickly made up not to when storm clouds appeared.  The crew leaders showed up about this time and I told Pepper I was calling it a day.  Glad I did as there was a brutal headwind and everyone was exhausted by the time they made it to camp.  Speaking of camp, tonight’s camp was at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground.  Beautiful setting but lacked everything except a pit toilet.

View from BLM Campground

It did have a Gazillion mosquitos to suck out every drop of blood from our wretched bodies.  When Chet, Trish and Aaron arrived in camp they were shall I say less then enthusiastic about the accommodations?  There was a motel 2 miles back down the mountain.  Trish phoned her daughter, who Googled the motel, called them found they had rooms available and even got them to provide a discount.  How did we ever survive before cell phones and computers?   Trish, Aaron, Chet and I elected to stay at the motel, so we took my mini-van and away we went.  We had a good dinner, did laundry and enjoyed a hot shower to cleanse our bodies of the day’s toil of sweat and to lay down in a real bed for a good night sleep.  Luxuries us old geezers need to keep up our morale.

Mule deer doe at campsite when we arrived

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