Another day, another town, this one is called Telluride.
It's surrounded by steep hilly mountains and by winter its a ski resort.
Looking along the line of Main Street, on the horizon you see a big waterfall tipping over the edge of a steep mountain face. Visible next to it is a zig zagging path which has obviously been carved out for people to hike up. It only takes an hour apparently and I'm tempted to stay a day to explore the town and the nearby off road routes.
I contacted some kind people from warm showers . Com for help with accommodation here. They work in the local bike shop and between them they are finding me a place to stay for the night.
Within 10 minutes of arriving I've spoken to 3 separate people each interested to hear how the trip has been. Everyone here is bike mad. Very cool, funky looking bikes are scattered along the high street/main street. All very expensive I'm sure and very few locked up.
It's a picturesque haven full of cool interesting, friendly, smiley, positive people too. I like. That's my first impression anyway.
Having said all that, my bike will probably get nicked now.
The ride to get here was a slow starter, but finished with a bang. It was 66 miles and the first 50 miles were a straight uphill climb to 10,222 feet.
I didn't have a great breakfast so my energy was low to begin with. I was really labouring and going slowly, but that was probably good news for my joints.
I was also far from hungover, but a couple of pale ales the day before didn't help my energy levels.
After 38 miles of climbing I stopped in Rico, at a nice cafe and had a tasty chicken sandwich and 16 cups of coffee. This was just what I needed and helped me to power to the summit in good time, compared to my pace at the start of the climb.
Once at the top the road magically became perfectly smooth and a flying decent began. The smooth surface is courtesy of an annual mountain bike race that is held here.
The mountain tops were very close by. They were the most towering, striking, atmosphere piercing mountains I had seen so far. They looked great. Flying down this decent was really exhilarating. Thankfully I have good brakes on my bike. Speeds were easily reaching 40+mph just by coasting.
The great thing about this journey, so far, is that every time you are finding things difficult, or having a below average day, something is just around the corner that lifts your spirits.
Mother Nature is really inspiring!
Equally she can be a bit of a b#*tch and slap you down just when you think everything couldn't be better. I'm trying to stop myself from feeling too elated and equally too down, so that whatever is round the corner is not so much of a shock.
Only 5 climbs (and about 300 miles) left. Three small and two big. The biggest peaks at 11,312 ft - Monarch Pass. That will be the highest I have ridden.
I'm not sure I want it to end though.
It's surrounded by steep hilly mountains and by winter its a ski resort.
Looking along the line of Main Street, on the horizon you see a big waterfall tipping over the edge of a steep mountain face. Visible next to it is a zig zagging path which has obviously been carved out for people to hike up. It only takes an hour apparently and I'm tempted to stay a day to explore the town and the nearby off road routes.
I contacted some kind people from warm showers . Com for help with accommodation here. They work in the local bike shop and between them they are finding me a place to stay for the night.
Within 10 minutes of arriving I've spoken to 3 separate people each interested to hear how the trip has been. Everyone here is bike mad. Very cool, funky looking bikes are scattered along the high street/main street. All very expensive I'm sure and very few locked up.
It's a picturesque haven full of cool interesting, friendly, smiley, positive people too. I like. That's my first impression anyway.
Having said all that, my bike will probably get nicked now.
The ride to get here was a slow starter, but finished with a bang. It was 66 miles and the first 50 miles were a straight uphill climb to 10,222 feet.
I didn't have a great breakfast so my energy was low to begin with. I was really labouring and going slowly, but that was probably good news for my joints.
I was also far from hungover, but a couple of pale ales the day before didn't help my energy levels.
After 38 miles of climbing I stopped in Rico, at a nice cafe and had a tasty chicken sandwich and 16 cups of coffee. This was just what I needed and helped me to power to the summit in good time, compared to my pace at the start of the climb.
Once at the top the road magically became perfectly smooth and a flying decent began. The smooth surface is courtesy of an annual mountain bike race that is held here.
The mountain tops were very close by. They were the most towering, striking, atmosphere piercing mountains I had seen so far. They looked great. Flying down this decent was really exhilarating. Thankfully I have good brakes on my bike. Speeds were easily reaching 40+mph just by coasting.
The great thing about this journey, so far, is that every time you are finding things difficult, or having a below average day, something is just around the corner that lifts your spirits.
Mother Nature is really inspiring!
Equally she can be a bit of a b#*tch and slap you down just when you think everything couldn't be better. I'm trying to stop myself from feeling too elated and equally too down, so that whatever is round the corner is not so much of a shock.
Only 5 climbs (and about 300 miles) left. Three small and two big. The biggest peaks at 11,312 ft - Monarch Pass. That will be the highest I have ridden.
I'm not sure I want it to end though.
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