It was another cold morning in the mountains of Colorado; so cold that have been regretting the fact that we sent home our full-fingered gloves! The morning started out with a few miles of downhill, which usually is nice, but today we were looking forward to the uphill afterwards so that we could warm up.
Halfway through the four mile climb, we stripped down to our base layers, but at the top, we layered up again for the descent.
As we made the 12 mile descent into Montrose, we noticed that the scenery once again changed.
We seemed to have entered into a sandhill region.
At the same time, we were noticing the San Juan Mountains to the south, which are absolutely stunning.
At the bottom of the hill, we stopped at The Coffee Trader and got a cup of joe each, as well as some pastries.
We had been discussing plans for how to hike a 14er while we are passing through Colorado, with Handies as the most likely candidate. Unfortunately, though, we didn’t take into account early enough where the trailhead is. When we checked this morning, we realized we should have gone a different direction yesterday afternoon. After some deliberation, we decided we would get a hotel room for two nights in Montrose (using rewards points, luckily), and rent a car for the day tomorrow to get to the trailhead and back.
After making reservations, we rode to the hotel and used their internet until we could get into the room. Then, we rode around town for a few errands (including buying new full-fingered gloves) and ate lunch at Colorado Boy Pizzeria.
Later on, we picked up the rental car, went grocery shopping while very hungry (and accordingly bought a bit too much), and got to bed much later than we should have, since we need to get started so early tomorrow morning.
Trip stats, to date (Day 61)
- Cimarron, CO to Montrose, CO
- Daily mileage: 23.0mi ; Trip total to date: 3,715.7mi
- Daily riding time: 1hr 41min; Trip total time: 321hr 25min
- Daily ascent: 1,221ft; Trip total ascent: 178,595ft
- Flat tires: Rachel – 2; Chris – 1
So much fun when you can drink beer and not count the calories!
That looks like a great meal/salad!
Love your posts, be safe.