Day 37: Montrose, CO

Day 37

June 22, 2015

Miles: 72

Ophir to Montrose

It was cold during the night, with the temperature getting to the low 40's.  That's good tent sleeping weather.  I got up around 7am and the sun was just starting to come over the mountains.

The sun lightening up the mountains

Once the sun cleared the mountains, the entire campground was illuminated.  It was so bright that even Di couldn't sleep any more and had to get up.  This made surprise a lot of folks, but when we camp out, Di is always the last one to get up.  She always claims she didn't get a wink of sleep in the tent, but whenever I wake up and check on her. she couldn't be more sound asleep.

Di starting to pack up for our day's ride

Di made us each a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and because it had been a couple of days since we last had a PB&J, we both were happy to have it.  We were on the road by 8:15, which is earlier than we usually leave.  We had a long day ahead of us, so an earlier start helps provide a morale booster.  You still have to ride the same number of miles, but it feels great to look at how many miles you've ridden by noon, for example, and know that you are 10 miles farther down the road than if you had left an hour later.  You might wonder why we don't leave even earlier and get a greater morale boost, but c'mon, how much fun is it to get up early enough to leave before 8am?

We are still fascinated by the abundance of water

Di is mesmerized by the water

The first part of the day was mostly uphill, so we took our time.  It was sunny and hot, with the temperatures in the mid-nineties and we had to take a number of breaks to eat and drink.

Its easy to find shade in Colorado

Snow in the mountains and mid-nineties down below

We rode 44 miles and stopped in the town of Ridgeway to have a snack (strawberry scone) and, amazingly, ice coffee!  Yes, we finally were able to get some ice coffee.  It has been easy to get hot coffee, and even easier to get bad coffee, but its been a long time since we've been able to get good ice coffee.

A vision of beauty.  And Di, too!

It was five o'clock and we still had 28 miles to go to get to Montrose.  Our average for the day was 10.7 mph, so if we continued at that pace we would arrive in Montrose around 8pm.  The ride would be mostly downhill, so Di and I thought we would have enough time to get in before dark.  We got on our bikes and started for Montrose.

A couple of miles outside of Ridgeway, we saw a house with a sizable plot of land for sale.  It was obviously unoccupied by humans, because the property was overrun by prairie dogs.  There must have been around 50 of them and they were running all over the place.

Prairie dog park

I couldn't get too close, because I knew from trying to get a prairie dog picture a few days ago that they will quickly dive into their holes if they suspect danger.  So here is a blowup of one of the prairie dogs from the picture above.

How cute!  Wouldn't you want about 50 of these in your lawn?

Tomorrow (Monday) will be a rest day, then we start heading to Gunnison.  We are 66 miles away, but it will take us two days to get there.  Why am I talking about Gunnison already, when we won't get there until Thursday?  Because we are meeting Jen and Ben there and I can't wait!  As Jen would say, Wahoo!