We had arrived at our campsite so early in the afternoon that on the following morning we felt more than rested and ready to continue our trek north. It felt strange to be turned around and retracing our way back to Montrose. Now that we've reached the farthest point that we'll be from home--down in Mesa Verde, where we started to program our minds that the trip was winding down---it's a little anticlimactic to go back over familiar ground.
We're saying a lingering farewell to Colorado.
As we neared Montrose, a woman on a heavily loaded touring bicycle passed by heading south. She looked as if she wanted to stop and exchange words with us, but Brock and I were both more excited about our rapid pace and the imminent promise of coffee than a chat with yet another touring cyclist. I felt a little sorry, as we're probably the last long-distance cyclists she'll encounter for days or weeks on this lightly travelled (at least during this season) Adventure Cycling route.
We stocked up on food at the Safeway in Montrose, planning to live in the National Forest over the span of 5 mealtimes. Loaded with refried beans, canned tomatoes, lettuce, potato salad, fruit, bagels, and cream cheese, I felt satisfied that we wouldn't starve up on the Grand Mesa. And we proved once again that you can wrap up anything in a tortilla and call it a meal. For lunch we consumed potato salad and lettuce wraps. Not bad at all.
We rode an easy breezy 21 miles following the subtle downhill curve of the earth into Delta, where the road connived to tilt ever-so-slightly up towards the highlands. A road like that makes you feel as if you should be pedaling faster but aren't. Devious.
Grand Mesa is the largest flat top mountain in the world. It stretches for dozens of miles across the plains, planting long tree-clad fingers into the drier lands below.
As the sun beat down inexorably on our un-helmeted heads (yes, the helmets have taken a backseat since Ft. Collins) the road finally showed its true colors and bent upwards in earnest. We spent the next 3 hours battling uphill to reach the National Forest Boundary.
Our stomachs informed us that it was dinner time before we reached our day's end, and so we opened cans of food and laid a decent spread in some ranch pullout. An outcrop of earth sheltered us from the still-hot evening sun, and we made plans to sit by some lake the next day and bask in the heat.
At last we pedaled into National Forest. There we easily found a spot to set up our tent, with a prime view of the land below that stretched out to the jagged peaks of the San Juans we'd recently left.
Outstanding blog
ReplyDelete