New to John's Bicycle Tour: Bonus Miles!

It has been a while since my last post and, be that as it may, I will fast forward a few days from my reunion with Nathan, Matthew and John in Colorado Springs to our wild night in Salida, Colorado.

We climbed for miles up the Arkansas river bed to Salida a quaint, charming and highly outdoorsy town. I grew tired of my beard and got a shave at a barber shop (before and after pics below). After restocking on some supplies at the bike shop, the proprietor offered to let us camp behind the shop along the Arkansas, which was a chilly 55 degrees, thanks for asking. The next morning, we began our assault on Monarch Pass (read: a 22-mile climb over the Continental Divide, gaining thousands of feet of elevation along the way).

It was punishing. But it was awesome. I began breathing faster and faster with every pedal stroke, trying to fill my lungs with the ever-diminishing amount of oxygen. I'm not one to get altitude sickness; in fact, I usually do quite well at higher elevation. Nevertheless, I could definitely sense a decrease in performance. From a purely visual perspective, the entire trip is downhill from there, seeing that Monarch Pass, at 11,312 feet, is the highest point on our route. Sadly, that is not geographically accurate, with two more passes in Colorado to go, some 14% grades in Utah to get to the top of some mesas, 14 mountain passes in Nevada and Carson pass in California!

We have had several more significant climbs since, although none as dramatic as Monarch. Thankfully, for every 1,000 feet of elevation gained, it is akin to travelling 170 miles to the north, so it is usually quite cool riding for us. Additionally, with each pass, we earn bonus miles: sometimes dozens of miles at a time we can coast downhill without so much as a pedal stroke. Today, for instance, we got 5 free bonus miles on the other side of a small pass and 12 free miles from Cerro Summit to Montrose. Yesterday we got 10 free bonus miles after Monarch Pass.

Enough dilly-dallying for me, though: I must rest in preparation for the Dallas Divide and Lizard Head Pass in the beautiful Alp-esque or Dolomite-esque San Juan Mountains. Utah, here I come!