30 July 2007

According to the Weather Channel, it's going to rain on me today. But maybe not right away. As it happens, most of the day was pretty nice: cool, sometimes cloudy, sometimes not. Seemed occasionally that I was riding toward rain, but the clouds would dissipate by the time I got under them. Traffic speed picked up, too, to where most folks were doing 10 over whatever was posted--it's good to be back out west!

I was bopping along CO 10, and it was as desolate as anything I've ever seen--so I stopped and took a picture.

Of course, while I was standing there a half dozen vehicles came past, both directions.

Shortly thereafter, the land started taking on some contours, then I started being able to make out the Rockies. Then I was in the foothills, then climbing La Veta pass. Caught a few drops of rain on the other side, then climbed Wolf Creek Pass, and the pattern repeated--but I could see rain all around, and figured I'd get wet sooner or later. I did go through a couple of squalls, but none lasted too long, until the last one; that one got my gloves wet enough that they didn't dry out completely before Durango. On the downside of Wolf Creek Pass, I stopped at the scenic overlook and took a picture.

I considered stopping in Durango, because it looked like it was going to seriously rain. But then I'd be stopping in the rain... Instead, I buttoned everything up and changed to the rain gloves. As I climbed out of Durango, it was raining pretty hard, and it kept up for 5-10 minutes, then just sort of drizzled for a while. Eventually, it stopped, and so did I, in Cortez, where I ran out of the day's route. The Budget Host Inn seemed reasonable, but instead was $80. (She claimed everybody else [except those flea-ridden places] was comparable or higher. I'm probably OK with 'flea-ridden,' but as usual I'm loathe to continue once I've stopped.) At least there's a Wal*Mart across the street ($9).

States: Kansas, Colorado.
546 GPS miles (10689 total), 60.2 moving average, 86.4 max.
next
home