Mileage: 62 miles, 82 miles
Terrains: Long Rolling Hills
Temperature: 60ish degrees, 84ish degrees
So on our day off I went to the coffee shop and caught up on some things there and then walked around town, went to some of the bike shops there and shopped around. Then I went back to our campsite got my swimsuit on and got ready to go white water rafting. Three other girls and I went. A bunch of the guys rented mountain bikes and took the gondola up to the top of the mountain and went down different trails that they had. I walked back into town about a half mile to the place to go rafting. They shuttled us about 20 minute to get on the raft and then we rode the rapids for about an hour and a half. The class of some of the rapids was class three. It was a blast. We did get poured on while we were rafting, it made us feel hard core…lol. We had blue wetsuit type things that we wore to keep us a little bit warmer. The water coming off of the mountains in the river was freezing cold and we weren’t supposed to get in because you can get hypothermia very quickly. We were instructed on what to do if we did get flipped out of the raft. Thankfully no one did! We also saw Wilsons peak which is on the Coors light bottle/can on our way rafting. Elevation of 14,000 ft. We got back from rafting at about 5:00 and then got our stuff together and walked over to the church in town to get a shower. Ike one of the riders found us a place to stay at the church where they had a free warm shower!! Many choose to keep camping however once I showered there I decided to tear my tent down and sleep in the basement of the church. It was remodeled last year so it was really nice!! So after the shower we got pizza at a pizza place in Telluride and then went back to the campsite where we all hid in the trailer to surprise our route leader for his birthday. We had tons of silly string and the other route leader pretended to have trouble with the lock on the trailer. So once the doors opened we ambushed him!! It was hilarious! We also had cupcakes to celebrate his birthday!
The next morning I woke up in the church basement and it was rather cold outside so dressed in my cold weather cycling clothes. Ran some stuff back to the trailer at the campground and then myself and two of the other girls rode our bikes over to the free gondola which took us up and over one of the hills/mountains where we then got back on the route. It was really fun riding this as we got to see up and over everything and even brought our bikes on the gondola where they hung outside!! We only had a small climb then after we got off of the gondola and then the rest of the day was a very gradual downhill. After about 10 miles down we pulled off on the side of the road to take a dip in a natural hot springs that our raft leader told us about. It was not publicized and back off of a dirt road. It was so warm!! We then road into Rico, CO where we had a bite to eat at a small restaurant. We finally left when we realized that it had started raining and was going to rain all day long. It was rather cold out being around 60 degrees and we had been poured on! We kept riding as we knew that being wet if we stopped that we would only get colder. We were originally supposed to camp out but Ike who always leaves early found us a place to stay at the HS gym in Dolores where it was warm dry and there were warm showers. We got showers and then went to a microbrewery where I had a delicious Calzone. Came back to the gym and slept in the warm.
Woke up this morning and it was a little bit warmer out. We rode about 20 miles to the first rest stop with long rolling hills and then another 8 miles to the Colorado Utah border. We then rode about 10 more to Dove Creek where I had a wonderful Panini!! The scenery is changing a lot as there are not as many trees around. Still some large hills though but gradual. We then rode on to the next water stop, got some ice cream. About 3 miles from the water stop I had realized that my rear tire was very low and it had a gash in it. So decided to put a new tube in it and boot the gash in the tire. Rode on and about 20 miles later realized that it was getting low again. Low enough to ride to the last water stop and then realized that there was a stone in the tire. So took the tire off again, put yet another boot in the tire as there is still a lot of miles left in this tire which I put on back in Kansas. Found the tiny hole in the tube and patched it as I only have 2 tubes left. They have others for us as well, just trying to conserve. So maybe I will be in the running of winning the most patches yet, however, I will have to get a few more patchable flats in order to win. Rode on and then did the last 20 miles which were mostly downhill with some climbing. Got poured on again and once even during a descent. It really hurts when rain is pelting you at 35-40 mph. It is crazy how comfortable you become with your bike and know what your limits are and aren’t. Got to camp at a campground at about 5:30 and had a big agenda which most of got done. Laundry, cleaned bike, chain cleaning on bike, grocery shopped, post cards written, showered, wiped out tent and other misc things. Just so you know things such as laundry and groceries are more difficult than you think without a car etc. However, we are in a great location so were able to walk to these a little ways. Now I am exhausted. Nite!!
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