Continental Divide

We got up early and were out of Sargents CO by 7 am. We crossed the continental divide around 10:30 this morning. At 11,300 feet it was pretty exhilarating. They had a gondola which we took to the top of the mountain, about 12,000 feet. From there you could see several hundred miles. It was an extremely clear day. We were fortunate. A few days ago they had 3 inches of snow, and before that forest fires obscured all the views with 70 mph winds, so we lucked out. From there we rode down the mountain another 47 miles from the summit, to Cotopaxi CO. We faced a huge headwind after we got down the mountain, which, when combined with the trucks, made it pretty slow going. We will be leaving very early tomorrow to get to Pueblo CO by early afternoon (to beat the winds), and onto the flats of Kansas. We are both very excited, and looking forward to no more summits and a nice tailwind!

Sargents, CO

Today we reached Sargents, CO after biking 99 miles in the last two days. Today was much easier than yesterday, being mostly flat opposed to dealing with three summits. But tomorrow we push on, going over the ten mile long incline with a summit of 11,400 ft, marking the highest ascent in our trip, and crossing the continental divide. Meanwhile, back at our cabin, we met another cyclist, Ilia, who is riding offroad on the continental divide trail, (covering every peak in the Rockies). We are the first people he has seen in four days! Aside from that however the scenery is beautiful, filled with many animals such as prairie dogs, hummingbirds, red-winged blackbirds. The hills around us seem big, but nothing compared to the summit we face tomorrow!

Connor's First Day/Montrose CO

We made it to Montrose today. While we only covered 64 miles toward the completion of our journey, we ended up biking 84 miles, thanks to an error I made in navigation. It was Connor's first day, leaving from Telluride. Anyway all in all it was a good day, we look forward to getting through Colorado in the next two to maximum three days, and then on to the flats of Kansas.

Telluride CO

We made Telluride, CO today. Cameron flies out tomorrow, going back to his summer internship program. Connor flies in tomorrow,and he and I will continue back east on the 28th from Telluride. We have about 1,000 miles down and 2,500 miles to go. Telluride is an amazingly beautiful mountain town, and today is the mountain film festival, which makes it especially fun to be here. Despite fleeing across the state of Utah the wind continues to dog us and makes biking that much more of a fight. We have met a number of interesting people on the trip so far. Those that stand out include a German couple, Winifred and Gottfried, who are from Wiesbaden Germany. They started in Orlando Florida, and we're heading trough Phoenix to San Francisco. They were using bikes with small electric motors that allowed them a little help on he it mountains, the small addition certainly made all the difference when pedaling up the mountains. We wished we had those on a few of the summits! We also met a guy who was from Australia. He had come from the desert on the same route as the Germans and was covered in heat blisters. That gave us extra motivation to make sure we did not end up the same way going through the desert, after liberally applying sunblock we continued on our way. Then, most interestingly was the guy who was riding his horse, from San Francisco, going to New York accompanied by his dog. He was riding in honor of his parents, both of whom had died from cancer. A few days outside of Baker Utah his horse got attacked by a mountain lion, the horse bucked him and he was left with a few broken ribs. As he limped his way in Baker his dog was then bit by a snake just utside of town. After coming in on skin and bones, they slowly nursed him, his horse and his dog back to health in Baker Utah. He got into town a few weeks before us and purportedly has continued his trip across America. The stories we have heard reaffirmed our decision to stick to the roads and travel on bikes, fortunately we have yet to encounter anything as severely hazardous as a mountain lion or snake on our travels.

Cedar City Utah

We left again early in the morning before 5:00 am, to beat the wind. Fortunately, just across the way was an old fashioned diner that was open 24/7. Equipped with coffee and breakfast we headed out on our journey. We had a relatively easy ride of just 54 miles to Cedar City, Utah. Due to the proximity of multiple world renowned national parks we have modified our route to allow us to visit them, albeit shortly, for a period of time. W plan on stopping by Zion and Bryce, both of which are touted at every availability by the populace and billboards which command attention along the highways. The weather here is hot and dry, although Utah clearly has a lot more green than Nevada. the mountainsides are composed of verdent greens which are a stark contrast to Nevada's comtinual shades of brown which seeming roll on endlessly throught thie valleys and mountains with which we have become so familiar. The canyons are more striking because of the green junipers, and long grasses. The contrat between the red cliff walls and green shrubbery evokes a feeling of awe within the mind, especially with the knowledge that this only happens here. The wind is still very strong here, making biking a challenge. From Milford to Car City the wind seems to penetrate all manner of life, nary a moment goes by without the trees and grasses being buffeted.

Photos of the Trip (5/23)

A rock formation on the way to Baker, NV

Early morning biking to Milford, UT

Heading through Connors Pass

Passing by the State Prison

Us on the way to Milford, UT

Entering into Utah! 

The plains while heading to Milford, UT

Ely NV - Baker NV - Milford Utah

Monday we headed out of Ely, Nevada, initially with plans to go to Piochet NV, which was 104 miles. However we faced a very strong headwind, with gusts so bad that at times we had to stop and walk the bikes going up some of the summits. Based on the winds, we revised the schedule and instead went to Baker, Nevada. We got there, 64 hard miles later. We got a hotel in Baker ok, but found out that, of the two resturants in town, one had closed due to lack of supplies, the other resturant's cook had quit. So we ended up with no dinner and no breakfast. After rummaging throughout the general store, which was also painfully low on supplies, we were able to get some sustinence from the local store, and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, and cereal for breakfast. We were out the door the next morning at 4:45 am, in an attempt to beat the winds. We crossed the state line into Utah at about 5:15 am, and did 84 miles, going to Milford Utah. We crossed three summits, fortunately this time the wind switched and was with us, and we got into Milford by about 1:00 pm.