Day 17: Taking the Rocky Mountain High to Colorado Springs in One Day

After waking up in Gunnison, one of the coldest cities in the United States but were soon warmed up by some freshly brewed Coffee made by Rusty.  We hit the rode after completeognm ior breakfast at McDonalds and began the 32 easy miles before Monarch pass.  I think each one of us was a little nervous about the dreaded climb ahead.  We had spoken with many people had crossed the pass before us and assured us that it really wasn’t that bad, but the mountain still loomed in our path.  After stopping at the bottom for a brief pep talk and video session we began our 7 mile climb to the top of Monarch Pass and the 11,312 ft summit.  So we began to grind out the long miles in our lowest gear.  The slow journey up was a beautiful climb as we got to witness the snow dusted mountains, pristine forests, and crisp sky from new heights.  Upon reaching the top we posed for several pictures and celebrated the highest point of our trip.  After bundling up at the top we began our thirty mile descent to Salida. The descent was exhilarating as we flew down the mountain while trying to stave off the gusts of crosswinds.  I never thought it was possible to ride 30 miles with out even really pedaling but coming down the continental divide changed my perspective on  my  concept of elevation.  We pulled into Pizza Hut again but this time in time for the lunch buffet and filled ourselves to the brim, shocking the employees by how much we ate.  Rusty had told us their was another fifty miles of downhill so we decided to head out in an attempt to get to Colorado Springs where Steve’ Aunt and Uncle live.  So we wound down around through a canyon that followed the Arkansaw River.  One more little climb brought us up near the Royal Gorge and took us to Canon City.  It was around mile 120 that we realized maybe we had bitten more than we could chew but we decided to press on  the impending sunset.  We broke out our lights and pressed on in what seemed to be a never ending last 30 miles.  Our pace dropped substantially in the dark but we eventually crossed in the city limit, but were then faced with the process of finding their house.  We finally rolled in at 1:00 AM where we immediately began to feast on whatever we could find in the house, before going to bed and looking forward to our day off in the coming day.

175 miles, made it to Colorado Springs in the dark at 1am