When we first got our weather report this morning it said Durango was 35 degrees! Brrr! That was about 7am and by the time we got everything on the bike and ready to go, we were 45 and rising fast. We only got 30 or 40 miles down the road and I had to stop to change gloves and take a layer off because I was smoking!! Lori just kept adjusting her suit as needed.
Today we road at an average elevation of 8000 feet all day but looking at what was around us, it looked like we almost at sea level. You could see mountain tops in all directions, some with snow caps, others with green tops and others rocky brown. We also saw some magnificent ranches with who knows how many acres of land. We saw waterfalls and tunnels that water flowed over top of. I really can see why people love this place because it’s beauty is so diverse. We road one section today for about an hour before we saw any humans and that was kind of weird. We also road one section were my passenger nodded off and kept head butting for about 15 minutes. I was nice and let her sleep, but it was tempting to rock the bike to wake her up. Instead, I just enjoyed the silence and the scenery. 
We crossed 4 passes today and each was over 11,000 feet. Each time climbing through 9500 feet the temperatures dropped to a very uncomfortable 55 or below and 65 mph, that’s chilly. At one of the passes, we actually stopped and on a sign, it pointed to a 13,500 peak were the Rio Grande starts it’s 1,885 mile run to Mexico. We crisscrossed the Rio Grande at least 20 times as we snaked through the valley. 11,530 was the new highest elevation of the day and for this trip.
We stopped in a little town named Lake City for lunch and fuel today and Lori made the comment when she saw the gas pump, “I wonder if our boys would know how to use this kind of pump?” There was no place to put a credit card or debit card. You could not choose fuel type and the on lever was on the side, which caused all the numbers to rollback to zero. I haven’t seen one of these since the 80’s. Sitting just a few feet away was an actual pay phone that still worked. Then across the street we ate lunch at “The SmoQue Shack BBQ.” It was good, filling, and hit the spot. As we were leaving this little town that time left behind, I notice eating on both side of the road, deer. They acting like I was the stranger in town and was wondering who I was. Hmm!
We pulled into our stopping point of Dillon, Colorado about 4:45 pm and the town is sitting right on a very large lake. There was actually two sailboats out playing as we were pulling into the parking lot looking as though summer time had been here a long time. There was still a bit of a chill in the air, but I guess it didn’t bother these sailors at all. When I was checking in and before I could even ask, the nice lady behind the counter told me, your tires are here. Nice!! So I thanked her for taking the shipment for me and then proceeded to our room to call the installer. He told me to show up right at 9am opening and he would get us on the road as quickly as possible. So I’m down to just one issue that concerns me and that is the rear tire on the Valkyrie and I will let it come to me. If a cord shows up before we make it to Stephens City, Va., I will replace it.
Tomorrow after the tires are installed on the trailer, I will make the decision on the fly on whether I climb Mt. Evans with the Valkyrie. I’m getting conflicting information on their webpage on whether the road is open all the way to the top. On their page it say’s open to the first Summit but the last 5 miles to the top is closed until all snow has been removed. Then in the Denver Post as of today, it say’s it is open all the way to the top. I’ll check the weather in the area in the morning and make that decision on the fly. No matter what, we will cross the Berthond Pass an drop into Estes Park for the evening. Tomorrow will be a short mileage day and will be a relaxing run.
Todays run was 394 miles, and our total is now 8193.
Click here for todays pictures:
Tomorrows route is pictured below:
The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.
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