TUE 7/6 -- Pueblo to Canon City CO (52)
I was wrong about Tuesday being a flat ride (except maybe in comparison with what's to come on Wed.) -- we had a couple of monster climbs, one early and one late in the day. We also had a spectabulous 11-mile downhill, from Wetmore to Florence -- that was the "payback" downhill after the first climb, and the downhill we paid FOR on the ride up to our campsite near the Royal Gorge, outside Canon City. (The Royal Gorge, for those who haven't seen it, is a pretty spectacular ... ummm ... gorge carved out of the rock by the Arkansas River, but it's also very "tricked out" and theme-park-y.) Canon is pronounced "canyon," BTW -- the budget situation is so bad in CO that they apparently can't even afford tildes.
Hugh and I rode into Florence together, which, refreshingly, appeared to be a thriving, viable small town -- we haven't seen too many of those. I was on a pie mission (of course!), and we hit paydirt at The Pour House, a great little coffee shop, which also offered stuff from the bakery next door, including a very tasty pie of the apple persuasion. With ice cream. And then their banana bread looked good (it was) so I had a slice of that, too. After 45 minutes or so we waddled off to complete the rest of the ride.
I was wrong about Tuesday being a flat ride (except maybe in comparison with what's to come on Wed.) -- we had a couple of monster climbs, one early and one late in the day. We also had a spectabulous 11-mile downhill, from Wetmore to Florence -- that was the "payback" downhill after the first climb, and the downhill we paid FOR on the ride up to our campsite near the Royal Gorge, outside Canon City. (The Royal Gorge, for those who haven't seen it, is a pretty spectacular ... ummm ... gorge carved out of the rock by the Arkansas River, but it's also very "tricked out" and theme-park-y.) Canon is pronounced "canyon," BTW -- the budget situation is so bad in CO that they apparently can't even afford tildes.
Hugh and I rode into Florence together, which, refreshingly, appeared to be a thriving, viable small town -- we haven't seen too many of those. I was on a pie mission (of course!), and we hit paydirt at The Pour House, a great little coffee shop, which also offered stuff from the bakery next door, including a very tasty pie of the apple persuasion. With ice cream. And then their banana bread looked good (it was) so I had a slice of that, too. After 45 minutes or so we waddled off to complete the rest of the ride.
Or about half of it, anyway. We got to Canon City a little before noon, found ourselves a nice brewery/grill, and settled in to watch the Netherlands-Uruguay semifinal World Cup match. Perfect-o. So we didn't actually start the final 7 miles of the ride until 3 hours (and 3 beers, and a chipotle turkey burger, with onion rings) later. It's possible that the unpleasantness of the home stretch was at least in part a function of the day's food/beverage consumption patterns, but I'm gonna contend that the heat, the heavy traffic, and the BIG uphillishness of the road were also factors.
I set up my tent in a 9-zillion mph wind (Hugh and Jerry helped hold things down), which continued well into the night, making sleep a little difficult -- is this thing going to hold, or is it going to bust its moorings and fly off into the might, me inside? It held.
(Sent from my iPhone)
(Sent from my iPhone)
(Sent from my iPhone)
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