June 22, 2021
Day 41 - Pueblo, CO to Canon City, CO
Last stop before the climb
We planned on sleeping on today since we wanted to go to nicks bikes in west pueblo and it opened at 9. I had called ahead to nicks to make sure they had chain and that it was a reasonable price (it was, $25). We left around 745 after making breakfast and eyeing the abysmal continental breakfast. Nicks bike shop was in hwy 50, which is quite busy. It meant that we would have to take 50 all the way to canon city. It had a large crap filled shoulder, but it was 30 miles instead of 50 on the usual route that goes south of lake pueblo. We made it to west pueblo with minimal effort and stopped at a Walmart to buy a Sawyer gravity water filter. Mark used one to filter that water back in Kansas and since then we have been on the lookout for our own. We are hoping for some nice mountain streams. The bike shop was right down the road. The owner was busy with other bikes, but sold us all reasonably priced chains and even let us work on the bikes in the store and use tools. In about an hour, mark, Mary, and I changed our chains and Mary bought some spare brake pads. The owner was really nice and gave us some free drinks too.Mark and I both missed a guide on the rear derailleur, but I didn't catch mine until we were pulling out to leave. So mark and Alex went in to canon and I went back to the shop to re route my chain. Everything worked fine after that and we began the short ride of 25 miles to canon (pronounced canyon).
It was a hilly, dry and windy ride. The wind was so bad that we were going less than 10 down some hills. The traffic was really loud too, so I'll be glad to get off the major roads when we go into the mountains. I ran out of water close to the end, but luckily we found a dairy queen.
We bought dairy free ice cream and made sandwich stuff that we hauled from pueblo. We planned to camp with a warm showers host tonight and it was only 3 so we went to the goodwill. Everyone was looking for various clothing items. There is supposed to be an REI near silverthorn, so if we can't find it for cheap here, that will be the place. While waiting outside goodwill, some guy who pans for gold in the river was talking to us. I didn't know people still did that. It was weird because he definitely had joe dirt vibes.
We tried to go to a bike themed brewery, but it was closed on Tuesdays. Then a pizza spot we picked was closed on Tuesdays too. We ended up going to a noodle place called momo, which was tasty and filling. During dinner, Mary had a flat so we changed that and rode the 3 miles to our hosts house, south over the Arkansas river.
It was nice to see the Arkansas river not brown and stagnant like it was in Kansas. We got to our hosts place, but he wasn't going to arrive for another hour. We set up tents and by that time it was after 8 pm. I showered in the hose and went right to bed.
Tomorrow we will get to guffey and maybe go to Frisco where there is another church we can stay at. Guffey has a cat as the mayor and is apparently an awesome stop. I'm pretty stoked about that. The climbing starts tomorrow though and I think it's about 70 miles to Frisco and 7000' up. We will see about that. I should also pick up my sleeping bag tomorrow, unless we are tired and stay at guffey. Either way it will be a big day.
Mileage:41
Altitude gain:1800
Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 2,259 miles (3,636 km)
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