Our route for today started with about 45 of flat, straight
as an arrow on county hwy 17 and later joined U.S. hwy 285. We had a tail wind
and racked up the miles quickly. The surrounding valley was between two
mountain ranges and we slowly approached the end of the valley where the two
ranges came together. Adam and I rode in a group for the first half of the day
and we all took turns leading and breaking the wind. The Great Sand Dunes
National Park was off to our east by about 10-15 miles, but we could not see it
as it was in a depression between us and the mountain range. The later part of
the day was a climb up Poncha Pass to just over 9,000 feet. The tailwind
certainly helped us make the climb. After the peak, we had an all out “let her
fly” descent. The descent was about 6-7 miles on a wide road that was in good
shape and everyone descended very rapidly. I posted 47.1 mph on the descent and
Adam was a little more bold than I and post 50.7 mph. That is really moving on
a bike! We were really on an adrenalin high when we reached the bottom.
The camp was on a fair grounds with hardly a patch of green
grass, so some chose to sleep on the concrete floor of a building available for
us. We had a nightly peleton meeting in a horse barn, as it was raining and
gusty again (as usual in the summer mountain region). Also, there was a women’s
roller derby going on in a neighboring building that we could watch. Wow, is
that rough.
We are reminded each day of God’s protective care. There is
a lot of interaction of the bikers with people along the route each day, and we
are able to tell our story. There have been many donations give to riders when
they hear what we are doing. They are not huge, but in a couple cases, maybe
the only cash the person has on them.
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