Climbing the Rocky Mountains begins today in earnest. Today we climbed 5,000 vertical feet – the most in one day on this trip.
Five of the 52 miles were through a steep canyon, climbing up to Hardscrabble Pass – with a 9% grade the whole time. Even though we were pretty high in altitude, it was still in the 90’s as far as heat was concerned.
The Hardscrabble Pass is 9,100 high. We really worked today. The fast, dangerous traffic on the roads made it quite a challenge also. But, we took time to smell the roses and the roses were very sweet. The higher we climbed the more it looked like the European alps.
After crossing the pass, and this pass is not your normal pass, where you ride up to it and over. It had several flatter portions on top and continued to go higher and then flat, before going down to Westcliffe, which is in a beautiful valley, called the Wet Valley, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range the full length of the valley on one side and the Wet Mountains on the back side.
The air is at once clear and fragrant. Cattle graze in the lush grasses. It’s not wet enough for any mosquitoes. Although it snows here in the winter time, it has a relatively mild climate.
The town is both cowboyish and touristy. Some of the ranches are models of beauty and wealth.
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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| From JakeTransAmerica |
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