JakeTransAmerica: Day 33 Westcliffe, CO to Poncha Springs, CO 54 Miles

My father was as happy as he could be this morning as we took in the fabulous view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, just before a great breakfast in Westcliffe.

He loved the air, the view, the beauty, everything about this peaceful setting. I’m sure he would have gladly stayed there a week, but duty called.

The evening before we met another rider at dinner, named Keith. He is a great person. He is riding in the opposite direction, from San Francisco to Virginia.

He planned this trip for two years. Missouri is where he calls home. He described that about a week earlier his father surprised him by showing up one night in Utah.

His father offered to support, assist and protect Keith as he traversed the Rocky Mountains. Amongst other things, his father put a sign on the rear of his car stating the a bicycle rider was ahead. Keith’s father would drive the car behind Keith, pulling to the side of the road so other drivers could see the sign and then repeating this again and again, always staying about 5 to 10 minutes behind Keith.

The next morning, Keith’s father had to drive on, so he gave us the sign which my father immediately taped onto his rear window as pictured. When Keith gets to Bardstown, we offered that he stay the night at our home.

From JakeTransAmerica

Our journey today took us from around 8,000 foot elevation at Westcliffe, down the Wet Valley, through some dry canyons, descending down to the Arkansas River and the very busy Highway 50.

Our map guide stated that riding on Highway 50 along the Arkansas River up toward Monarch Pass would have the heaviest traffic of the whole route, and boy was it right.

Two lane, heavy traffic on a Friday. At one point there was streaming traffic coming against us and with us.

One of the vehicles traveling in our direction was a heavily loaded semi with a trailer full of rock. He did not slow down and he took the whole road width, which meant we had to ride off the road into the gravel to avoid being hit.

There was no shoulder for most of the this day. We know the angels have protected us on this trip.

We wanted to ride much farther today than we did, because we know of the challenge of climbing 11,312 foot high Monarch Pass tomorrow.

But, I needed help with the constant pain on my bottom, so when we reached Salida, we went directly to the local bike store, which was a good one.

Unfortunately, it took more than three or four hours and the exchanging of a number of bike parts, to make the proposed changes which might offer help in the near future.

As we left town in the late afternoon, without having eaten anything, the headwinds and storms came on strong. We got directions and help from the local LDS church branch president who just happened to be at the church which we just happened to ride by.

From JakeTransAmerica

It was a daunting situation. It was beginning to get dark, the headwinds made it very difficult to ride, we were hungry and we needed to find a place to stay, and yet we wanted to ride at least another ten miles up the canyon and camp.

In the end we rode only five or six miles, found a cheap motel and had a good dinner, resigned to travel farther the next day.

The only room available at the motel was a single bed, so Jacob graciously offered to sleep on the floor, saying he sleeps better there than in a bed. Whenever we stay indoors, we always bring the bikes into the room.