Day 37: Pueblo West to Guffey, CO (87 miles) Day 38: Guffey, CO to Dillon, CO (80 miles) Day 39: Rest Day

When you're biking East to West across the TransAmerican trail, you say things to yourself to feel better about the accomplishments you've already done. You'll say things like that the Ozarks and Appalachians have harder climbs (technially, true), that you've already biked 2200 miles before the Rockies (totally badass!), that you're skinnier than before and probably sent things home you didn't need (yup.). But, don't underestimate the Rockies. The reasons as follows:

  • Maybe you'll be lucky and you'll catch a killer tailwind or no wind days through the mountains. But, we had wind. And since the climbs and downhills are generally so gradual, it means that the wind kicks your butt on small climbs and makes you pedal on downhills. It makes the days deceptively harder. It's also super demoralizing when you can see where you are going in the valley, but won't be there for 30 minutes since you're biking at 5.5 miles an hour into the wind.
  • The elevation is harder to adjust to than you think. That doesn't mean that you won't get up the mountain, it just means that you'll be sucking wind in moments when you see a hill that in Missouri you would have totally crushed.
  • The road wasn't quite as smooth, it was the small stones with slight paving over them. This also makes you feel slower.
As such, there were a few moments that instead of using the first pride points to stroke my own ego, I had to use them to talk myself into the fact that my lungs weren't going to explode, that I was going to make it to the next town, and eventually, over the Rockies. When I climbed to the top of a pass on the first day, I got slightly more emotional than I should have that I just climbed 4000 feet. When we climbed to the top of Hoosier Pass, I was so happy to bike downhill to Breck and then to Dillon, I could hardly handle myself. Don't underestimate the Rockies.

Other things of note:

  • In Guffey, we stayed with some random hostellier/hippie named Warren. The cabin was super nice, but seemingly only had accomodations for 2?
  • Even though I was comically bundled up for our ascent up to Hoosier Pass and it was freezing and snowing, I still somehow got sunburned on the back of my neck.
  • In Fairplay, the wind blowing in our face I think temporarily drove us all insane. The ride into town caused us plenty of troubles on the bike, took forever, and hurt. I told Jon I would have rather let him punch me 6 times than ride through that again.
  • Once we got to Dillon, we stayed with Jon's friend Lou and kicked it for the day. Cold beers, good convo, laundry the next day.

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