We were heading for Montrose today, where we hoped to stop for lunch. We passed by a lovely looking campsite among the trees, and shortly afterwards came across a cool abandoned garage and motel. It was like something from the seventies, with old cars and trucks lying around the place. Next came Cimarron, which was a blink and you’d miss it kind of place with a store and not much else. We had one small pass to get over and then it was mostly down hill to Montrose. As we entered the town we saw a Pizza Hut. Ummmm! An all you could eat buffet. It was only 10 to 12 but we could definitely manage to stuff our faces. We went in and helped ourselves to plates of pizza, salad and pasta. I obviously hadn’t learnt from my experience a short while ago, where I pigged out on a lunch buffet and then could barely ride my bike to Coulter Bay!

After the buffet we headed to the library to use the internet and let our dinner go down. I wanted to surprise Ryan by booking us into a nice hotel in Telluride where would hopefully be tomorrow night, to try to make up for his uneventful birthday. Telluride was a posh ski resort in winter time and I was hoping to get a good deal. I was sneakily using the computers in the library whilst Ryan was using the laptop. Unfortunately most of the hotels seemed to be full, the rest being way out of our price range. The only camping in Telluride was in the town park, so I called to see if I could book us a space, but that was full too. The lady advised me to call on the way and she’d let me know the present situation and direct us to another campsite if necessary (but the nearest campsite was 6 miles out of town – fine in a car, but not when your only transport is a bike). It all seemed a bit disasterous! To make matters worse Ryan caught me on the computer and now thinks I am going to surprise him with a lovely hotel and I have to try to make him believe me that I couldn’t find anything.

The afternoon didn’t get much better as on leaving the library – several hours later – we were greeted by a monsterous head wind and we could barely ride at 3 miles an hour on the flat! For the first time all trip I was able to ride faster than Ryan, we could only assume that it was because I was lighter and had less surface area. We didn’t have much option but to stop at a campsite about 8 miles out of Montrose and get up early tomorrow to try to make it to Telluride. It was going to be a mammoth day. The campsite was nice and the warden friendly. They also had internet access which was a bonus, so we uploaded some blog.

Total climb:

1678 Feet

Summed up:

What a headwind!

The thought of Lobster & Cocktails first thing was a bit too much so we cycled onwards

A bit windy then?!

We finally made the campsite, no thanks to the worst headwind of all time

Total Distance:

35.626 mi

Total Time Cycling:

4h 13m 40s