Turns out that today would be the most miles I would do in a day at least so far...36.4! I knew when I woke up that I had to do this many in order to make it to the highway that would take me to Salida, my halfway point and resupply town. I really wanted to get there so I could get a room at a motel, take a shower, soak in a hot tub, drink a beer and have a delicous burger. So I woke up as soon as it started getting light out and was on the trail by 7:45am. My earliest start yet.
I knew that there were three climbs I would need to do but none of them seemed that big on the elevation map. The rest of the day would be flat or downhill. The first climb was right away and wasn't too bad.
My iPod was dead but my phone still had some juice. I decided I didn't want to go all day without music so I chose to listen to music on my iPhone instead of using my Cyclemeter app to track me as I know that uses a lot of battery and I didn't want my phone to run out.
Then I came to the section where you follow a road for 6 miles. It was all downhill and I passed Princeton Hot Springs Resort and Pool. It looked so nice and I was tempted to stop. If I had a spare day I would have but needed to keep going.
The second climb came next and it started sprinkling on the way up. At the top I put the rain cover on my pack as it looked like it was going to downpour soon. It held off for awhile as I cruised along at a great speed along the flats.
Then the rain came. Quickly put on my rain jacket and pants. It was coming down hard but I continued on. It slowed me down a bit but I was happy that it only rained for about half an hour. Took off my gear and cruised along for awhile while thinking more about God.
Thought of the day: One of the Ten Commandments is thou shall not kill. So does that mean everyone in an army cannot be Christians? Or if they are then they are hypocrites? And what about animals? Is it ok to kill them for food? Is there an asterisk somewhere in the bible that says *except for enemies and animals? And if there is what defines an enemy? Anyone could say anyone is their enemy and kill them and that would be ok? But if that were the case than why even have that as a commandment cause then it would be ok to kill anyone (as long as you say they were an enemy)?
Anyways, I came to the third and last climb of the day. Still had 5 miles left and it was 4:30pm so knew I should be able to make it to the highway. Of course the last climb of the day is always the hardest and slowest but I pushed thru and made it. I really wanted to get to town now and could taste that burger and beer so rode extra fast.
The last few miles seemed like the longest miles but eventually I saw Highway 50! I was now officially over halfway done at mile 252.5. Hip hip hooray! I felt incredible, happy, excited and super pumped.
It was 7pm and now it was time to try and hitchhike. I've actually never done this before and was a bit scared but not too much. Out my thumb went. The road wasn't super busy but cars flew past without even hesitating to stop.
As I waited a deer and two babies started to cross the road. Mom went first and then the others followed. I had to stop a car that was cruising in the other direction to make sure they didn't get hit.
It had been 30 minutes now and I didn't think anyone would stop. I googled to see if there was a taxi in Salida that I could call. There was but I decided to wait a bit longer. Good thing I did as a Jeep stopped soon after. I was soooo happy.
It was a couple who lived in Golden, CO who were hiking some 14ers. They were super nice but had the unfortunate accident of losing their car keys somewhere along the hike so when they got to the trailhead they were screwed.
Turns out that some other people were able to give them a ride to a Jeep rental place where they rented this Jeep so they could drive 5 hours to their house, grab spare keys, drive 5 hours back to their car, drop Jeep off and then drive 5 hours back. What a mission!
When they saw me standing there they figured that because people were nice to them by giving them a ride they thought they should pay it forward. Awesome!
They ended up dropping me off at a gas station as I still didn't know where I would stay. Ended up dropping me off at the perfect spot as when I asked inside where a cheap place would be, the lady said a few blocks up the road is the Circle R Motel. Sure enough it was only $75 and they even had a hot tub and laundry. Sold!
Think I need a shower?!
Got inside my room, plugged in my phone and spare battery then first things first. HOT SHOWER! Wow did that feel good. Scrubbed clean and put on my pajamas and cotton shirt.
Next up, burger and beer. Called two breweries to make sure they were still open as it was getting close to 9pm. It was a mile to downtown so I decided to take a taxi as I couldn't be bothered plus I wanted to get there before they closed.
Found one of them and just in the nick of time. They didn't have burgers but they did have pizzas so pizza and beer it was. Delicious.
They were starting to close so I walked over to the other brewery. They also had pizza and beer and was still a bit hungry so ordered some breadsticks. Yummy.
The taxi driver had told me about another cool bar that was open until late so I decided to chill there for a bit. They had free wifi so I was able to check emails for the hour or two while I sat at the bar. Once I finished emails I decide I was tired and drunk so time to go back to the motel. I went to call the taxi but saw outside he was already waiting so hopped in and passed out in the comfy motel bed.
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