Durango To South Fork
I felt awesome this morning. I think we had a slight tailwind, I averaged 15 mph to the first rest stop. It followed the RAAM route, or maybe the RAAM route followed a route laid out years ago by Lon. I made it to the second stop still feeling really good. I joked with Ron Dunlap about tackling Wolf Creek Pass. On my way to the third rest stop, around mile 50, I just ran out of gas. I couldn't put any power in the pedals. I struggled to reach the third rest stop.
When I got there, Rebecca said she was out of ice and it was getting hot! I pulled away on to Rte 160 E and just melted. I was overheating, I couldn't put any power into the pedals. It was only 26ish miles to lunch, but I knew it was going to take a looooong time. I passed through Pagosa Springs and decided to pull over and get some ice and a snack, but then I remembered I pulled the money out of my saddlebag yesterday. I raced through the older part of town.
I ran out of liquid and I had about 15 minutes of pedaling to get to lunch. Not really a problem until I got to where lunch was supposed to be and it wasn't there, it was moved a couple miles further east. I was without water for about 30 minutes by the time I found the lunch truck.
It started to rain, so I grabbed some food and took shelter inside the red trailer. It was around 2:30pm. The climb is about 8 miles long and would take me almost two hours, but I'd need to recover from the water shortage first. The crew was scrambling to tear down the rest stop in the pouring rain. I made the decision to SAG in to the hotel. I was very disappointed I didn't tackle Wolf Creek Pass. Still, I covered 89 miles under my own power.
I got a massage at the hotel. I'll take tomorrow off. It's an optional 123 mile ride to the top of Slumgullion Pass, which according to my topo map tops out just under 11,600'.
