Day 37: Fowler, CO to Canon City, CO; 1 Mile High and Falling Fast

June 11, 2015

Here's a map of today's ride. Within a couple of miles of leaving Fowler we rejoined the ACA route, so this is mostly the ACA route;

Fowler, CO (Blue Sky Motel) to Canon City, CO (Parkview Motel)

(Note to readers regarding the elevation profiles; the profile is calculated from Point "A" on the map to Point "B" on the map. Since I am traveling east to west on the first half of this transcontinental journey, my route of travel is usually shown on the map as being from right to left. However, the elevation profile is shown from left to right, so it must be "reversed" in your head to understand it.)

Climbing Today; 3,012 ft -- Total So Far; 88,560 ft

Today would be my last day of riding on the first half of this adventure. My initial goal was to reach Pueblo, and I was going to get a bit beyond it and make it to Canon City, so I was happy with that. In 1975 I attended Geology Field Camp near Canon City as the last requirement for my undergraduate degree, so reaching Canon City had some special significance for me. But first, I had to get there!

Rising early has it's benefits, and I'm going to miss seeing the sun rise every day. Here's sunrise over the Arkansas River near Fowler;

Leaving the river valley, I cycled up onto a small ridge. Yesterday's rain had cleaned the air enough to see for 100+ miles, and I now got my first glimpse of the mountains.

The Mountains Can be Seen Now! Pike's Peak (right center) is Snow-Capped

To the south I could see what I believed to be Spanish Peaks, and the Front Range was clearly visible directly ahead. I knew James (the British cyclist) would be thrilled to see the mountains this morning as he had been asking me when we would be able to do so. I had told him that we would see them by the time we reached Pueblo, and thanks to the rain we can now see them just a bit earlier than that. Rolling on, I reached the town of Boone and the town sign confirmed that we had continued to climb.

Daniel and James caught up as I was taking a photo, and we all stopped at a small general store. It was 7:30 am and the store didn't open until 8:00; oops! However, the owner, an elderly gentleman, spotted us and opened the store early; another act of kindness. We all got drinks and a pastry and sat at a table inside to relax a minute. Even a general store like this has a cyclist registry, and the owner brought it over so we could sign it. As I signed, I looked at cyclists from the recent past days and noticed that Nikki and Sabine were here 4 days ahead of us. Nikki and Sabine are Swiss cyclists and they are very much on vacation here and the cycling is only of secondary importance to them. When they encountered the heat and wind in Kansas, they decided to bypass it by going off-route to Topeka and taking a train from there to La Junta. In so doing they went from being 2 days behind us to being 4 days ahead, and are using the newfound time to enjoy Colorado by river rafting, sight-seeing, and other tourist activities. More power to them, I hope they return to Switzerland with good memories of their time here.

Speaking of trains, as we moved onward we encountered the 2nd mile-long (or thereabouts) train I had seen today.

While I was photographing the train, I noticed I had stopped at a prairie dog town. It was hard to get these little guys to pop up near me for a good photo.

Moving on, I passed the Pueblo airport located outside the city proper. That brought back memories of my flying days when I used to fly small aircraft. Anita and I once flew to Salida, CO in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, and stopped at Pueblo to refuel. Back in those days (the late Middle Ages, 1979 or so), the fuel attendants at the Pueblo airport were girls wearing skimpy dresses. There was an aircraft museum at the Pueblo airport, and we had strolled around looking at the old war birds. Such thoughts occupied my mind as I cycled along the outside of the airport. Eventually I reached Pueblo and confirmed that I was still climbing.

Pueblo Was My Goal for the First Segment of This Journey; I Made It!

I had a bit of an emotional rush as I realized that I had made my goal of reaching Pueblo in 5 weeks. Pueblo is the half-way point of the ACA Transamerica Trail route, and I needed to get here in 5 weeks to be on schedule to also complete the other half in 5 weeks when I commence it starting in early August. I constrained my emotions with the realism that I still had miles to go today; at that time I had no idea just how tough those final miles were going to be...

Rolling into the downtown area of Pueblo, what a surprise it was when I encountered Andy walking along a sidewalk on Main Street! He had just exited a bike shop that was located right on the ACA route, and I pulled my bike off the road so we could chat a bit. Andy was taking a rest day in Pueblo and was staying at a hotel nearby and just happened to be walking by when I cycled past; what a wild coincidence! We chatted a bit and I rolled on. James and Daniel both had packages sent as General Delivery to the Pueblo Post Office, so we had parted earlier and I was on my own. It seemed appropriate to finish on my own, as that was how I started and that's how I expect the entire second half of this journey to be.

Outside of Pueblo I found myself on a very lonely section of highway and saw maybe one car every hour. The mountains beckoned me onward as the afternoon sun heated up.

The Mountains Loom Ever Larger and Beckon Me Onward

Up until today, I was the oldest cyclist I had encountered. But that changed when I met Len Homes cycling west to east on the Western Express route.

Len is 73 and commenced cycle touring when he was 65. He was cycling to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. The afternoon sun continued to heat up, and I was consuming more fluid now. The clouds and sky were quite interesting after yesterday's rain.

The sign said I was on a frontier path, and I was beginning to feel that way as this is a lonely stretch of road.

I'm Traveling a Frontier Path, and at Times it Very Much Seems So

But I wasn't totally alone. Antelope grazing nearby seemed unconcerned with me, though they did keep their distance from the roadway.

The afternoon sun always stirs up a storm somewhere. I was a bit gun-shy after the last couple of days, especially after sheltering twice from the storms yesterday in small towns, so I was mindful as the cumulous clouds commenced to coalesce.

There's Always a Storm Brewing in the Afternoon

I was only maybe 6 miles or so from the town of Wetmore, and I had planned to eat and reload the water tanks there. I had been watching the water supply carefully, and the auxiliary tank was empty and the main tanks were down to about 40%; it should be enough to get me there. But the terrain was changing and I was faced with a long climb up a ridge in the grueling heat.

I had to stop and rest several times on that climb; I wondered what was going on as the effort seemed to be harder than expected. By the time I reached the crest I was running low on water. Thankfully I didn't see any other large climbs immediately ahead of me, and Wetmore was only a few miles away. So I pushed on, but I was moving slowly to conserve the last bit of water and save my energy. Reaching Wetmore I was EXTREMELY disappointed to see that the restaurant/general store was shut down. Actually, "disappointed" is too mild of a word; I was devastated. I was out of water, I needed to eat, the heat was sapping my remaining energy and I needed a break somewhere out of the sun; mentally I was shot and I still had 20 miles to go. Things weren't looking good at that point; it seemed as though my last day on the first half of this journey might become a memorable one in ways I didn't want. I wasn't sure if I had the strength to make it to Canon City. But I had a desperate need for water that had to be satisfied first before I could consider anything else. There were a few houses in town, but they weren't very hospitable; as I cycled down the only side street, dogs barked at me from each of the houses I passed.

The town had a Post Office built onto what appeared to have once been a house, and very fortunately for me the Post Office was open. I told the lady working there that I needed water, and she showed me out back to a well controlled by a spigot that (she said) had potable water. I operated the spigot and cold water emerged. The first bottle I filled was tinted brown, so I emptied it and thereafter got clean water. I probably drank at least 1 full bottle before I refilled it and moved to address my other needs. I asked permission from the Post Office lady to sit under the front porch of the Post Office for a while to escape the sun, and she gave it. Actually, as I was preparing to do so, she emerged and locked the door; the Post Office closed at 2:00 pm and I had barely made it before closing. If they were closed, my situation may have become much more desperate; but surely someone else would have shown me the well or allowed me to get water. How could anyone refuse life-giving water to a traveler?

So I rested a bit in the shade cast by the small porch at the Post Office in Wetmore, CO. I had been in tough situations before on this journey, and I always managed to get through them. Here I am under the Post Office porch (excuse the poor quality cell-phone selfie);

Shade, Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Rest Under the Porch of the Wetmore Post Office

I wasn't feeling too secure at the time I took the above photo. I dug out the emergency food I kept in my rear panniers; this time it consisted of a 1/2 empty jar of peanut butter and some hamburger buns. A couple of open-faced peanut butter on buns did the trick and I felt my energy restoring. The sun had been quite intense for the hours before I got here. I toweled my legs off best I could and applied sunscreen for the next stretch. I knew I had 20 miles remaining, and I also knew I wouldn't make it if there were more climbs like the one I did shortly before reaching Wetmore. But I also was concerned about the inevitable afternoon storms, so I knew I needed to get rolling again soon as I could.

So with all tanks full and a little food in my belly, I slowly rolled out of Wetmore. The next town would be Florence, 11 miles away. If there were any significant climbs, I would struggle in this heat but I would make it there eventually - I simply had to, I couldn't let myself be defeated in the last few miles of this half of the journey. Imagine my glee when I topped a small hillcrest outside Wetmore and I could see for miles ahead; and it appeared to be downhill all the way to Florence! No wonder I was fatigued climbing the hill to get to Wetmore; I had climbed about 1600 feet since leaving Pueblo, with much of that occurring as I worked my way up that steep hill. Now I got to enjoy the fruit of that labor as I flew downhill toward Florence. The grade was only gently downhill, but I was enthusiastic knowing I would easily reach Florence and had only 9 miles to go afterwards, so my pedaling expressed my enthusiasm. There were a few small uphills as I worked my way down into the valley, but they were just minor hindrances compared to what I had already experienced. I covered the 11 mile distance in 30 minutes and my spirits were high when I reached Florence.

I Had an 11-Mile Downhill Run Into Florence, So I Must Have Been a Bit Higher

Wow, I had been cycling downhill rather fast for 30 minutes and I was still almost a mile high! Later I figured things out, and this is a quick summary of what I experienced; pilots use a term called "density altitude" to refer to the changes in air density caused by temperature. A hot day heats the air molecules and they spread out, such that the air density is equivalent to that normally found at a higher altitude. Entering the known elevation and temperature and using reasonable values for barometric pressure and dew point, I calculate that I was experiencing a density altitude of slightly greater than 10,000 feet as I climbed that ridge prior to Wetmore! Of course I had to struggle to get up that hill; now it all made sense! If you examine the elevation profile at the beginning of this day's story, you can see that from about miles 65-70 I had a pretty significant climb; yikes, AFTER cycling 65 miles in the heat I had to make this climb! So, after the fact I figured it out; yeah, I had a right to be a little tired. During the last 2 weeks I had only climbed about 1,000 feet per day and today I climbed more than 3,000 feet, so that also helps to explain the fatigue I felt.

I still had 9 miles to go once I reached Florence. The route was fairly level, but the afternoon heat was intense and the traffic was heavy. I stopped twice and pulled onto side streets to find some shade and recover a bit; I just straddled the bike underneath a shade and drank fluid for a couple of minutes, then moved on. Finally I reached Canon City and found the Parkview Hotel located on Royal Gorge Boulevard directly across the street from Veterans Park and very close to the Royal Gorge railroad station. We had an unusual 3-bed room this time, so we each had a real bed.

After getting their packages from the Pueblo Post Office, Daniel and James were concerned about the time left to reach Canon City, so they had opted to take a more direct route than the ACA route I traveled. Daniel was at the hotel when I arrived, and James was having his bike checked over at a nearby bike shop. I cleaned up and Daniel and I walked to the bike shop, which just happened to be located directly across from the Canon City Brewery where we planned to eat tonight. When we arrived, James told us his bike was quite all right. He had thought that something was wrong with his bottom bracket as it felt like it was dragging and slowing him down after he left Pueblo. But his bottom bracket and everything else was fine; the problem lay with him. Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling the effects of the higher altitude today. Density altitude can be a real bear.

We had a great meal topped off by a couple of great beers. It was the end of the journey for me, for now at least, and I was trying to not think about that. Back to the hotel and it was business as usual for James and Daniel as they prepared for a 4:00 am wakeup in the morning. They were concerned about their first real mountain climb in the Rockies tomorrow as they had to ascend about 4000 feet higher than our elevation in Canon City to crest Currant Creek Pass. I planned to wake up to see them off tomorrow, but I had no sense of urgency that night as I usually do in getting prepared for the next day. I was, however, fighting back a deep cloud of melancholy...

Today's ride: 87 miles (140 km)
Total: 2,297 miles (3,697 km)

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