July 6, 2018
Day 4: Fruita to Rangely. Douglas pass.
Today will be the longest, hardest day of the tour. On the road at 7:06, a record for me.
There are no services today. I started with 4 full bottles on the bike, plus 2 full 1-liter Platypus bags and a bottle of apple juice in the panniers.
It was pleasantly cool for the first 5 miles going northwest on US 6 to Loma. Loma is a very small farm town. In Loma I turned right on CO 139 which I will follow for the rest of the day. Traffic is very light and it has a shoulder for the first few miles.
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Loma is 3 miles from the eastern terminus of Kokopelli's Trail. I didn't see any other cyclists.
The first 3 miles north of Loma is irrigated fields. It didn't take long to gently climb out of the irrigated zone and into high desert.
Today I have a huge climb to Douglas Pass but it starts with very gentle climbing in high desert, then entering a canyon.
In the canyon I see junipers on the surrounding hills. Suddenly it's much greener.
Early in the afternoon I was passed by a car with a woman hanging out the window yelling "Wayne! Wayne!". It turned out to be Don and Marilyn Swett, fellow touring cyclists. They live in Denver and are traveling to Oregon for a bike tour. Marilyn has many journals on crazyguyonabike and she has seen my journals. We talked for about 5 minutes. They gave me a bottle of cold water that was much appreciated. I was out of water by the time I got to Rangely.
The temperature peaked at 92F early in the afternoon. But then it quickly became overcast as I climbed higher. Only 80F at the summit but it never threatened to rain. Gentle south wind all day, a tailwind.
The last 1500 feet of climbing was relentless 6-9% grade. Genuine mountain climbing. There was almost no traffic and the temperature was pleasant, so it wasn't too bad.
Douglas pass is 8268 feet elevation. 3750 feet higher than Fruita. I arrived at 3:55 PM. On the road for nearly 9 hours already. No sign at the summit!
Of course the descent was very fast. The upper few miles is 6-7 percent. I was back to high desert in only a few minutes.
Once again the road descends into a wide canyon. But this is Canyon Pintado National Historic District. The canyon has hundreds of ancient pictographs and was once densely populated.
I stopped at two BLM recreation sites with short 200 foot trails to pictographs. A sign explains that these pictographs are 1500-2500 years old. Another sign explained what material was used for each color of paint.
The Kokopelli pictograph looks like it will soon crack loose from the cliff. Hopefully the cable will stop it from falling and smashing to pieces.
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Several side roads go a short distance to other pictograph trailheads. I could see many more pictographs if I had a couple more hours to explore. But not today.
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Still another 20 miles of desert from the pictographs to Rangely. Fortunately it was gradual downhill with a bit of tailwind. I arrived at 7 PM. Saw Kelly and Jacinto returning from the Mexican restaurant as I rolled into town. I quickly checked into Blue Mountain Inn, changed clothes, then went to the Mexican restaurant. Blue Mountain Inn is a good value. My $86 room is spacious and the motel has an indoor swimming pool.
It took me nearly 12 hours to get from Fruita to Rangely. I'm extremely tired and a bit sore. Good thing I had a rest day yesterday. And good thing tomorrow is short and easy.
Rangely is a ranching town, population 2364. A regional center, bigger than any town I will see the next 2 days. There's not much to attract tourists except maybe hunting.
Today was an awesome day with no traffic and a transition from high desert to forested mountains, then back to high desert. I can't do climbs like this very often, though.
Distance: 79.7 mi. (127.5 km)
Ascent/Descent: +4327/-3522 ft. (+1311/-1067 m)
Average Speed: 9.2 mph (14.7 km/h)
Today's ride: 80 miles (129 km)
Total: 184 miles (296 km)
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