The EconoLodge in Gunnison turned out to be a pretty good choice. Good rooms with alll the stuff I need and the breakfast was pretty good and they served it at 6:00am so I could actually eat it.
Today's start was what I'd hoped for yesterday. Nice gentle ramp to the climb. There was no wind and it was really great. A tad cool but tolerable. The first 50km flew by and I was at Sargent and the Tomichi Trading Post.
Eager for a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs, I was crushed to find the kitchen closed because they cannot find cooks. I've heard this then entire way from san Francisco ... business is great but we can't find staff and are doing way less than people want. I settled for a packaged sandwich and a muffin.
The climb started for real right out of Sargent. It was cool going up the mountain and all those Rouvy Swiss Alps training rides made this seem kind of easy.
The road out of Gunnison had a nice wide smooth shoulder and it got better before Sargent where I encountered construction crews laying perfect asphalt. I was given a pass through the construction to the ire of many of the waiting drivers. The perfect pavement went up to about one third of the climb and at the start of the climb my shoulder pretty much disappeared. Past the one third point the road got old and completely shoulderless. Fortunately, the construction below let up traffic in clumps and I just stood to the side in the dirt for a minute when they came through. The rest of the time I had the road to myself.
It one point my worst fear passed by as I stood in the dirt. Two of the widest RVs driven by senile old boomers (said the senile old boomer) side by side with absolutely no shoulder. It could have be bad.
Soon I was at the Contentinal Divide. From now on my pee goes to the Atlantic Ocean.
The rest of the ride was a major descent at some very high speeds. Getting near Salida I pickup up a bike path into town. Salida was not at all what I expected. It has bike paths and an actual town. Lots of brew pubs and shops and snow capped mountain backdrops. It must be on a major hiking trail because there seemed to be many hikers around the Moonlite Brew Pub where I had lunch and a few beers. Give me a break ... it was only noon when I got to town and I had to kill some time.
I am now happily clean in my room at the Great Western Colorado Lodge where I have more beds and rooms than I know what to do with ... I'm not even going to go in the other room.
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