Bicycling Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and New Mexico - 2006

Poncha Springs to Saguache, CO

June 28, 2006
Distance 41.4 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 1,675 feet

We left the motel this morning and went down a hill at 23 mph. We turned toward Salida, CO, traveled about one block and stopped for breakfast. After eating breakfast, we headed back and turned south on highway 285. After going less than a block we saw a sign that said the summit was 7.5 miles away and the highway had three lanes, one coming down and two going up. This was not a good sign. We started up and were in our granny gear within two blocks. We spent the entire 7.5 miles in our granny gear. The grade varied from 2 or 3 percent toas much as 9 percent. Needless to say, when we reached the top we were tired having climbed 1,495 feet.

We started down the other side of the pass and found that we now faced a headwind. Instead of 20+ miles per hour without any effort, we pedaled to keep going faster than 20+ miles per hour. We never got a rest because we pedaled to get to the top and we pedaled to get back down.

At The town of Villa Grove, CO we stopped for a long lunch and much needed rest. The wind gods continued to be mean and we had a headwind for the rest of the day. We finally arrived in Saguache about 1:00 PM. We obtained a motel room (no internet access and no phone) and then visited the local museum. The main portion of the museum was located in an adobe house built in 1872. This was a rather large house. It had 6 large rooms, and at one time housed the local school. There is also the county jail which was operational from 1908 to 1958. The prisoners were locked up and never let out even to exercise. In the entire 50 years the jail was used only one man escaped, and he was recaptured. The museum also had a wonderful mineral exhibit, and teeth from a prehistoric grass eater. The tusks found at the same site are now in the Smithsonian. The museum guide was present when the Smithsonian dug up the tusks. The museum was really worth the $3.00 entrance fee.

Supper was at the only restaurant in town. Once again we had Mexican Food, which seems to be the dominate choice in this area.