Bicycling Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and New Mexico - 2006

Riverside, WY to Walden, CO

June 20, 2006
Distance 50.4 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 2,505 feet

This morning, there was no place to eat except in a convenience store. So we picked out breakfast burritos heated them in the microwave, and called it breakfast. Before we had gone 1 mile we crossed the Encampment River.

10 miles from Riverside we encountered our first long climb. The good news was that the grade was usually around 5%. If we had been coming from the other direction we would have been climbing 7% grades for at least 2 miles. Going down this grade we hit 43.5 mph.

Today we crossed into Colorado and also crossed the North Platte River again. Colorado looks just like Wyoming, sagebrush and irrigated farms. If there is no irrigation then the landscape is gray. The only difference is we are now at 8,000+ feet in elevation and the snow caped mountains are closer.

After crossing the North Platte River again we encountered the steepest grade for the day. It was about 2 miles long and the first ½ mile the grade was at least 7%. Then it gradually dropped down to a 5% grade until we crossed the top. The good news was that the wind helped push us to the top. We went down a nice grade on the other side, came to an intersection with another highway, made a right turn and for the rest of the day the wind gods were unhappy with us. For 4 miles we went directly into the wind and when a gust hit us we would suddenly need to downshift. We were going at least 2 mph slower. In addition, the road had cracks in the pavement and every few feet the bike would hit one of these cracks. At Cowdrey CO we changed direction just a little and the wind was more on our side. Because of a poor supper the night before, a poor breakfast this morning and no lunch, less than 2 miles from our destination, we had to stop and take another rest. We arrived at our motel around 2:00, just about 30 minutes before it started raining. We then cleaned up read our books and then walked through town and ate a good supper