Day-15 Jul-22-09

Today we started working our way over to the eastern portion of Colorado, in preparation for our long ride back home. We covered roughly 251 miles in about 7 hours, with stops included.

We left our hotel in Montrose, and headed east on Route 50. This route took us past the eastern end of the Black Canyon. We stopped at a pull off near the dam to take one last look at the Black Canyon before heading on our way. You cannot see this portion of the canyon from the park, since the park is at the western end of the canyon. Below is a shot that includes the dam, the lake that the dam holds back, and the power plant at the bottom of the dam.

In the photo below, you are looking in the other direction, at the Gunnison River, which is controlled by the dam shown above. The rock walls are not as high, nor as narrow in this portion of the canyon, but it is still pretty impressive.

After the dam, we continued our trip along Route 50, which took us back over Monarch Pass, and up to an altitude of 11,300 feet. This was also our final trip over the Continental Divide. We stopped at the tourist trap (I mean gift shop) at the top, for a rest, and a little shopping.

We continued toward the east, and crossed over Wilkerson Pass, which is Route 24, just west of Colorado Springs. This pass tops out at roughly 9500 feet, and is within the Pike National Forest, only a stones throw from Pike's Peak. We dropped down from Wilkerson Pass, and reached our hotel in Colorado Springs. We discussed taking a trip up above 14,000 feet on Pike's Peak, but by the time we reached our hotel, there were a number of thunder storm cells passing through the area. A thunderstorm at that altitude, could actually end up producing some snowfall. We ended up putting the cover on the bike and calling it a day.

We did have one interesting encounter today... While on Route 24 heading east bound, we were traveling in the leftmost lane (passing a couple of slower cars), and encountered a car coming at us head-on in the same lane. Mind you, this is a divided highway!!! Somehow, this guy got onto the eastbound lanes, but was heading westbound. I had plenty of time to move over to the right hand lane and give the fellow a "what the hell are you doing" wave. Hopefully he realized his error, and did not cause any issues with other motorists!

Tomorrow we start the long trek home. We will travel about 500 miles each day, which means 7-8 hours of actual 'seat time' on the bike each day. Thursday will take us across the remainder of Colorado, and most of Kansas. On Friday we will cover Missouri, and most of Illinois. And finally, Saturday will take us across Indiana and Ohio. The weather forecast is looking pretty good, with the exception of Saturday in Ohio, so hopefully the travel will be uneventful.