Salida, CO -- the rundown

Here's the rundown. We made it into Salida, CO last night late. Salida is a this sort of trendy little ski town, but we had just enough energy to order out pizza and watch SportsCenter in the room. Sad but true.

I've been putting in monster days since leaving Chama. By the time I got my tire Tim was about a day and a half ahead of me, so I tried to get up early and catch up. In three and a half days, I managed to do about 220 miles. I feel like I've turned a corner here with my fitness level, and I think from here on out 60-80 mile days are going to become the norm.

There isn't anything quite like riding through these mountains. Two days ago the route went through the edge of the San Juans through little towns like Platoro and Summitville (an old mining down that is now a Superfund site). Platoro is in this long, narrow valley with steep cliffs on both sides and a little inn with cabins at the end. From there you climb up through the pass and get to see backward down the length of the valley. Then it's down and up into Summitville, a deserted mining town complete with broken down wooden buildings and a giant sludge pond. It was a great ride on the bike, but anyone who wanted to could do it in a 4x4. So no excuses.