Day 16: Epic Taos Ride
An epic ride deserves an epic post, so sit back and enjoy the photos.
Above is the view from Pagosa Springs Resort shortly before sunrise as we prepared to launch ourselves. Today's ride was 142 miles and 9400' of climbing, starting and ending at about 7000' of elevation but climbing to 10,500' of elevation as we crossed the Continental Divide.
When we started, the temperature was in the low 40s, and the sky was threatening rain.
The light at dawn was very interesting, full of both orange hues as well as blues.
As we rode into the country, we passed a number of horse ranches.
Here is another example of the orange and blues visible as the sun rose. However, this was a close as we got to seeing the sun for a long time. Shortly after this picture, the predicted rains came. We spent most of the first 6 hours of the ride in the rain. I was completely covered in my rain gear: rain covers for my helmet and shoes, rain pants, rain jacket, and waterproof rain gloves. In general, my outfit did a good job of both keeping me dry and warm.
Periodically, the rain would pause, and I would get my camera out of its zip lock bag in my top tube bag and take a couple of photos while riding. I tried to avoid stopping whenever possible since there is less than 12 hours of sunlight, and we needed to finish the ride before dark.
More horses. I found myself wondering how they felt about the weather. One's mind contemplates many weird things on a 10 hour ride.
The mountains were periodically visible as we cycled along.
About 28 miles into the ride, we entered our fifth state of the trip: New Mexico. At this point, I was realizing that my hamstring seemed much better than yesterday. While still early in the ride, it was not yet causing me any problems at all.
For the next couple of hours, it rained most of the time, so this is one of the few pictures I have.
Starting at the 57 mile mark, we began a 23 mile, 3000' climb to the top of an unnamed pass crossing the continental divide. Here I am at the top, very glad to be about to head down. Our Trek guides were great about having food, snacks, and beverages for us at our stops. I had some hot chocolate here which was greatly appreciated.
After descending perhaps 2000', the weather started to clear.
Once I got down to the valley with about 20 miles to go, a rainbow appeared. I rode for about 30 minutes seeing the rainbow. With the crosswinds, it seemed that I was not getting any closer to either my destination or the end of the rainbow.
With about 12 miles to go, I passed over the Rio Grand Gorge. At this point, the temperature had finally broken into the 50s.
And to end this post, here is my shadow as I am on my aerobars cruising into Taos. While the weather was hardly ideal for cycling, it did provide for beautiful scenery. With only a couple of complaints during the ride, my hamstring held up extremely well. I am looking forward to tomorrow's rest day. Good night everyone. I expect to sleep well tonight.