Day 18 - Rico, CO to Colona, CO

44 miles / Day 18 of 54 / Rico, CO to Colona, CO

Home sweet home for the night.

After a lovely night in Rico spent sleeping in the shack (literally) and relaxing out muscles in the hot springs, we had about a 13 mile climb up to Lizard Head's Pass, a great welcome to the state of Colorado. Sitting at over 10,200 feet, you could see plenty of 14000 peaks left and right. It was a beautiful climb, not very steep and real gradual. Throughout the climb we followed the Dolores River which was teeming with fly fishers and rafters. A real outdoor mecca.

Admittedly, the pass was easier to ascend for me than for Seth. With more back wheel issues, Seth was pedaling hard yet his wheel wasn't spinning like it should. He had major rear axle and rear bearing issues that made it even tougher to ascend Lizard Head's. But Seth being Seth, he never complained and had to work twice as hard to see our beautiful vista. What a champ.

The best thing about ascending so high is the descent. There's no feeling quite like the wind in your face coasting down the mountain at 35 miles an hour with some of the most beautiful vistas possible. I flew down the hill, yet Seth was slowed down by his back wheel. He was pedaling as hard as he could downhill and going around 8 miles an hour.

Travis aka "Lifesaver".

We made it down the mountain and with Seth not able to go any further, we hitched a ride (thanks, Mickey) to Telluride to a bike shop to fix Seth's back wheel. Thank you Travis for your help rebuilding Seth's back axle and bearings.

Thanks to our good teaching friend, Amy, in North Carolina, she set us up with her uncle and aunt, Dan and Sammi, who live out near Montrose, CO. We met Dan in Telluride and he drove us and our bikes to his home.

Commence probably our best memories of the trip so far, and it wasn't even on the bike. One of those times where everything works out perfectly. Dan, being one of the most welcoming people I have ever met, made us feel right at home. Seth's college friend, Mari, was in Colorado and met us at Dan's.

A huge outdoors man, Dan asked us right away if we wanted to spend the next day rafting a river in Colorado. Right away, we know that it wasn't an opportunity we could miss. We quickly decided on having an off day and spending a great day with Dan and Mari rafting the river.

Would write more about it, but don't want to spoil our next post :)

Dan the man with the friendly and loving dog Buddy.