Distance: 85 miles Texas Creek, CO to Pueblo, CO
Ride Time: 6:38
Average Speed: 12.8 mph
Maximum Speed: 44.7 mph
Altitude Gain: 4270 feet
Average Temperature: 91
Today marks another milestone in my ride. I am planning on getting to Pueblo, CO. Pueblo is the end of the Western Express map route from Adventure Cycling Association. It is where my travels across California, Nevada, Utah and western Colorado meet the more commonly used routes coming in from Oregon and Washington. This was the first year these roads were listed on the western route. I have used four map sections and will have 6 map sections of the TransAmerican map route. When I started out this trip, I had some problems getting my maps on my Bryton bike computer. It has worked flawlessly since that time.
After traveling through a small canyon, we came into a large valley. It has a history of large cattle ranches with as many as 70,000 head of cattle being grazed at a time. It was another beautiful vista of cattle grazing all the way to the mountains in the background. I realized that I was leaving the mountains behind. It made me think that the struggles climbing the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains were giving way to the flat prairie landscape. The mountains were definitely something I was more used to riding in. After crossing this mountain valley, I hit the Rocky Mountain Front Range. Looking north, I could see Pikes Peak and the city of Colorado Springs. I dropped through a canyon and the trees and landscape started taking on a more dry type of vegetation and the temperature increased into the 90’s. They call this area the high plains. So even though we have dropped in elevation Pueblo is still 4692 feet.
You never really know what is watching you. Three times today as I was riding along side a creek, I heard something jump and crash through the willows. Two of the times the crashing was away from me and further into the brush. It made me wonder if it was a deer running away or a bear coming towards me. The other time it happened, it was a deer that came out of the creek just in front of me and across the road. At least I never had to worry about the bear.
The road coming out of the last canyon was narrower than was comfortable. One couple driving their motor home found out how narrow the road was and dropped off the edge of the pavement. When I got there, someone was trying to use a four-wheel drive pickup to pull the RV back up onto the road. The logging trucks always made the road tight as they passed me. Kathie felt the same way in the trailer.
The reservoir near town was way too hot. It seemed to me that we passed two cities before I finally came to Pueblo. We couldn’t find a campground tonight and stayed the night in a WalMart parking lot. There was a loud speaker broadcasting information about shopping that finally ended after 10:00 pm.
ThruUSA2 