June 8, 2011
This morning we all had a sleep in and lounged around the hotel until just before check-out. Rebekah has a friend, Sara, in Flagstaff that she knew from working at a camp a few years back who offered to let us stay at her house as long as we wanted!! Not only that, but she was able to take most of the day off work to hang out with us. Sara picked Rebekah up from the hotel and drove her to the bike shop while Emily and Michelle rode their bikes to meet them. Rebekah got some relatively good news that her bike should be fixed in a day or so and should not cost much at all. What wonderful news!
After that stop, Sara drove us to her house where we unloaded our things before heading into town to explore. We had a wonderful lunch and wandered about the downtown area. We had a stop at the supermarket too, to get some food for the next few days. We have reservations at the Grand Canyon campground for the 11-13th of June, so we will be here in Flagstaff until the 10th. The Grand Canyon is a 2-day bike ride away, giving us plenty of time to relax here and recooperate.
We came back to Sara's house in the afternoon, all enjoyed a nice long nap, and piddled around for a while before having ravioli and cake for dinner! (It's always so exciting when we have a real kitchen to cook in!)
Posted by the girls.
June 7, 2011
Today was a long day for us; we traveled 255 miles! As you can imagine, we didn't bike the entire way. Michelle didn't bike at all, Rebekah biked 18 miles, and Emily biked 28 miles. The rest of the miles were spent hitchhiking in multiple cars.
Now you're probably wondering why we ended up all the way in Flagstaff, a city not even on our itinerary. Well, let's start at the very beginning...We woke up with wet tents and it hadn't even rained! We stupidly pitched our tents right next to the spri... Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
June 5, 2011
This morning Michelle woke up feeling about the same and Emily woke up with a migraine. Thankfully, we only had a 15-mile day planned. We took our time getting ready and stopped at the Wal-Mart in Cortez on our way out (we'll soon be headed into the desert where the towns are few and far between). In just over an hour, we arrived at the Ute Mountain Casino, which is located on Ute reservation land. For only $19, we get great camping facilities, hot showers, a pool, and of course, a casino!
We ... Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
June 4, 2011
Today was another tough day for Michelle. She has a cold virus and cannot seem to shake it. She is so full of perseverance though and tried to bike today, despite feeling awful. She made it about 5 miles (all uphill) and would have continued, had Emily and Rebekah not stopped her. Her body just needs more rest time, but we also want to stay on schedule since we made reservations at the Grand Canyon campground. So, we stuck out our thumbs and patiently waited for a pickup truck to stop by. The...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
June 4, 2011
We all slept quite well at Dr. Mike's house, but Michelle was still under the weather. Our planned ride for today was to Mesa Verde State Park. We looked more closely at the route and realized how steep the climb was into the park. Even on a good day, this would have been a tough ride. The obvious choice was to take the day off. Durango is the biggest city we'll be in for awhile, so it's a great place to have a day off anyway.
We ate breakfast and did a load of laundry at Dr. Mike's before ge...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
June 3, 2011
We left Sky View Motel fairly early because the weather forecast showed the winds increasing throughout the day. The very first part of the ride was a steep hill out of Pagosa Springs. After that, however, we were rewarded with a 10-mile or so gradual downhill. Soon after that, the terrain became a little hilly. We were able to see Chimney Rock, but didn't have enough time or energy to stop and hike.
Throughout the ride, Michelle was feeling worse. Her throat was sore, and that combined with d...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
June 3, 2011
Today was another tough day. The first couple miles of the ride were fairly flat, but then the 15 mile climb up to Wolf Creek Pass began. The first 5 miles of the climb were quite gradual, but still noticeable. Once we saw the sign that said, "10 miles to the summit," it seemed to get much steeper. The last 3 miles were almost unbearable with the 20+ mph winds. It had gotten cold and snowy near the top and we were being blown of the road. We also all ran out of water, so we stopped at the Wol...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
May 31, 2011
We were finally able to make some progress today after being stuck in San Luis Valley for awhile. This morning Rebekah noticed that Emily's rear tire was flat, so we changed that before getting on the road. Once we were biking, it was smooth sailing. The route today was completely flat and the winds were extremely mild. We biked about 46 miles today to reach South Fork Campground (4 miles east of South Fork, CO). The campground here is really nice, with hot showers, internet, and friendly sta...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
May 31, 2011
Today Mark woke up at 5:30 am to start biking, however us girls needed our beauty sleep, and opted to start the day a little later. The winds were still quite strong, but we thought they would die down. We packed up our gear and headed out. At the beginning, the wind was bearable. We made it 20 miles to a small town called Mosca where we stopped in at the convenience store. We got a snack and asked for the best directions to our destination, Del Norte, approximately 25 miles away. We started ...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
May 30, 2011
We decided to take today off since Michelle has been feeling sick the past couple of days. Most likely, we would have taken the day off anyway. The winds are crazy with gusts up to 55 mph! We felt obligated to look at the sand dunes, despite the weather, so Emily and Rebekah braved the winds (while Michelle got some much needed rest). They biked the 4 miles to the park, walked around on the dunes, and biked back. It was painful to be on the dunes; the wind was blowing the sand so hard that it...
Continue reading...
Posted by the girls.
