More rain was in the near future with showers to start in Fairplay around noon. Fairplay is at an elevation of 10,050 above sea level and the temperatures where in the 40s when I started. It is good I still had the cold weather gear to wear. The first 21 miles went by quickly and I averaged over 20 mph. Traffic was very light.
For the most part it was all down hill except for a couple of climbs where one took me over another pass at over 9400 feet above sea level. By 12:30 I had already covered over 70 miles. It was too early to stop in Canon City. Throughout the day I was staying just ahead of the rain but that was about to change. When I left Canon City there was another storm on the immediate horizon. It was only 9 miles to Florence (my third town named Florence so far on this trip) but the rain looked around the next corner. Just as I was pulling into Florence it finally started to rain, thunder and lightning. I stopped under the overhang of a gas station to wait out the storm. After 45 minutes the thunder and lightning was gone and the rain let up some. It was then I made the decision to go to Pueblo which was approximately 40 miles away. Off I went riding into the rain.
It was 11 miles to the next town called Wetmore but an 800 foot climb was between Florence and Wetmore. Wetmore was an appropriately named town because I couldn’t get any wetter. However once I made the left hand turn at Wetmore the rain stopped the roads were dry and it was only 27 miles to Pueblo. The last 27 miles flew by because of a favorable tailwind and slight downhill. The land in this stretch was relatively flat and more rangeland. At one point I stopped and looked around and realized that I was now out of the mountains and the Rockies. After spending 35 days in the mountains it will be strange riding through rolling hills and flatlands.
Today’s stats: total mileage 126.3 miles; average speed 16.5 mph; max speed 38.6 mph; total elevation gained 3424 feet; total elevation lost 8301 feet.
Today was a day where I started at an elevation over 10,000 feet and finished just under 5,000 feet in elevation. I won’t see any of those elevations again on this trip. Today was also the first day I was under 7000 feet since Montana.
Today was also the longest ride so far in terms of mileage and I can attribute that to a few things: 1. Elevation loss, 2. Favorable tailwinds which I later learned were almost 20 mph from the west, 3. A completely cloud covered day, including rain, and 4. Temperatures that never got above 75.