NASA Director: This could be the worst disaster NASA’s ever experienced.
Gene Kranz: With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour -Apollo 13
Yesterday’s ride was one of the toughest that I experienced. To make matters worse, I hardly slept at all that night and there were heavy rains and flash flood warnings. Consequently, I did not recover from the prior day’s ride and was feeling sore, tired and listless. We had two options, the gravel dirt track or a fully-paved option. Both routes were on pavement for the first 20 miles and then the two diverged.
As we started pedaling, it quickly became obvious that it would not be a stellar day for me. I was riding slow and many riders were ahead of me. There seemed to be quite a bit of climbing so zI just dialed it down and watched everyone speed off in the distance. I am guessing that the traditional route was about 51 miles with 3000 feet of climbing but since the routes were altered, I don’t have exact figures. The all-pavement route clocked in at 46 miles or so.
I was making steady progress when I came upon the point were the two routes diverged. Jim was there in the van along with about 5 riders. The track had hardly any rain and appeared to be in good shape and the other riders asked me to go with them. I did, but regretted the decision when it became obvious that I couldn’t keep up. They kept stopping for me, but I finally said that I was going to head back to the road and complete the paved portion. I guess that side trek added about 11 miles to my ride. I did walk several hills that normally would have been very easy for me.
It was a bit of a slog for me but the scenery was nice and I took many photos. There was a lot of climbing to the Continental Divide but then was rewarded with a spectacular downhill into Lordsville of about 10 miles. There was a cross wind that turned into a headwind later on. Since we did not have GPS tracks for this ride, I had to find the Motel 6 using a cell phone function that worked really well. It led me directly to the hotel!
One more day to go about 73 miles to Mexico.
If you have enjoyed my blog, I would appreciate a small donation to the Backstoppers – a link is on my site!
Thanks for reading
Tailwinds
Chuck Hardesty – Riding for The Backstoppers.com
chuckhardesty 
Chuck, I hope that when you’re reading this comment, you will have finished Sunday’s ride. I have enjoyed your blog, and to honor your request for a donation to Backstoppers, I have instead made a $CAN donation to a local Calgary, Alberta, Canada charity with a similar focus; The Legacy Place Society. The Society provides peer support and other resources to Alberta first responders and military personnel. (I can send you details of the Society in a private e-mail if you like.)
Ken C.
Hi Ken, Since Sunday was more of a road ride, I pretended it was a time trial . Need to work on the offroad skills but I did improve over the course of the 7 weeks. Appreciate your donation to your local society – that works for me and also thanks for all your help and advise especially in the first week.