Salida to Gunnison.

We woke up early in the hopes of getting a quick rafting trip down the Arkansas with our superb hosts before we started our ride. We were all ready to go and had pumped up the raft when we got the unfortunate news that all the boat ramps were closed for the big kayaking festival FIBARK. 

We will just have to go back to Salida and do it another time!

Patrick cooked a great breakfast for us with fresh eggs he got from his nephew, who lives in Salida as well. It was really good, and perfect for the ride ahead of us -- climbing Monarch Pass to the highest point of our entire ride. 

At their house they have this really cool canvas that they have all their visitors sign and draw themselves. Such a cool idea. So this was ours.

And this is the entire canvas with the beautiful view of Salida from their house. 

And here we are about to start the 12 (or more!) mile climb from the base of the mountain to the top of Monarch Pass. 

It was surely a challenge. Over the course of the entire climb we averaged about 4 mph. But more like 3 mph with breaks. It was a really great climb though, challenging and great. 

We passed Monarch Ski Area, and I hope to come back sometime and ski here when there's snow on the ground.

After some huff and puff we got to this sign - 6 miles to go, woohoo! On a normal day this would have meant just over another half hour, but at our speed we knew it would be more like 2 hours or more. 

Then finally after some heavy pedaling and TONS of mosquitos, we reached the summit. The highest point of our ride!

At the top there was a gondola that went up even higher. We took a ride to the top, and it was beautiful, and awesome to see what we had been riding through and what we would be riding through in the next couple of days. 

And we signed the visitor book at the top!

Then the downhill... was... amazing. We averaged about 35 mph for the next 10 or so miles. We were flying. It was FANTASTIC. 

Later on we passed a Turkish couple who were biking the continental divide, nice!

We got to Gunnsion, where we were plannin on staying and went in to a McDonalds to use the bathroom. One of the workers was really sick, EMS was there and everything, so we were glad to not be eating there..! We hope she is alright. 

Oh and we also passed this sign, which I thought was funny. Altitude and "Attitude". 

Daily stats:

Mileage: 59

Average speed: 9.99 mph

Max speed: 42.7

Elevation gain: 4200

Highest elevation: 11,312 ft

Haiku

Highest point we'll pass,

Why were there so many flies,

Downhill passing cars. 

-AW