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Day 2: Last Dollar Hut to Spring Creek Hut Most of us were unable to sleep last night. This hut, although situated “close to heaven”, has the least amount of ventilation. It was simply too hot to sleep. Bills legs kept “twitching”, so I nick named him “twitch”. Todd made pancakes for breakfast – they were awesome (as far as pancakes in the wild goes). We start out about 8:30am, and are treated with a good bit of descending to start the day – a welcome respite from yesterday’s climbing. We ride completely different terrain today. Very open mesas, long fields, more expansive views, and some very long straight rolling stretches. We begin to see some of the “Colorado wild flowers” I have heard so much about, and we begin to see the famed “lightening of firecracker alley” in the distance. We get to the next hut and are even more impressed than we were at the first hut – this configuration is more “spacious” somehow, but from the outside it looks like it is the same size. We are getting to the huts in early afternoon – about 1pm or so. This gives us plenty of time to relax, read, take walks, take pictures, “fiddle” with our bikes, etc. This adds the “relaxation dimension” to the trip that I did not anticipate. What seemed like an “ambitious and arduous trip, turns out to have an equal amount of rest and reflection time. I spend 45 minutes today practicing my Italian. Did I mention that the “dreaded throne” also turned out to be a delightful surprise. This year they put in all new – brand new – outhouses. They do not smell, they are clean, and they are private – none of the attributes that could describe the previous “2 X 4 planks over a 55 gallon drum” potties we were all “nervous” about. Ray gets started on supper right away (we usually ate one meal right after the ride, and another one in the evening – naturally I didn’t lose any weight…drats!). Tonight we have fried onions and peppers, fajita style with rice and salsa. I lead the discussion on the “Problem with Pride”. Another good time of sharing before we all hit the sack as soon as it gets dark. No breakdowns today, and not even one flat so far on the entire trip – we are blessed. Stats for the day: 26.3 miles, 5:46 total time, 3:06 pedal time, average is now up to 7.3mph.
More pictures for this day can be seen by clicking the button at the top of this page. A sheet of "thumbnails" will be displayed, and you can click on them to see the full size/full picture.
We traveled WEST or Right to Left looking at the map, but the profile below reads left to right.
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