Stage 29 - Walden CO, 61mi (98km)

I left the motel this morning at 8AM. It was a chilly (34F or 1C) and very unpleasant morning to ride the bike. The first 7mi were still on the eastward road. I turned north onto Route 125 and began the long slow climb to Willow Creek Pass (9’683 feet or 2’932m above sea level), the third and last mountain pass on my route in Colorado. However, I expected more climbing and it turned out to be my favorite elevation profile where I could pedal my higher gears – I surprisingly felt strong in my legs. The weather became worse and it began to snow but fortunately I had I nice little tail wind of 8mph. 

I followed Willow Creek back up the mountain between steep hillsides of dead trees. There was low traffic on this Saturday morning, just me riding along a beautiful valley. 

Two days ago I cycled through South Park to Fairplay, climbed Hoosier Pass into middle Park and now, at the foot of the pass, I found myself in North Park. 

I found an immediate change of the countryside, a bowl of lush grassland ringed by mountains. There were no services on today's 61mi ride to Walden.

At the only place on the way, Rand, which has a post office and a Gift store, but not much else, I stopped at the gift shop, had a warm coffee and enjoyed some home made chocolate. The owner, Don, was a very friendly and nice gentleman, we had a brief conversation of which he mostly answered my questions about this little village ‘Rand’ and its history as well Colorado in general. 

My last day in Colorado

Then, I took of for the last quarter of the ride through the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, which was fairly flat and went quickly as I still had the wind with me.

Today was the end of week four, in which I cycled 615mi (990km), bringing my total for the trip so far to a satisfactory 2’348mi (3’779km) or 81mi (130km) per day. 

The picture on the left is showing my elevation profile of the last three days from Pueblo to Walden. In these three days I climbed a total of 15’512 feet (4’728m) of elevation gain.