I only have one photo from today’s ride. I caught this photo at the hotel we stayed at in Cortez, Colorado. The owner of the vehicle (and presumably, the dog too) worked at the hotel. She assured us that the dog does not ride there while she’s driving.

We left Cortez at about 10:30AM. It had rained overnight and earlier in the morning, but when we left the skies were clearing. By the time I reached the exit off of highway 160 for the Mesa Verde National Park, two things were very clear. First, I needed a day off the bike. Sixty miles into a headwind yesterday had clearly taken it’s toll. I felt pretty fresh as I was getting ready to ride this morning, but soon after I got on the bike, I realized how tired I still was. This is something I’m going to have to learn to pay attention to. Second, the weather was getting worse. It was now snowing and it was clearly going to be getting even worse as I rode from 7000 feet where I currently was to 8400 feet at the summit before I descended back down to 6512 feet (the elevation shown on the Durango city limits sign).

So, in Mancos, Colorado, I made a tough decision to bail out on today’s ride. The weather for tomorrow (April 2) is much better (sunny, drier and warmer). So, I will return to Mancos tomorrow after a good day of rest and pick up where I left off.

It was a big disappointment to me to have to do this. But, after I climbed in the car and we drove towards Durango, the worsening conditions outside reinforced that I made the right decision. Towards the top of the summit at 8400 feet, it was snowing very heavily and visibility was not very good as a result.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 1st, 2006 at 9:24 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.