Day 24 - Salida, CO to Del Norte, CO

Another early start today, with a 12 mile, 2000' climb on the schedule right at the start.  9010' Pancha Pass was not too difficult on its own, but when a 10mph headwind came up at 7:30am  about half way up the climb, we knew we were in for a long day.

After cresting the summit at about 8:30, the following downhill was another disappointment with a 15mph block headwind pretty well spoiling it into the Hamlet of Villa Grove, where Wibke and I regrouped with a snack and my trusty can of Starbucks.  We had 30 miles to go to Saguache, and a further 36 if we wanted to make it to Del Norte for the day. This over some of the flattest, most barren sections of road I've ever been on!
  On the way to Saguache, the headwind relented a bit, and we made good time to get there by 11:30am.  Unfortunately, being the 4th of July,
all but a convenience store was closed, so we got sandwiches and Cokes to go to eat in the park. There we not only found working restrooms(!), but also another GDMBR rifer with his wife following in adah vehicle.  They generously filled our water bottles from their cooler, and as we headed south towards Del Norte, a tailwind actually came up!  We managed to average about 16mph for almost two hours to the metropolis of Center, CO - obviously so named because it's smack in the middle of absolutely nowhere!

Here we turned west toward Del Norte, and for the final 13 miles the wind turned into our faces, and we went into time trial mode to try to beat a big rain squall bearing down on us.  Fortunately, we stayed dry, but by the time we rolled into Del Norte st 3:30pm, both Wibke and I were completely spent.  Mike, who had left 30 minutes ahead of us apparently had far more tailwind, and managed to arrive more than an hour ahead. Oh well...

Tomorrow we'll be deviating from
the GDMBR route again to avoid a couple of nasty climbs, and following the Rio Grande valley south.  Hopefully, we'll be staying in Antonio, CO for our last night in Colorado.  More tomorrow from the GDMBR - Cheers!

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