Eric says it was courage. I say it was bad judgement. We'll let the readers decide (feel free to comment below).
Late yesterday afternoon, coming south on 285 from Como we encountered some stiff wind gusts, maybe 20 mph. The sky was darkening and the iPhone showed scattered thunderstorms, some severe, throughout the area. We stopped at a gas station/Thai restaurant (I guess you can combine anything) in Poncha Springs to assess the situation. We could either stay at the motel next door or continue on to Del Norte which was 75 miles ahead. There is no town in between, just miles of prairie touching up against the mountains off in the distance. We really didn't want to stay there. The sky seemed to be clearing so, some would say mistakenly, we decided to hoof it.
For 30 miles our decision seemed like a good one; a straight shot on 285 going 70 mph plus. Very quickly however, things started to change. We could see in the distance bands of clouds starting to form. It got darker by the second. Within 10 minutes a black curtain of swirling torrent covered the horizon in front of us, maybe 10 miles away. We were riding in bright sunshine but heading towards a curtain of death. There were miles of flat prairie on both sides, no where to stop or to find shelter from possible lightning. Yikes.
It felt like a movie. "The wind began to switch, our bikes to pitch and suddenly our plan started to unhitch" or something like that. The only things missing were Dorothy and the Wicked Witch.
As we approached the curtain, before the rain started, the winds fired up; 30 mph, maybe stronger. The gusts we encountered earlier came from one direction making it easier to deal with. All you had to do was lean your bike into them and you remained stable. Not these winds. They were hitting us from both sides. I swear they were trying to form a funnel. We slowed from 70 mph to 40. That helped a little but not a lot.
We had made our bed. Now we were sleeping in it. Oddly, for me, a zen sense of calm set in. If you're going to meet your maker, you might as well enjoy it. I took a deep breath, wiggled my shoulders, relaxed my grip and just went with it. The winds continued to bounce us around a then a few raindrops hit my visor. I realized that unlike Eric, my bike had no windshield. This really was going to be fun. A few miles from the curtain the torrent let loose. Oh dear lord. The only part of my body exposed was my neck. It felt like needles were being fired into my jugular.
As we reached the curtain the only thing I could think about was how deep it was. Thankfully, not very deep. The worst part lasted only 20 minutes. We soon emerged into another sunny range and one of the most brilliant rainbows I've ever seen. Phew, what an experience.
The rest of the trip to Del Norte was easy. In fact, so easy that we decided to keep going to South Fork 20 miles further ahead. That is where we pulled into the Chinook Lodge, rented a small cabin (mice and no hot water) and then walk a mile each way to a rodeside diner, The Rainbow, for spaghetti (me) and trout (Eric).
By the time we got back we were wiped. We read for a few minutes and then hit the hay.
Earlier in the day we crossed Ute Pass from near Grand Lodge to Dillon where we visited with Helmut and Anita for an hour. A great visit.
We then caught Boreas pass from Breckenridge
to Como. Both passes, all dirt and gravel roads, were spectacular.
It's raining outside right now. Forecast shows rain all day.
Eric thinks it's an opportunity for us to cover lots of miles on the paved roads so that we can get to Silverton for more off-rode biking. I'm thinking it's an opportunity to meander to Pegosa Springs or Durango and to relax a bit. Maybe we learned a lesson yesterday. Maybe not. We'll figure it out.
That's it for now.
Later.
George
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment