Thursday, June 26, 2008

Over The Continental Divide

Today we left Sargents and immediately began climbing towards the Continental Divide at the top of Monarch Pass. The picture above is looking back towards the West. We were climbing without our gear or Jack as our friends Ray and Brenda kindly took all the baggage (and Jack) in their car for us (they will continue this act of mercy untill we reach Denver). We made good time going up as the grade was a fairly uniform 6%. We reached the top of Monarch Pass in about two hours.


It was sunny and cool at the top were we met up with Ray and Brenda. Brenda took this picture of us in front of the marker. To us this was an important moment. Crossing the Divide felt like the point of no return, there's nothing for it now but to keep on to the East Coast. After all, it's all down hill from here, right? Yeah, right. Well as we descended the views to the East were beautiful.


We descended the eighteen miles to Poncha Springs rapidily. At Poncha Springs we found a little resturant named Thai Mini Cafe where we had a great lunch. We were certainly surprised to find great Thai food in a tiny burg like Poncha Springs! From Poncha Springs we turned north on Hwy. 285 which will take us all the way to Denver. Tonight we are staying in a KOA just outside Buena Vista. We will be at Belinda's Mom's house by Saturday.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have made it to the top,there will be downhills ahead! Hearty congratulations to the Gang of Three and salute to Ray and Brenda!

Michael Podolny said...

It's all down hill from here! Well at least down to the Atlantic.

Anonymous said...

The photo of you guys in front of the Continental Divide sign is great..what an accomplishment. How long will you be in Denver? Then will you go straight across Kansas? Watch out for tornadoes. Remember what happened to Dorothy? She had a dog too!

mas said...

Congratulations! What an inspiration. It must be a delightful pleasure to ride without all that weight; but, no doubt, still a challenge. I'm really loving the fantastic pictures and travelogue. You guys seem to be just gobbling up the country. Best wishes, mas

Dave and Belinda said...

Thanks, John. Well there'll be a lot of flat from Denver and some rolling.. yes even in Kansas. I'm afraid it'll be all to soon till we are in the Ozarks, but for now, we'll just be hoping for a tail wind.

Hi Michael, "It's all down hill from here" or "this is the last hill" these statements have become kind of a joke for us because it's never true.. there's always more up. It's always exciting to be on the ridge of the continent though.

Diana, we'll be in Denver for three days at Belinda's Mom's house and then a couple of days in Longmont visiting Belind's Dad. It'll be good to be off the road for a little break. We will go pretty much straight across southern Kansas. There have been a few times that if we had Dorothy's shoes...

Thanks, Mark. It was great to climb Monarch Pass unloaded. I think with all our stuff it would have taken twice as long to the summit. Day by day it sometimes seems so slow, but looking back I am surprised at how far we've come. I know though that we travel a lot slower than other tourists. The dog cart really slows us down. The extra drag in both rolling resistance and wind resistance is significant.

Thanks for posting everyone, and take care, best wishes to you all.

Anonymous said...

Woohoo! Look at you go! The Continental Divide, so epic!
Love, Leslie

Anonymous said...

Thanks Leslie, I hope all is well with you.