Trish & Phill's Tandem TransAmerican

Tour 2003 

June 24 Canon City - Hartsel 58mi

After the rest day and all the excitement of rafting yesterday it was almost nice to get back on the bike, I did say almost! We left the Abby and retraced the route the rafting bus had taken us yesterday and then turned onto highway 9.

Typically if there is a cafe we stop and have a second breakfast - I say second but really it's the breakfast for me as we are not eating much in the morning. Neither of us are great eaters of breakfast at 6am and the typical fair of cornflakes and raisin bran just doesn't do it for us. Today we stopped at a cafe and met a cyclist going West. Most days now we are meeting west bound TransAm riders.

During the morning Trish started to have stomach pains possibly food poisoning ? During the course of the day the pain had her almost doubled over, try that on the back of a tandem. We stopped often and walked but nothing much helped.  When we got to camp she went straight to bed with a couple of pain killers and a nap. 

Today is the greatest of elevation gain on the route. We climb over 4,000 feet (up to Currant Creek Pass elevation 9404') , To say it was a difficult day would be an understatement. Luck was with us though because we did have a tail wind at the critical part of the ride, he last 9 or so miles gave us some downhill across a plain that would be a blizzard in the winter months - it was blowing a gale as we entered Hartsel

We are staying at a buffalo Ranch tonight. The rancher has the largest ranch in the State. He provided us with a Buffalo meat BBQ dinner. This is the fist time we had tasted Bison, the meat was tasty and dryer than beef.  We have often commented to each other on many occasions how different the scenery would have been 150 years ago. Millions of Buffalo roamed around freely - then the white man came !!, so it's good to see these animals are doing OK. The ranch has a growing heard of bison and these animals are breading well and the ranch is financially viable.

The rancher gave us a good talk after dinner about the land development and the fact that he had signed over a huge amount of the land to the state as "never to be developed", a philanthropist indeed. 

Page owned & maintained by Trish Collins email to  trishphill@aapt.net.au.  Last Updated 28/07/2003