Pedaling along the Arkansas and over Monarch Pass

Just a quick update...

First of all, we are now at $7,300 for the total funds raised. Thirst Relief says that $5 saves a life because a biosnad filter costs approximately $50 to construct and deliver. This serves around 10 people (Is that right Jim?). With those numbers, together we've been able to ensure that 1,460 people have clean water and can pursue a rewarding life without health complications from water-related diseases. Jim Hicks, Thirst Relief President, had a great idea to encourage donors to help us reach the $10,000 mark...Now that we are in Colorado we will be ascending mountain passes that are well beyond 10,000 feet (more on that below)...We hope this bicycle touring feat inspires donors to help raise $10,000 for Thirst Relief projects. What do you think?

As for the riding, on Tuesday we got into Pueblo, CO at about 11:00 am after a 55 mile morning ride. The day before we ended up going 118 miles to get from Tribune, KS to Ordway, CO. It was cloudy and flat so we thought it would be good get as close to Pueblo as possible.

Once in Pueblo, we went straight to the bike shop and talked to the folks there. We left the bike to be worked on and spent most of the afternoon walking around Pueblo. Had a nice lunch and shipped some things we didn't need back to Logan in a effort to lighten up before the mountains. We met up with Doug and Carolyn Westlund in Pueblo West and had some good time to visit with them. Carolyn made us a great spaghetti dinner and we visited their church in the evening.

The gave us some good advice and on Wednesday morning we headed west on Hwy 50 out of town. The rolling hills from Pueblo to Canon City were tough and it started to get hot. Then we had a long sustained climb out of Canon City for 10 miles. The heat intensified and we were both struggling. Unfortunately the creak in the bike was not solved at the bike shop in Pueblo so we had to listen to a "Wreeeeee.......Wreeeeeee.....Wreeeeee" while pedaling about 4 mph to the top of this climb. Once again we turned to prayer as a way to get strength for the challenge and God gave us what we needed. We had a quick break at the top to soak our shirts, which created a nice personal swamp cooler effect on the descent.

We descended for 5-6 miles and the rest of the day was spent on mainly flat with a slight incline along the beautiful Arkansas River. The Arkansas is a very popular whitewater rafting river and we were able to whoop and holler at the boaters as they went down. It was such a nice ride we decided to keep on until Salida which ended up being about 88 miles. We knew that Monarch Pass (11,300 ft.) was waiting for us so we wanted to close as possible so we could ride this monster climb before it got too hot.

We got to bed by 9:30 in Salida after a stop at the Simple Foods Natural Market. They had tons of good stuff and Jenny was so excited to get back into a natural foods store...it's great to be back in Colorado.

This morning we left at 6:00 am. It was a chilly start, but the climb started quickly and got us warmed up. Salida is at 7,036 ft and the summit of Monarch Pass is 11,300 ft so we were looking at a 4,300 foot climb in 21 miles. We got to the top at 10:15 am with an average speed of 6 mph!! We were just reflecting on the experience (now that we are resting in Gunnison, CO) and we both agreed it was one of the toughest things we've ever done. More prayers of thanks to God for keeping us safe and giving us the strength we needed to "get 'er done".

We rode 42 miles into Gunnison and are now enjoying the air-conditioned library. We're getting the bike looked at again and hopefully we can pinpoint where the creak is coming from. We'll stay in Gunnison tonight and then ride to Montrose in the morning. We are having a tough time finding a place to stay in Montrose because this weekend is the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, which is apparently a huge deal and all the hotels are booked. We'll probably take a two-day break in Montrose and head out on Monday morning.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and encouraging words. We look forward to seeing some of you in Logan, but also having many of you come visit us in Colorado.

All our love,
Scott and Jenny