Day Fifty-One - Saturation.

Having gone to bed by 8:30 last night, I felt relatively rested by the time 6:15 came around. I was pretty much ready to go by 7:00, but breakfast was offered to me which I couldn't refuse. I got on the road by 8:30, and began my ascent to Monument Pass, topping out at 11,312 feet. The climb was about 24 miles from Salida to the peak.

The going was good up until about 14 miles in, when it got a lot steeper, and 6mph was about the best I could manage. As you can imagine, it took a while to get to the top, especially seeing as I needed to stop every mile or so to catch my breath in the last few. I was also surprised at how cold it got as I got higher, cold enough that there was snow at the side of the road and being able to see your breath. I thought I would be able to just scoot over the top and come back down without needing to put on layers, but each time I had to stop I ended up putting a layer on. It was with around three miles to go that the rain started. It had been an overcast day up until then, but I wasn't expecting it until much later. This meant that by the time I had reached the top I was cold and very wet. There was a cafe/ gift shop at the top that I went into and contemplated stopping there for lunch.

I decided that the cafe was too much for too little, and i'd brave the 10 miles downhill to 'Sargents' and eat there. I'd already experienced downhill in the wet in the Appalacians, and it was freezing cold at only 3,000ft. I tried to prepare myself for the cold by putting socks on my hands to fight the wind chill on my wet hands (I do have gloves, but they were at the bottom of the bag that I now tie on my front rack, so were as good as unaccessable). The result of this was having to stop every half mile or so to try to warm my saturated hands and relieve the cramp in my hands from squeezing the brakes. After about two miles of downhill I gave up, and put on a ridiculous number of layers and put on real gloves, which did the trick down the rest of the mountain.

I stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was probably more expensive than the previous place, but it was better food. I was caught at a moment of weakness and ordered a slice of premium pie, at $4.50 a slice. Ouch. It hit the spot though, and I was just about thawed out from the decent after finishing. You can imagine my disappointment when I stepped outside to find that the rain that I'd beaten down the hill caught me up, and it was hammering off the road. I was offered a ride to Gunnison (my stopping point by two different people, and had to explain to them both that as much as I'd love a ride, it'd confound my entire trip and I'd never be able to live with myself if I had. So off I went into the rain.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful, 30something long miles in rain/hail to Gunnison. By the time I arrived, I was desperate to find a room to dry myself and my clothes out in. After a very similar routine to that in biblical times, all of the motels/hotels were full on the east side of town. Apparently there is a softball tournament in town, and it's a weekend night so people go away anyway. I eventually found a cheap-looking place called the ABC Motel, that I ended up paying $69 for a room that isn't worth a penny above $45.

So that's the story of today, tomorrow I have an easier day to a town called Montrose. Tomorrow night there is a 0% chance of rain, which are odds I very much like as far as camping is concerned.