Up and Over Monarch Pass....

Well today was the big day. By the big day I mean it was time to go up and over our biggest pass for the whole trip. We got up, ate some breakfast packed our bags and we were off. We were told to go on a bike path that would go to the road we needed but the bike path we took was a dead end so we had to go back. The ride from Salida out was a constant uphill not very much at first but as we got closer to Monarch pass we hit a grade of 6.5% for quite a while. This pass felt like it was never going to come to an end. It also was harder because we went up so much in elevation so our breathing was a lot harder than normal. We thought we were close to the top and we both see a sign that says "Monarch Pass Summit 6 miles." Chance said he almost cried and I am pretty sure I stopped right at that sign and maybe let a few tears come out.. So we stopped and took a break, had some gold fish and a bathroom break and then we were off. As most of you know Chance travels a lot faster then I do so he was off and I could not see him. I had been having problems with my tire leaking but it was holding air ok so we did not change it. So about 3 miles from the summit I picked up a little piece of wire and there went my tire. Chance was who knows where in front of me and I was not going to push my bike the whole way. So I ended up pushing my bike about a mile and then I tried to wave down a truck to help me out. Everyone just thought I was waving at them and they would wave back. So I walked a bit more. Finally a nice guy named Stac stopped and gave me a lift to the top which was not much further. We ran into Chance and he was just about to the summit. He told me right before that he thought he was going to die and went off the road feeling dizzy so he had to take a break just .5 miles from the top. The ride up was kinda scary at points because we had no shoulder for a lot of the time and some cars did not go around very well. But we made it to the top all 11,310 feet. So at the top Chance changed my tired while I went inside to sit down because I was not feeling well. Eventually we ate a snack of pretzel and cheese and our mt.dew. Sat around for a bit talked with some of the workers and then it was going to storm so we wanted to get off the mountain before it hit us. So we took our few pictures and then we were off. We did not get out in time half way down the rain came and it was really cold. I was shivering and I could not feel my fingers nor could I move them. So we got to the bottom of the mountain and stopped at a place to eat some real food for lunch. The morning ride was intense, to put it simply it took us 30mins to go from Salida to the beginning of the pass and 3 hours to go up the pass and 20mins to fly down it! At the bottom we ran into two guys who are riding their motorcycles on dirt roads from Mexico to Canada. They were very interesting guys and we ended up eating lunch with them and talking a bit more. From there we headed out for our destination of Gunnison, Co. The ride in the afternoon was awesome despite the rain we hit again. So we flew because it was pretty much downhill and we increased our average miles per hour from 7 to 11.6 mph which is awesome. We rolled into Gunnison right before the rain and lightening hit.. We stopped at the tourist place and asked where we could camp or stay and where a bike shop was. They told us where the campsite was which was 10 miles farther and it was quite a lot of money. So we decided to stay and the new hostel in town called Wanderlust. It is really a cool place and it is nice to shower and relax. It seems more homey then any other place you stay! We also stopped at the bike shop to pick up a tube and hit the post office to mail my huge book home. So now it is time to go grab some grub and get some rest after our 68 mile day and huge climb up Monarch Pass. Thanks to ya'll who read for the support!