On Thursday (4/23/09), we got up extra early (5:30am I think it was) to get everything ready for our big ride across the Continental Divide. It was a little chilly to start off. This huge moth was chilling out by our vans, unable to take off due to the frost as we were 
leaving. The day was slated for a huge 113 miles with our ascent to 11,200 ft. It started with 25 miles of rolling hills during which time we seemed to draw an usually large number of direct stares from the hundreds of livestock that we passed. It took a solid couple of hours of climbing in low gear to finally reach the level of the tree line. The altitude was definitely noticeable based on my breath rate, but surprisingly not a huge factor in climbing. I think nearly everyone on the team made it to the top. At the summit, the wind picked up quite a bit. To get to the sign in above pic, I had to climb up a 6ft wall of snow. We had a chilly lunch at the top, bundled up, and began descending. 7 minutes into the descent, both my hands were severely cramping from keeping so much break pressure in order to keep my speeds in the comfortable sub-40mph range. The cool arctic breeze
from the summit palpably heated up with each minute on the way down. This next pic was taken less than an hour from lunch as we stood stripping our winter gear, looking back at how huge the mountains were that we just passed. Our trip tick wound up being a little off though cause it only ended up being a 90 mile day. Some of the riders were disappointed, so decided to ride an extra 10 miles to make it a century (I was not one of these ambitious few).
Friday 4/24 (Cotoplaxi to Pueblo) was a short day of riding for me as I racked up my bike after 25 miles in order to travel with the van for our lecture that day, which was 3 hours away at a Rotary Club meeting in Denver. The country club hosting the event was quite swanky, with multimillion dollar homes lining each fairway. The Rotary Club members were a great audience in that they are educated on world health issues (and are eager to tell you about their role in eradicating the polio virus), provided us a nice meal, and had a little more dispensable income than the primary school audiences that we frequently entertain. After our lecture, we set off to our host for the weekend, the Adult Day Care Center in Denver. The facility here was very top-of-the-line and was vacant for the weekend, except for us riders. They provided us with catered meals and cots to sleep on, so pretty nice by our standards. This weekend we had a fair amount of free time around the city so many people went out site seeing (Rockies game, art museum, zoo, etc.). I took advantage of the wifi and quite time around the facility to wrap up my radiology research project and work on an article for the Delt Alumni Magazine. I also met up with Lori's (my fiancee) sister, Ali, who was one of the 75 or so people dressed up in blue Snuggies (the [ridiculous looking] blanket with sleeves) out in the happening district of Denver. I think everyone is ready to get back on the bikes after our few light days. Although, I don't think we greet Kansas with the same level of enthusiasm as we have had for the scenery in Utah and Colorado.
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