Day 47

I got up this morning and got a warm, cheery, good morning from a flat tire. I'm not sure how that happened, but it went flat overnight. A patch fixed it pretty easy and the bike was ready to go again. I had a very large bowl of yogurt and granola and was on my way. Again the climbing was not a problem. I felt like I was able to charge right up the mountain. The scenery has really changed since the Denver area. No more mountain pine beetle. The top of the mountain that I went over today was very lush, with many shades of green. The rocks are now much more reddish in color, and I am going through towns like La Garita, and Del Norte. So I'm getting more of a Southwest flavor. I passed the 2,000 mile marker today as well as the 500th picture. I took a tiny detour and saw a natural arch. I don't think it was worth the 1.5 mile to see a hole in a rock wall, but the coast back to the main road was fun. I also turned on to what my map referred to as a very primitive road. It was exactly that. It was pretty cool to be on that back road. There were also tires, spent gun shells, and various types of garbage. I think I saw a bed spring and washer. It looked like they were being used for target practice. It was a regular redneck paradise.