Chama to Alamosa

THi everyone  

We stayed in our tent at the lodge.  It was an early night after a long day. Up bright and early, 5am. Today we took off to head to Alamosa Colorado.  We climbed for 25 miles. The climb was long and steep. 

Ok so I kinda sand bagged up the mountain. Well I biked up but I went in my lowest gear and just puttered my way up. I took tons of picks witch helped me out. I just couldn't pass by all the awesomeness. 

There was a railway that ran up the mountain. It was one of the narrow track ones

The valleys were lush and green it was like we had biked into a whole new world.

Chipmunks scurried back and forth across the road ahead of us. Some people saw deer. There was so much to see and enjoy it was not the worst thing going so slow. 

Over the pass we went into Colorado from New Mexico 

The first pass was 10022

Then we lost altitude again and had to climb Back up the next pass. Are we gluttons for punishment or what. 

This is the valley we descended into only to have to climb out of it again. I have so many more pics but its hard to down load them all. 

Ok so this is a house in the the second valley. If you look carefully you can see the creek go right past it. In fact the driveway is a bride over the creek. 

The second pass la manga was a mean climb too. Then came the fun part. Descending into the valley down a steep grade. Don't tell Carrie but my top speed was 73.5 km. it kinda reminded me of blue mountain slide ride. I'm sure I crashed on blue mountain to warn me enough to slow down a little around some blind curves on this road. Don't worry I still sacred the crap out of the people that tried to follow me so I know I was going fast enough. I did brake this time. Only a little though. 

This pic was half way down the mountain    

The town you see below was where we descended to. We were about a 1/3 of the way done by then. We passed this point and the sky started to get black. A half hour after us the people got soaked by a thunder storm, and hail. 

Isn't  the view amazing.

The valley had  a stream with wild trout. 

Team weigh more picked up a few extra stragglers and put them in the middle of the group and we broke wind for them. That doesn't sound right, we blocked wind. For those of you that don't cycle the front people brake the wind and the people after them if the stay close enough use way less effort. 

This is the storm that was chasing us in. Time for bed see you tommorow. Len