Acording to Wikipedia, Hartsel is often referred to as "The Heart of Colorado". It is also a crossing point for the Tour Divide and the TransAmerica Trail. At breakfast I met the two guys from the night before and also two woman crossing from Maine to Portland.

Sunrise from the "Gazebo" Garage

Sunrise in Hartsel

At least the Crazy Guy on the Bike was smart enough to stay on the roads.

First consistent mud slowed me down and despite the reasonably flat roads I didn't make very good time through this section. I had my first experience with my full wheel being caked with mud. It only took one revolution of the wheel for the wheel to be coverd. I had a stream crossing during this section and I dunked my bike it to clean the wheels.

Rolling through a rutted muddy section

Riding into a really strong wind on the decent into Salida. I was trying to beat the storm which was off to the west but also right in front of me

The 11 mile decent dropped me almost 3,000 feet. Despite the wind it was a fast ride into the outskirts of Salida. I would go back up and then go up some more the following day.

Made it to the Salida post office in the afternoon. With the 4th being the next day it was important to get there or leave the stuff. Rain was threatening all afternoon so I had a pretty short day. I made it to the Salida Comfort Inn and got one of the last rooms. While I sat in the lobby using their computer to plot my route I saw at least 10 people come in and ask about the rooms. Happy to have the room and Andrew joined me later. We had pizza down the road and called it a night.

Friday, July 3 - 48.4mi Hartsel to Salida, CO

See full screen map To go places and do things that I've never done before– that’s what living is all about.

Text by Jim O'Brien . Photographs by Jim O'BrienTD on Flickr.