day 31

today is the day. today is the day we setoff to conquer our last rocky mountain: monarch pass. the summit is at 11,312ft. we are 30 miles away from the base of the mountain. it is a 9 mile climb from base to summit. when we got up that morning, we were greeted by some wonderful muffins, cookies, and coffee that eddie picked up for us. thanks so much for eddie and rebecca's hospitality! we scarfed them down and started packing up and stretching to get ready for the day. the 30 miles out to sargents was long for me, i knew we had to climb the mountain but i wanted to hurry up and get it over with, not wait a couple of hours to get to the base. i tried to reserve my strength and speed so i took my time but i just felt this looming presence or something. we finally reached sargents, where there is a little gas station, and we got some drinks to rehydrate us. evan got some weird sports drink that came with vitamins, looked like a bad idea before cycling up the mountain. we stretched some more, sun screened up, and made our way up the road. we were real surprised; the grade was so gradual we kept a consistent 6mph! i think we were psyching ourselves out and the west to east side is easier than the east to west side. this was one of our easiest mountains to cross over. we stopped and took some pictures off the side of the road at an overlook then a few miles up we stopped at another one trying to synchronize a picture of us jumping but we failed miserably. ha! we spent a lot of time trying to get the right camera angle, then run back in time before our self-timer went off, but we didn't get a good one, just some funny ones. we then kept climbing up and up. the last 2 miles i would say were the hardest of the climb, just a steeper grade and your mind knew you were almost at the top so you were just ready to be done with it. evan made it up to the top first then i shortly followed; waiting for us at the summit was a touristy shop with a "restaurant" and a gondola to take you up to the top of the mountain. we slapped hands and went inside to enjoy a nice fresh sub sandwich (which later gave me stomach issues). we called our dads and told them of our success; we crossed the continental divide and our last rocky mountain. we were super excited to be done momentarily with mountains. we then raced down the other side of the mountain. it took awhile to get into salida, but we didn't have a place to stay yet so we hit up a mcdonalds to use their wifi then we went out in search of a place to eat. we cycled down to a great pizzaria but on our way down there we saw a pretty cool sunset with the mountains, sadly there wasn't a good place to take a picture. we enjoyed 2 large pizzas and talked to the workers there. finally once they were about to close up shop, i checked my email and saw that i forgot to put my phone number but luckily harry e-mailed me and we had a place to stay that night. he came and picked us up since he lives at the side of a mountain and its a 12% grade to get up to his place. when he pulled up, i looked at evan and said, "it's larry david!". i swear, he looks very similar to larry and has the same personality. he's super into cycling and that day rode 100 miles and up the tallest bikeable peak in colorado. so him and mira made us feel at home; they set out pasta, chicken, and cake for us which we quickly consumed. they went to bed and we crashed on their pullout sofa. just another great ending to a good day. harry had all sorts of bike art, i'd call it; he has an autographed picture of greg lemond! so he showed those off to us and i just really liked this little art piece of the cyclists so here they are.