Climbing the Raton Pass

Last night's stay at Philmount was great.  The staff was very nice to us and the food was excellent.  Think I might consider joining the Boy Scouts again!  We are still riding one most of the original Santa Fe Trail. Not sure if this hold true to the end (Independence MO).

Today we did a 69 mile hike from the Camp to Trinidad CO.  The route took us over the Raton Pass.  The ride was hard as the wind continued to be in our faces.  Slow was the buzzword for the day.

About 1/2 way through the trip we passed the NRA museum for firearms.  A lot of people stopped to see the exhibit - but I elected to ride by.  Not really sure I needed to look at a bunch of guns and stuff bears.

When we got to Raton we had to get back on Interstate 25 to get over the Pass.  I 25 is the only road over the Pass so you have to share it with the double long trucks flying by at 75-80 mph - not to mention dodging the blown out retread tires spewed on the side of the road.  For those of you that followed my blog last year you may remember that these retreads have thousands of little wires that get spread on the side of the road - and are tire and tube killers if you catch one.  Lucked out so far.

The Pass itself was a 9 mile, 6 degree climb.  Not as steep as the pass over the Tetons last year (10 degree climb) but nevertheless this was a challenging day.   I tried to pace myself but in the end I was beat.  Thank god the last 10 miles was downhill.  Normally this would have been really fast - but the wind kept my speed down to 25 mph.  Generally on this kind of slope I would have hit 30-35 mph - just to show you the impact the wind had on the day.

The wind was lighter than yesterday.  I looked down at my speedometer at one point and saw I was doing about 6 mph on the steepest part of the hill - yesterday I was averaging 4 mph on the flats.

Someone just looked at the forecast and said we are expecting snow on Friday.  I sure hope this is not true. Not really excited over biking or camping in the snow.  Snow is for skiing not biking!!!!

Most people are camping tonight at the Trinidad Junior College on the soccer field.  As tomorrow is a rest day (really need it) I elected to go to a hotel.  Decided I did not want to sit inside a tiny little tent on my rest day.  Someone suggested you could go to the College Library for the day - but that did not really sound that exciting.

The first hotel I tried (using Google) was booked.  The second hotel for $49.99/night got answered by a Chinese lady how could not understand English.  She then handed the phone over to a guy who also barely spoke English.  I tried for 10 minutes to book a room....

"I need a room fro the 10th"  You want 10 room?
"No I need a room for tomorrow and the next day.""   You want room for 10th; one night?
No I need a room for two nights"  You need two room tonight?

I gave up and called the next closest hotel to the college which ended up being a Day's Inn and got the cheapest room for 70 bucks - 20 bucks more expensive than the orient express but the guy spoke english.

First question I had was "Do you have a washer and dryer?"

Hot shower.... washer/dryer..... electric plugs..... Can't beat it.

Took a shower and immediately headed to the washer & dryer.  Blogging in front of the dryer right now.  I hope no one comes into the laundry room as I have stripped down to my underwear so I can wash my shorts and shirt (that I have been wearing for a week).

So that's it for the day.  I hope to get some pictures of Trinidad tomorrow.  Made a mistake relying on my cell phone versus bringing a camera.  Big mistake given the lack of outlets to recharge.

Cheers...