We climbed over our last 2 passes of the trip today, Wilkerson and Ute, and returned to the familiar territory of the Pikes Peak region. We made better time than we expected as we crossed the South Park area (high desert basin) and went over Wilkerson Pass on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. I had planned to take some pictures of the Collegiate Range from the top of Wilkerson (the Collegiates border South Park to the west), but the haze from the fires in southern California virtually obscured those peaks so I didn't bother.
We enjoyed a long descent from the top of Wilkerson to the town of Lake George (mile 46), where we had originally intended to stop for the day. Since it was only shortly after noon, we rode on - stopping for lunch a few miles down the road in Florissant. The weather had been great again up until we pulled out of Florissant and began the 8 mile climb to the top of Ute Pass at the town of Divide. As is typical in the afternoon along the Colorado Front Range, a bank of clouds began building to the west and the sky darkened significantly. Within a short time it began to spit rain on us. As usual, we were only concerned about possible lightening - not getting wet. This caused us to quicken our pace (i.e., "hump it") more than we could sustain. After about a mile of this overzealous effort, we pulled over to regroup and remind ourselves to stay calm and just ride at our normal pace. That got us back in the groove and we rode up and over the Ute Pass summit without hyperventilating (at least an excessive amount of the time). And, has so often happened on our trip, the storm really never materialized beyond a rumble or two of very distant thunder. We stopped in Woodland Park at our friend Rosi's house for the night. Tomorrow we have only a 25 mile ride (downhill for nearly the entire route) back to our house to complete our coast-to-coast journey.
This morning we met Walter, another east bound cyclist, who is a retired college professor (specializing in German literature). Walter appears to be in his late 60s or early 70s and is riding (solo) his THIRD transcontinental trip. He didn't seem to think it was any big deal, but did acknowledge that "this will probably be my last one." Penny later suggested that we do another coast-to-coast trip in 10 years to commemorate this one. I really hope we're physically able to do that but suspect we may be seeing the country from the inside of an RV at that point.
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