Saturday, June 11th:

Today we woke up at the ungodly time of 4:15. We packed up and hit the road at 5:30- approaching the La Vita Pass. After 20 miles of climbing, we reached the peak and looked down on the Eastern half of Colorado. The scenery was absolutely stunning! We rode down the back side of the mountain, averaging almost 25 miles per hour. However, after we reached the bottom of the pass, we faced a strong head wind- and could barely manage to ride over 12 miles per hour all the way to Walsenburg. We had a hearty Carl's Jr. Lunch- and set back out for another 72 miles on the almost hidden Highway 10. We struggled through the 40 mile per hour headwinds as we inched our way to La Junta, Colorado. Nearing 5:00, we finally reached our destination where we bunkered down in a Holiday Inn Express, and slept soundly for another 4:30 wake up call.