Day 22: Pagosa Springs to Fort Garland

Ride Stats:
Distance - 115 mi
Avg Speed - 10.4 mph
Climbed - 4320 ft
Temps - 47 to 90 F

I knew this would be a big climb over Wolf Creek Pass, so I got on the road about 6 am. It was still dark, and not much traffic. After a couple of hours of easy climbing, I ate my second breakfast and started going up the switchbacks. There were alot of day-bicyclists on light-weight bikes doing the same thing, at a higher rate of speed. It's a popular pass to climb, as much for it's challenging height, as for the ride back down.
About halfway up the climb my back tire blew out, like a firecracker going off. I'm just glad it happened at 5 mph instead of 25 mph on the way down the other side. The culprit was a cube shaped stone about the size of a gambling dice, but with really sharp edges. I avoided it with my front tire, but rolled over it with the back; and when it squirted out sideways from under the tire it cut the sidewall and left a one inch incision in both the tire and tube. Thankfully, I had a spare folding tire and a new tube, so I didn't have to rely on patching these incisions. I lost about an hour on the fix; inflated by conversations with passing bicyclists expressing concern, and complications in getting the back wheel aligned properly with my brakes and fender, while on a 6% grade.
I didn't get over the top until noon, and ran into a little rain on the way down the other side. For once, I had a super tailwind when I hit the flats, which helped pick up distance and time. It was so good for fifty miles that I only made a couple of quick pitstops for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from a VFW Ladies Auxiliary booth, and a pre-made sandwich at a Convenience Store. I blew thru South Fork, Monte Vista, Del Norte; and then even my planned destination of Alamosa. At the rate I was going, I figured I could get all the way to Fort Garland by 6 pm. Then the wind shifted 90 degrees, and was in my face at 15 mph with gusts over 20 mph for the last 15 miles. I didn't get to my campsite until 8 pm, pitched my tent in the dark, and crawled inside just before it started raining. All the motel rooms in Alamosa and surrounding communities had been booked up for a popular Labor Day Weekend Classic Car Show.

Treasure Falls, on the way to Wolf Creek Pass.

Looking back from the second switchback at the valley I'd come up.

Here are the roads working their way up the steep terrain.

Another little waterfall.

There were several riders on horseback coming down the mountain.

The surroundings are different at high altitude.

On the downhill side there was a building protecting the road from avalanches.

This tunnel was built parallel to the existing road because it's safer from falling rocks. I went through it with some motorcyclists who revved their engines to the max. They love the sound of their engines.

The city of Del Norte has decorated the mountain above it with this Elk profile.

A pretty big flock of sheep in the San Luis Valley. The valley has the Rio Grande River running through it as it comes out of the mountains with quite a bit of water, but they don't seem to make much irrigation use of it. The irrigation canals that I saw were all dry.