Day 46: Rustic, CO to Walden, CO (70.5 miles)

A very strenuous, but very scenic day. After breakfast, which included a campsite visit by a big mule deer buck, we drove back to Rustic, unloaded the bikes, and started riding. Besides awesome scenery, we saw some interesting sights; a moose feeding near the road, and a cafe with 3 feeders that attracted many hummingbirds (I counted 14 at one time). In addition, I braved 39 degree temps to fish at 5 am and catch 5 more trout on the parachute fly from the previous night. Regarding the bike ride, it was along Route 14 all day. The vertical climb over 30 miles was 3400 ft. Cameron Pass was the highest point we’ve reached all trip st 10,276 ft. After some screaming downhills, we reached Gould before reaching Walden. We camped in Walden City Park, which was nice, except for killer mosquitos. I heard about a good fishing spot, the Michigan River, which I tried to fish after dinner, but was driven away by the mosquitos, unfortunately, As of today, we’ve ridden 2380 miles, about 60%. On Friday, we’ll have one month to go.

Image Above: The Cache, La Poudre River

Moose near the road

Poudre Falls

View from Cameron Pass

First glimpse of snow covered peaks

Yours truly at Cameron Pass