Day 42 Week 6, Saturday 31 May 2025

Fort Collins to Rustic Colorado today. A short 43 miles but 2200 feet of elevation gain and only 312 feet descent. We climbed to 7,165 ft. I haven’t really felt the altitude yet. The climbing is nothing compared to what we did in Ohio. Grades are generally 2-3% and the road is excellent, albeit with no shoulder. There was quite a bit of traffic- campers and folks doing white water rafting, but they all gave us bikers plenty of room and I never felt in any danger. The route follows the Cache la Poudre River up the Poudre valley. Why is it called that? In French it means “hiding the powder”. Apparently some French trappers hid their gunpowder somewhere along the river during a blizzard n the 1820s. This was a beautiful ride- after days and days of flatland prairie, to be in the Rocky Mountains is incredible. There was a huge fire in this canyon in 2020 and the hills are covered with charred pine tree trunks, but new growth is coming back. The road for the most part followed the river all the way along to Rustic. It is a fast moving river with plenty of rapids, a great location for white water rafting. We say several rafting and kayaking groups go by, including two people on standup paddle boards if you can stand that!! Stopped for another breakfast at the Mishakawa Amphitheatre just alongside the road at 23 miles in. There is actually an outdoor amphitheatre where they have concerts in the evening. It is a 30 minute drive from Fort Collins, so not too bad, although I wouldn’t want to go to a concert, drink a lot then have to come back down that winding road at midnight! I had an incredible breakfast there- biscuits and gravy, hashbrowns, eggs over easy, tomato juice and coffee, right on the river, in fact OVER the river on a veranda outside. Looking at that fast flowing river and the rapids brought to mind Heraclitus and his philosophy that life is constant change- “No man ever steps into the same river twice”. Chet, Mel, Terence, Theo and Tom caught up here and had coffee, then we were all off for the remaining 19 miles to our campsite at Rustic. The weather is interesting- beautiful in the morning and afternoon but in the late afternoon there is cloud build up and storms threaten. That happened yesterday in Fort Collins- we had a big thunderstorm in the afternoon. It is threatening here in Rustic at 3 PM as I type this blog, but so far no rain. In any case, we are prepared with rain flys on the tents and our rain gear at the ready!