I found a great taco food truck last night and enjoyed a chicken burrito that could probably have fed a small family. I ate every bit of it and washed it down with a Jarritos Grapefruit! I feel asleep shortly thereafter.

My excuse for waking up early today would be about a 90 mile ride and climbing two passes. I started about a half an hour before sunrise and quickly said goodbye to Salida.

The climb up to Marshall Pass essentially started as soon as I left Salida and the first few miles were on a nice large highway shoulder leaving Poncha Springs. Once off the highway, the remaining 14 miles of climbing would be on a nice gravel road.

I saw two interesting animal kingdom related sites this morning. The first was an epic beaver dam that rivaled many human built dams I have seen out in the western United States. It was amazing to think about the time and effort this masterpiece took to get in place. The second was a family of longhorn sheep that was hanging out really close to the roadside. There were about a dozen family members with three baby sheep in the mix.

I kept seeing fragments of old railroad spikes on the road while climbing and did not think much about it until I got to the top of the pass and talked to a family from Oklahoma that had one of their ATV tires punctured. Luckily, I did not see any more on the backside of the pass.

A 16 mile descent landed me at the Tomichi Creek Trading Post in Sargents where I had a nice lunch break. I departed with a happy stomach and rode for about 13 miles on a highway before turning off onto a dirt road that would lead me to the Upper Dome Reservoir and Cochetopa Pass.

The water source location on the reservoir would be the decision point on whether, or not, I continue up the pass and make it to Luders. or stop 12 miles early. The clouds over the pass were looking threatening. While at the reservoir, I looked at the weather on my Zoleo and saw the winds were in my favor to keep pushing these threatening clouds over the pass. There was no way at my speed I would catch up to the easterly moving storm. I committed to continuing on to Luders.

Three miles from the top of the pass and a Sheriff passes me on some switchbacks. He pulls over ahead of me and gets out and walks my way. He hands me the Gatorade in his hand and we chat for a minute. I was so thankful he was generous enough to take the time to stop and offer me such a great refreshment and to be sincere in wanting to hear my story. He warned me of the false summit getting into Luders and headed on down the road.

I made it to Campsite 2 in the first come, first served campground and was unpacking when guess who I see? The Sheriff again and he gets out with another Gatorade. He shared how he grew up on a ranch in these parts and feels so lucky to be able to call this area his home and I agree on just how lucky he is to look at these amazing views everyday. His generosity truly was the highlight of my day, bless his heart.

Once I was set up, it was time to go look for a piped spring that is supposedly on the north side of the campground. Other campers probably thought I had lost it when I was lugging around my three water bottles and my filtration bladder aimlessly looking for a piped spring. But guess what? After finding some water on the ground to follow and crawling over a wooden fence, I found the spring. It was a little interesting because it sounded like a bee hive was near the water source and then I noticed all the bees above the ground flying near the grass and flowers the spring has given life too. Life is good and I have water!