Day17 Tat Day 1 Salida

Not a bad effort. Todays TAT day is the longest day of the Trans America trail. We rode 286miles(460km) of which the vaste majority was on unsealed roads. We expected to be pretty tired but we both actually feel quite good so maybe all my training helped. Dave is a freak and never gets tired so he doesn't count.
The day went smoothly with only minor navigation issues here and there and in general the riding was not technical.
The highlight was the last couple of hours which was stunning as we climbed high into the mountains between a small settlement called Cotipaxi and our final destination in Salida.
The wind was howling and it looked like we would be riding into a significant storm and then suddenly it went all quiet and atmospheric and we had a great flowing ride across the tops and then a stunning descent back into the Salida valley.
We finished much sooner than expected which is a bonus as tomorrow is one of the crux parts of the TAT and a restful evening is appreciated.
Overall the trail is very enjoyable. Sam has made the effort to keep it interesting and so you are mostly riding through interesting scenery or around it.
A lot of animals around including lots of deer which just jump the fences and also lots of free range cattle on the road so one needs to keep the focus up.
We have met a few other TAT riders today. Some very heavily laden, all talking of getting rid of gear.
No real interesting anecdotes today as we rode virtually non- stop from 6.30 till 4.30.
It's labour weekend here so we suddenly have accomodation issues. We have had to book in a small town called Lake City tomorrow, quite deep in the Rockies. We have to cross Hancocks pass which is considered the most difficult of the TAT passes so we will see how that goes. At least we do it early in the day. If we have wifi tomorrow I'll tell you how it went.
Didn't take enough pics today but enjoy these anyway.