This morning's forecasted rain slept in so we we're pleasantly surprised by sunshine and blue sky. Coffeed and oatmealed we rolled down the highway into a slight headwind, but who cares? We were on pavement going downhill. To boot, we were in Roosevelt National Forest's Poudre Canyon. Our friend Dave (Hi Dave!) had mentioned how lovely Cache la Poudre was when he had toured through on a cross country bike trip.
He wasn't kidding. La Poudre was full of incredible views. With striking rock features cut into either side of the canyon and a river of rapid after rapid, it felt like the last little stretch of Highway 2 into Leavenworth (but today's twisting and turning highway went on for thirty beautiful miles). We were also fortunate that Thursday traffic heading down-canyon was very little so that we could spend time looking at the sites instead of the road.
Just like Leavenworth, the canyon walls suddenly open up to the wide expanse. We were now decidedly on the east slope of Rockies.
With ten miles to go we caught a paved bike path into old-town Fort Collins where we had booked a room for our "last night on the trail" (in some ways).
One of Fort Collins' arted up outdoor pianos.
Day 35, Thursday, July 31. 44 miles, 14.1 avg spd (record for the trip!), 3:05 ride time. Next stop: a short ride to visit Bill and Maggie in Loveland.
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