The quickest route from Durango to Pagosa Springs is on Highway 160 and is less than 70 miles. However Hwy 160 is not where you want to ride your bike. Our route instead took us on a southern loop through lots of quiet back roads. We even went through the town of Allison! At this point our route swung north and headed up towards Pagosa Springs. And today we had a huge tailwind! It was wonderful and made up for the misery of yesterday’s ride into Durango. The only drawback to a tailwind is you don’t have the wind in your face keeping you cool. We had a few short climbs on this stretch of road that were miserably hot, especially for me in my pregnant state. My feet started to burn and all I wanted was a cold river to jump into. With no river in sight my sister instead gave me a few squirts of water on my back and we continued on to the last aid station.
What a welcome relief to finally get there. I soaked my jersey, head, and shoes with cool water for some relief. Ate a bunch of food and then started up the last leg of the ride. Unfortunately this was a 17 mile stretch on Hwy 160. We had a decent shoulder most of the way and our tailwind continued, but the traffic was awful! And of course it was all uphill to Pagosa. Dad chose to skip today’s ride and save his legs for tomorrow. Carrie was tired of riding slow and went on ahead. Marge was a ways behind me. We all met up with dad at the high school in Pagosa. Huge relief to be done! Another long day of 87 miles.