Day 23: Boo boo & Teepee

Cimarron--> Sargents (80 mi)

Today's goal was to get to the base of Monarch Pass to set up a big day to Colorado Springs--these days have less of a feeling of accomplishment, particularly when you can see the ominous start of the 11,000 ft. pass out of the window. Also discoloring the day was the first spill of the trip, which I was honored to take. To sketch briefly, we had the equivalent of a fender bender and I was the caboose. All things considered, it wasn't a bad fall and we remain appreciative of our good fortune and healthy bodies.

Midway through the day we stopped at Gunnison and had a moment of rest at a coffee shop, The Bean. They had some great smoothies and it allowed us a chance to become human beings for a little while at least. For those of you concerned with the coffee obsession of our group, I attribute it to two things: 1) consistently drinking weak diner coffee in the morning as we fuel up for the day and 2) when we're on the bikes all day, we don't really feel like human beings (simple thought process, pain, etc.) and coffee can restore that sense of humanity, both physically and psychologically, very quickly.

We had the option to sleep in a teepee tonight--as some of  you may know, this is an opportunity I would take very seriously. Unfortunately, when we looked inside it was slightly flooded, which made it perhaps the best mosquito nesting ground I've ever seen (it was in dire need of Clark Mosquito Company, Ken). So instead of a teepee, we "slept" on plastic mattresses, which I believe are the manifestation of everything I do not believe in.

In teepees we trust,
Nate