Day Nine : Taos, New Mexico - Salida, Colorado

Rockie Mountains, Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountains High, When you see those Rocky Mountains.....................

This day would be my next favourite day of riding. The temperature dropped further to pure comfort as I headed north through the Colorado border, I believe the sign said, 'Welcome to Colorful Colorado'. Things got real pretty in Colorado, and it was colourful, even if they didn't spell it right! I stopped in to Joyful Journey Hostprings (17N) which I had never experienced before, they were brilliant. Really hot outdoor baths with minerals in the water, they overlooked a small but beautiful mountain range behind an open plain. Lots of middle aged women occupied the baths but more great chats with random people as you could well imagine. One woman gave me a goose down blanket which she got for a dollar in the thrift store that same day, we also went down to her car and smoked a bowl (of marijuana). Then we went back and chilled in the hot baths again and giggled to ourselves. It was bliss. I had actually intended on going to the clothing-optional baths which I had been told about by a family in the Abominable Snowmansion. I thought Joyful Journey was the one but I was a mere 10miles away from the nudey-noddy baths, a shame. From the hottest bath was the view of this mountain range which gradually got bigger going south to north, the direction of my travel. I asked at the front desk when I would start seeing the Rockies and pointing out the window she said, 'That's them, this is the start of the Rockies'.

Joyful Journey Hot Springs
The Beginning of the Rockies barely visible in background

On confirming I was heading North she said I was really going to enjoy the next ride on the 285. I got back on the road and things just got more and more beautiful, more colour, flowers, some clouds, mountains, trees, altitude slowly rising then BOOM!! I'm riding down through a winding valley and I'm in tears. I feel I have come from desert to green valleys in an instant although it has been constantly changing for the last few hundred miles. After days and days of unforgiving desert, I'm in the cool shade of this beautiful valley which runs into a town called Salida. I was pining for my friend Oisin who is a fellow biker. I wanted to share all of this with him. It wasn't hard being alone, just not sharing it is difficult (especially sharing something free and in abundance). I pass Saguache and Poncha Pass. It is ultimate beauty, or so I think.

Before arriving in Salida that evening I overshot the town and headed East on 50 towards Canyon City and realized after about 30 miles that I had missed Salida altogether. What I had previously thought was a suburb of Salida, was Salida. The road to Canyon City however, was one of the most beautiful rides I've ever gone in the wrong direction. This road followed the rapids up the Arkansas river and an old rail track that ran along side sometimes crossing over to my side of the valley, sometimes the road would cross the river to the railway side if the valley. The sun was setting, the valley was lined with sheer red cliffs accompanied with big yellow signs of caution, 'FALLING ROCKS', random areas of cliffless greenery bursting and large yellow daisy like plants.

VrrrRRRRoooooOOOOOOOM!!!!

I was told by a liquor store owner (I needed a beer after this day of riding) that if I liked the ride into Salida then I would love the next ride further up the Rockys. It was really hard to believe him, I was so utterly satisfied with what I had seen already, but he was right.



In Salida I found another hostel having already picked up the cold beers for myself. I think I was emotionally exhausted at this stage. I was still shocked by all the beauty I had seen. I wanted to tell everyone but the first people I did tell just said, 'Yup, know it well' in a seen-it-before demeanor. My hostel host didn't require I.D.,vehicle reg, photocopy, or any other paperwork. She just needed $20, and to join her outside for a smoke. She was really sweet and told me about the town. She wasn't local but she described how she had visited here and decided to stay. So many people had said the same about Taos in New Mexico. I could hear music in the distance, it echoed from the Arkansas River which ran along the side of the town, the

acoustics seemed to bounc off the big mountain behind the river and reverberate the sound through the streets of Salida. It is a town of bicycles. Lots of funky modified bicycles. Some with lights, some with custom paint jobs, some covered in skeletons. I ate a good Reuben sandwich in washed it down with some good Colorado beers. The river was beautiful and the company was easy going. This is super hiking territory, hard as nails hikers, completing the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide is essentially a huge mountain range, or a range of mountain ranges, which runs from the Bering Straits in northern Alaska to the Strait of Magellan at the southernmost tip of South America. Hikers love to hike an enormous section of this usually starting at the Mexican border and ending at the Canadian border. I met such people, they seem normal, but they are in fact bonkers. One hiker just survived on water, energy bars and marijuana. Off the equipment he was carrying, half of it was stinky A-grade Colorado bud.  

We went and saw a band called After Jack from Virginia, a female country and western trio who were simply fantastic and a little endearing for this young Paddy stopping over in a random town in the Rockies. I try chatting one of them up and leave only with their album which I paid $10 for. Well worth the purchase. They play that well known and loved song, 'This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to the New York islands'. I was nowhere near halfway through my trip but I truly felt that 'this land was made for you and me'. This really struck a chord with me. Not only do the lyrics address my route precisely but the song indicates the America is a country that represents equal opportunity and shared land (if only).

Lessons;

America is beautiful, breathtakingly so
Americans are abundantly welcoming people
People are lovely, warm, inviting, welcoming, natural