Day 44: Hotchkiss, CO to Grand Junction, CO

• Distance: 64.36 mi
• Elevation: 2,228 ft
• Dedication: Uncle Tim and Bo Oliver
• Ride group: Bailey, Eli, Jack, Grace, and Jake
• Host: Homestay with Merrilyn Simpkins through St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

This morning I found a clear clue that we were moving out of the mountains and into the desert: a scorpion near my sleeping pad! I was too spooked to take a picture before it ran away but it was just a little baby one and allegedly not poisonous according to Bailey.

Before rolling out I announced our 4K wedding couple: Eli and Casey! They won by a whopping 30-point margin, almost certainly because their engagement photos were top-tier and only slightly outrageous. Jake and I came in a respectable 4th place with a photo of him dropping me during our Top Gun-themed photo shoot.

Today was Bailey’s 4K birthday which meant she got to pick her ride groups! It was also (at the time) Jake’s last ride of 4K before he leaves for medical school :( After leaving the high school we stopped at a coffee shop in Hotchkiss. We definitely spent too much time there but the food was good and we had a nice time just hanging out. We pedaled 25 miles to the first water stop, where we played on a playground for a bit and then the rest of my group took naps. They were slow to rise but we got rolling eventually!

Overall the ride was pretty uneventful but was still a great day. We were suddenly in a totally new landscape and spent a lot of time marveling at the barren mountains and rock formations around us. There was a decent amount of elevation but with that came some very fun descents! I once again came within tenths of breaking 40 mph :( We spent most of the day on low-traffic highways with wide but debris-filled shoulders. It also got really, really hot very early in the day. Thankfully water van did a great job of setting up frequent stops and providing ice for our bottles and bodies. I recently learned that it’s more efficient to squirt water inside your sun sleeves instead of soaking from the outside; at our last water stop we took that one step further and put ice in our sleeves, which was a little painful but refreshing!

On our way into Grand Junction we spotted our first Maverick’s gas station of the trip, which Eli got very excited about, so we made a pit stop for electrolytes and snacks. We had just a few miles left to our host after that but I was struggling– my legs felt dead, we had a slight headwind, and it was HOT. When we got to the church we took some pictures to commemorate Bailey’s birthday group and Jake’s last ride. We were all a little bummed because we had homestays tonight, originally Jake’s last night, which meant that the team was split up for dinner and sleeping arrangements. Before I said goodbye for the night I mostly jokingly asked him if he could stay an extra night, and before I even got to my host he called to let me know that he had bumped his flight to give him an extra day!

Tonight I’m staying with a lovely woman named Merrilyn Simpkins with one of the run directors, Cassidy. Merrilyn lives outside of Grand Junction in Palisade on land originally owned by her great-grandparents. She has a beautiful house that faces the mountains and land now owned by a winery. The views are incredible! We had a delicious dinner from Olive Garden, great showers, and super comfy beds. Cassidy and I also got to chat for a while with Merrilyn, who has many interesting stories from living in many different places. She also shared that her daughter, Alicia, recently passed after an 11-year battle with breast cancer.

I hoped to turn in a little earlier but had a lot to do in terms of laundry, cleaning up a conditioner explosion in my extra toiletry bag I’d been ignoring for days, and catching up on blogging. There’s a lot of uncertainty about our route length and logistics tomorrow, but it’s going to be hot regardless so we’re meeting at the church by 5 for breakfast.

Until tomorrow,

Lauren