Friday, September 21:
The website said the overnight low in Cortez was 38 degrees. Seemed like a good idea not to start the Cortez - Durango route too early. At 8:00 the website said the outside temperature was 48. Bundle up and get ready. By the time the bags were packed and Jean Luc was ready to go, it was 8:45 and the temperature a balmy 60. I shed a layer.
The first several miles the road was smooth and wide and freshly striped with no rumble strip. Easy pedaling. The gray cloud of foreboding in my head started to dissipate. Yeah, I knew the route climbed and we were already at Colorado altitude. My speed was steady if unspectacular. The traffic noises announced a busy highway: high winding car engines, low rumbling trucks, and deep potato Harleys. Each presents a different challenge for a bicyclist.
Then came the first of three construction zones with one way traffic only, two controlled by flaggers, the middle with traffic lights only. The first flagger cautioned me about the oncoming traffic and waved me through after all the motor vehicles. No problem.
Entering the construction zone.
The traffic signal controlled construction zone, a bridge over the Mancos River, was timed for motor vehicles, not pedal power. The oncoming truck started to enter the single lane before I exited. Good thing Jean Luc easily slipped between the traffic cones into the work lane.
The third construction zone was much longer than the others. The flagger wanted me to wait for all of the vehicles to go through ahead of me, then suggested I wind through a later set of traffic cones as best I could. As we waited for the last of the oncoming traffic to complete the trip through the construction zone, I shared my stash of oatmeal cookie bars with the flagger. Then our side entered. He signaled his partner at the opposite end of the construction zone as the last vehicle in line entered the traffic lane. This last vehicle was a white dually pickup pulling a flatbed trailer. As the pickup passed us, the passenger, a young lady, yelled out the window, leaned over in her seat, and pulled down her pants. Moonshine. The flagger said he'd been mooned earlier in the week and flashed as well. Ah, the hazards of construction.
I was half way through this last construction zone when the oncoming traffic started coming. I entered the work lane and avoided a dump truck and a tractor with spinning brush attachment. A work pickup that the flagger had indicated contained the jobsite bosses started following me in the construction lane. I go off Jean Luc and pulled over as far as possible to allow them to pass. They waved me back onto the lane. I signaled them to come forward and shared my last oatmeal cookie bars. Life is good. Their cordiality help alleviate the stress of biking through an active worksite. The route climbed through the last stages of construction.
Jody riding through one of the construction zones.
I enjoyed a few brief stretches of highway without vehicles approaching from behind me as the construction zone shut off pursuit. Then I utilized more of the vacant roadway, on the traffic side of the rumble strip. One car did come along side, a beige Chevy HHT. The driver lowered the passenger window and kindly suggested that I should ride on the shoulder as Colorado drivers are not always polite to bicyclists. Fortunately, however, that has not proven to be true, but I did heed her warning.
I kept climbing, now into a slight headwind. Slow going. Pedal, pedal, pedal and inch along. The elevation reached 8330 and I was glad to see the highway drop before me. A beautiful downhill ahead of me. A shiny red Corvette passed. Nope - rather be aboard Jean Luc and zooming down under the twin powers of gravity and pedal.
The last climb before rolling into Durango.
I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin'.
I see bad times today.
~Credence Clearwater Revival
Songwriters: Eddie Miller Dub Williams and Robert Yount
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