3 - 8/21/2017 - Trinidad to Cotopaxi, Colorado. 200 Miles

After a great nights sleep, we got a leisurely start in the morning. Got the bikes packed up, ate a little breakfast and were on the trail at about 11am. We really didn't know what to expect as far as how easy/difficult it was going to be to navigate. Thankfully, we discovered it was really pretty simple!
The trail meandered through the high desert and rolling hills. Very pretty with lots of wildflowers and wildlife. We saw many Antelope and deer throughout the day. We stopped to watch the eclipse, it was pretty neat except I was missing the total eclipse back in Redmond! The sky was clouding up and we were getting a few sprinkles here and there, nothing too serious. The trail then made it's way up into the foothills and mountains. Very fun trails! We stopped at a gas station/Subway in Westcliffe and had a late lunch. It was probably 3:30 - 4:00 by the time we were ready to head back out. We only had 27 miles to Cotopaxi, where I knew there was a KOA we could stop at for the night. However, there were big thunderstorms building in the direction we were headed! We bypassed a small section of the trail by riding the highway for a few miles and thought we got in front of them. We managed to dodge the storms until we were about 7 miles from the KOA, then the skies opened up on us! After riding in a downpour for a few miles, I pulled into the 1st place I saw that looked like it could offer shelter, Hillside Colorado cottages and Post Office. We parked the bikes under a tree, huddled on the small porch of the Post Office building and waited for the rain to let up. 10-15 minutes later, the storm passed, we finished the ride to Cotopaxi KOA. It was still raining a little so we opted to rent a cabin for the night instead of having to set up tents in the rain. The KOA Campground hosts were very nice and made sure we had everything we needed. They kept the office open for us so we could come in and get some food, (there were no restaurants nearby), and cook a frozen pizza in their little kitchen. Chris put the pizza in the oven but didn't realize it was still on the cardboard! Needless to say, the crust was under cooked but we ate it anyways, it was good! Nice to be warm and dry, took a hot shower and went to bed.

A short video - https://youtu.be/vp87VogYSmc


 ***NOTE; Clicking on the pictures will open them up in a larger, gallery view.***

Almost ready to ride!

"Me too!!"

The Eclipse!

Neat old church

Beautiful country!

Where are we?

I hope that storm doesn't come over this way!

What storm, I don't see any storm.....

KOA Cabins rock!

KOA

These tent spots were right on the river!

The Arkansas River