Day 6 - Grand Junction Colorado to Vernal Utah

It's really hard to describe today. It started going bad early. At mile 10 I heard a popping or snapping sound and realized my right foot was no longer attached to the bike. All I can figure is the bearings in the pedal seized and the axle spindle unthreaded itself from the pedal. So I could pedal with my left leg but my right foot kept slipping off the end of the spindle so I couldn't put much force on it. I rode like that until mile 27 where the mechanics trailer finally caught up to me. They had a spare pedal and in less than 5 minutes I was back in business.

I thought I had seen the worst the day had to offer until about mile 30 when it started raining while we were climbing uphill in to a headwind. As we gained elevation it got colder and colder until it was about 42 degrees. At this point I had started shivering to the point where I could hardly ride. I couldn't feel my hands at all. There was a stop at mile 44 and I got in the van to warm up. I borrowed some more clothes to put on because we had another eight miles to get to the summit. After two cups of hot coffee and some cookies and cheese and chocolate I finally broke the shivering fits I was having. My hands were so messed up I couldn't work my jacket zipper or my helmet buckle. My fingers just wouldn't work. The Pactour crew was great. So I got back on the road and it was still raining. As I neared the summit of Douglas Pass which is about 8,000 feet the temperature continued to drop and the rain became ice. About two miles from the top the ice became snow. The Colorado DOT had a truck out plowing the road. The summit was a whiteout; you couldn't see much of anything with the snow and wind. I regretted not taking a picture but my phone was buried under layers of clothes and I wasn't about to take off the gloves to operate the touch screen. But it wouldn't have shown much anyway with the white out conditions. I started down the descent slowly because I assumed the pavement was slippery. When I saw my thermometer get back up to 40 I started riding at normal speed. By the time I got to Rangely it was 65 degrees and sunny. While eating lunch all my clothes dried out except my socks. I made good time here to Vernal and made it to the hotel before the room keys were even ready. It's amazing that even in the summer the weather can be so crazy at the higher elevations.

Tomorrow is about 150 miles to Evanston Wyoming. It is one of the days with the most climbing at about 11,000 feet. As long as we have decent weather it should be a good day but if it rains again all bets are off.