Day 302
Here come The Rockies
After the emotional day yesterday I was surprised how well we slept. We again had the wind with us so decided to head on. As soon as we returned to the road we saw a sign saying we were near to the location of the Sand Creek Massacre.
It is hard to put into words what happened. As the settlers in the States started to grow, put down roots, create farms and homesteads, they were doing that on Indian land. One year into the American Civil War, President Lincoln passed a law allowing for the creation of a railway to cross the US. It would enable to Nation to prosper, but again encroached on Indian territory. We have ridden beside it for days. The government’s solution was to pass laws that removed the rights of the Indians to their lands and force them to move. As we rode through this area the events of 29 November 1864, the slaughter of hundreds of peaceful Indians, including 150 women and children, by the local army, led by John Chivington, who the local town is named after, played on our minds. It is too simplistic to put the morals of today to past events, but as so often happens when cultures and ways of life clash, might wins over compromise and compassion. Hopefully we are learning from the past.
We rode on, vast rolling plains, the few small villages were almost ghost towns, tumble weed blew all around. The town of Haswell stood out. At first, I thought it was completely deserted then we noticed the odd car outside a few houses. The village green was simply a gathering place for the tumble weed, the smallest jail in the nation long since abandoned. I decided against using the public toilet! Then stood nearby was a 60-foot parabolic dish antenna. The very remoteness and few people living here, 71 at the last count creates a quiet location, excellent for receiving radio signals from space. The town even has a microchip named in its honour!
On we went, on arrival at the small town of Eads we reached the half-way point of the ACA Trans-America cycle route. I’m not sure if knowing you are only half way is good or bad news!
Time was passing and there was pretty much nowhere to camp, at about 5.30pm we crossed over a river, which offered the last bit of shelter we would find for perhaps the next 25 miles or so. We knew there was a place to camp at Meredith Lake but doubted there would be shelter from this wind. We discussed our options, if we stopped now we had shelter, if we pressed on into the unknown, we could get stuck in the dark with no safe place to camp. I pushed for us to continue, the tail wind was fierce, Tom agreed and on we went. As the sun set, we pulled up to Meredith Lake, 88 miles in the bag. Putting up the tent in the wind and failing light was a challenge, although we did have a super-moon! Tea was anything that didn’t actually need heat to be edible, mixed in a pot. Sleep arrived soon, and our wonderful Big Agnes tent kept us safe all night.
In the morning, the incessant wind had stopped. We relaxed, ate our remaining food whilst bird watching and just relishing the chance to sit in the sunshine at such a stunning spot. We even caught our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, snow-capped peaks appearing from the haze some 50 miles away.
We had just lest than 60 miles to go to our WS host Shaun in Pueblo. Feeling happy we set off wind free. There was little to see apart from the endless fields. In the small town of Olney Springs we stopped and had a break. I noticed a memorial to two fallen firefighters. Two friends, young men, both with children, had volunteered with the Olney Springs Fire Department and lost their lives in the service of their community. The incessant wind meant a hard day on the bike for us, for others it meant turning out to help stop wildfires spreading and paying the ultimate price.
As if to remind us that you don’t mess with the forces of nature, the wind was back, and now in our faces. This was one of the fiercest winds of the trip. We knew we had a bed for the night so decided to push on. We amused ourselves by measuring the length of a stationary train, 1.5 miles! 20 miles on a good day can take not much more than an hour and a half, less with a tail wind, today it was over 3 hours of battling, head down, trying to relax and just keep those pedals turning. Finally, we pulled up at our hosts for the evening. Greeted by a loving family group, who welcomed us into the family gathering, they plied us with food and friendship. It was beyond wonderful.
