Cartography 101

Hello everyone, we've survived two days. And yes I mean survived. Day 1 was not so much fun. Someone did not read the fine print on the map and I'm blaming Rhett. After a nice, flat 10 miles out of Ft Collins, we rode up Poudre Canyon. It was amazingly beautiful. Only problem was that we climbed for 50 MILES to Cameron Pass at 10276 feet. That will actually be our highest pass on the whole trip, and we didn't even know it until breakfast on day 1.
Everyone is doing well. I wanted to quit yesterday and almost flagged down a pickup to give me a ride, and I'm not kidding. Oh, and did I fail to mention that I flew into Denver arriving less that 24 hours prior to reaching the summit. Terry said I had oatmeal for brains, and I was panting like a puppy. Today was a much "friendlier" ride. Here are the stats:

Day 1 - 87 miles, climbed to 10276 feet, my average was low. I think Rhett and Steve waited at the top a good hour.

Day 2 - 75 miles, descended a couple thousand feet, averaged about 16.6 mph, slight wind, pretty hot

Urban Legends discovered on the trip: 1) Google Maps mileage is accurate, hah! 2) cycling is always fun (try climbing for 50 miles from 5000 feet to 10,276 feet after arriving from sea level 12 hours prior.)

Animal Spottings: 1 black bear running away from us as fast as he/she could. Two moose ran across the road. Several small gatherings of antelop and one large deer. Of course we have seen numerous birds, squirrels, and chipmunks (after all we are camping).

I hope to post a few pictures but will get this out first.

P.S. Steve wanted me to mention that it was not a good idea for me to be the only one to know the name of the campground on Day 1 since I had oatmeal for brains. We rode past it for 6 miles (12 miles round trip) which increased our first day distance from 75 to 87 miles. We rode into camp at 7:30pm where Grandma and Grandpa Foster had spaghetti ready. They are taking good care of us.

P.P.S. Where did they find the guy on the right in both pictures? Who is he?