One of my brothers posted a picture on Facebook saying, “We pay the doctor to make us better when we should really be paying the farmer to keep us healthy.” A corollary of this should be, “Junk food is poison.” You would think that at my age I would have this figured out, but every once in a while I have to remind myself.

Yesterday, I ate a lot of junk food, cookies, candy bars, potato chips, etc. This morning, when I woke up, I did not feel well. I was sluggish and had a slight headache. I’m pretty sure it was all the junk food I ate yesterday. Since I had taken two rest days already, I had to get on the road.

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I did decide to take two rest days in Dolores. Yesterday, I napped and tried to eat a lot of protein. My legs ached so bad, I could barely get out of bed. Today, I felt much better and needed to do some chores and run some errands. While running errands, I stopped at a local rail museum showing the history of the Rio Grande Southern Railway, which ran between Durango and Ridgway.

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I think I may have figured out a couple of things that help with climbing. Today, I faced Lizard Head Pass, which was almost as high as Monarch, but not quite. I got an earlier than normal start and I climbed slowly toward Telluride. About three miles before the town, the highway turns west. I stopped at a convenience store at the turn for a good break. I had already climbed over 1500 feet.

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*^%* THE ROCKIES. ^*&% COLORADO. I am done. I am exhausted every day. Colorado is a beautiful state, but I don’t think it is worth the effort. Every day is all about climbing another 3000 feet. Today, the climbing was against the wind, making it that much worse. Starting tomorrow, I head toward the Lizard Head Pass, a 10,000 foot pass with nearly 4000 feet of climbing from where I ended today. It doesn’t end when I get out of the Rockies. Utah has a 9,000 foot pass and a 10,000 foot pass. Nevada has many smaller mountain ranges all the way across the state. Then I hit the Sierra Nevadas. If this is all that is left, is it really worth it?

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Last night got plenty chilly. I’ve been thinking of getting something to supplement my sleeping bag. It is an old bag and not very warm. I’m not sure if I need a new sleeping bag, or just some sort of blanket to go with it during the cold nights. When it was raining yesterday, I bought some hand warmers. Maybe I can figure out some way to use them to help at night.

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When I woke up yesterday, I was so sore and stiff that I could barely move. After walking around a little, and taking a hot shower, I felt better, but was still plenty tired. Looking ahead at the route to Montrose, there are three decent climbs along the way. I really didn’t think I would be able to climb any of them after the Monarch Pass, so I took a rest day. The hostel I was staying in was a nice place and the people running were great. Although, there was a young fellow staying there who kept trying to get me to try marijuana with him and explaining the benefits of psychedelic mushrooms. I had wanted to get to Montrose before taking a rest day, but needed it today.

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I finally made it up the divide. It took me two and a half hours to ride the five and a half miles to the top. I stopped about every mile and a half for a short break. The climbing itself wasn’t so bad, about a 6% grade. I moved slowly, about four miles per hour. On the way up, I got a lot of thumbs of from motorcyclists going the other way. At one of my breaks, a motorcyclist climbing the pass honked and gave a thumbs up. As he passed, I saw he had a bicycle mounted to the back of his motorcycle. That was a new one for me.

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I am a little nervous about crossing the continental divide. I am not a good climber. When I started the day, I was only about 18 miles from the crest of Monarch Pass, but with almost 4000 feet of climbing to get there. I have never climbed that much in one day before, especially in such a short distance.

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I fell asleep early last night and slept late. When I woke up, I felt good and thought I would have a good day. Unfortunately, it turned into a short day. I would like to blame the climbing, as I continue the long haul up to the continental divide. But, I only climbed about 1000 feet. I have done more than that before.

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