Day 70: Dolores to Monticiello, Rockets Across the Utah Line

Distance: 64 mi.

Elevation Gain: 2383 ft

Morning stop at Dolores natural market for two egg and cheese burritos, $2 each. Splurg on a large loaf of banana bread for $9, ends up being a fantastic purchase, we thankfully munch on it for the next four days as the only respite from oat gruel or half cooked ramen.

Arrive in Monticiello in burnt out, physically downtrodden shape. My left achilles tendon has been building pain since my downhill mountain biking rest day; or maybe it was when I fell off the bottom of the gondola departing from Mountain Village the next morning? I massage it while stretching — it feels like a rubber band left in the basement for too long. Stop into a gas station for ice; the trick is to look like you know exactly what you’re doing or they’ll often charge you some arbitrary fee, such as the cost of a 32 oz. soda. I cross the street and lay down on a shuttered ranch porch, icing and munching on a bag of dried cranberries. Two teenagers hover by my bike, which I stupidly parked far away. They move it around a bit, taking selfies, before clumsily but painstakingly putting it exactly back where it was, vainly position the handlebars to lean the same way; they lack my touch. I think about the evolution of my own perception; or is atrophy a more appropriate characterizion? Or entropy?

The ice all melts off and Lizzie’s found a place to camp at the edge of town. First, we need calories, and the gas station won’t do; spring for a dinner at the Peace Frog cafe, followed by a large plate of vegan nachos as an impromptu second meal.

I need sleep badly, but late-night arrivistes enter the campsite after 10PM, bumping and bonking and door-lock-honking. An Indian couple comes in next to us, speaking Hindi but it’s clear the man is treating the woman in a domineering fashion; I feel disgusted and helpless, plug up my ears and hope both my feeling and his berating will pass. Eventually they do.