One morning I realized I wasn’t cycling alone

In Durango we forget about long shadows in early mornings and late evenings.  This morning I wanted to photograph my shadow with my iPhone (not an easy task just getting the Ap turned on, let alone framing a photo).  Fortunately one is worth showing here.

By day three I was feeling almost cocky, having knocked off almost 200 miles in two days and as I came into the waypoint town of Hartsel, Colorado I saw another cyclist coming the opposite direction toward that same intersection.  We met up and I asked if he was perhaps the Italian racer I’d noticed on the Great Divide website who was since coming north.  He said, “No, I’m Austrian and my wife (pointing down the road south) is from Switzerland”.  He was more fully loaded with panniers than any tourer’s we’ve seen, rigged with both Ortlieb front and rear panniers, a large Ortlieb duffle on the rear rack as well as a handlebar bag and a frame full of water bottles.  His wife had the same set-up when she arrived.

Of course I asked where and when they started, and immediately felt like my previous two days were meaningless in comparison to their cycle from Patagonia heading for northern Canada.  It was also interesting to note that they were sporting German 14 speed internal hubs with a single front chain wheel.