We got into Buena Vista later than expected due to a few holdups along the way, including a flat tire. It's busy, we had what we walked into town for dinner where there was a long wait just to get in and then a much longer wait to get the food. Afterwards Ash, Ben and I still had to reconfigure the van load up the injured bikes and get ready for the next day. It's late, I am tired.

So we deviated off the highway again. we're almost into Buena Vista and there is an ORV park with just some fantastic trails and roads running through it. there are real a lot of fun to play on so we've drove off on that and the trails are great and the scenery is spectacular.

So we've made a fairly leisurely pays up to Weston pass 11921 ft. The second of the big passes that we are climbing today. Little Rocky again but nothing like before. it looked like rain a little earlier but now I think we're going to be fine. we still have 40 some odd miles to go before we reach our destination, but we're doing well.

you got to find your. we tried to avoid it, but we did have to come into Leadville for lunch as our other stop was closed. The downside is it will take much longer to get fed, the upside is the food will be better. I've got my eyes on the skies. it's clouding up and there are some ducks dark spots here and there, a little bit of rain but spotty. we still have 60 miles to go and one more high mountain pass to complete today.

we made it to the top of hagerman pass. not without some Carnage. few bikes down pick back up. nobody hurt. Nice views up here.

we are stopped here at the beginning of hagerman pass for a while now. The KTM 690 bike has clutch problems. it sounds like we are going to have an adventure getting over the top of this thing, and we are trying to arrange to have the spare bike waiting on the far side of the pass. (should we make it) Right now we're satellite messaging our support van and waiting for a response which takes a while.

So after we got off the bumpy road we actually got on something a bit smoother. it was nice and flowing for quite a while. enjoyable up and down. we next ended up on another nice forest road. even smoother fast. a very nice, very nice way to come through. we then did a short section on the pavement maybe 7. mi or so and then at the end of the road there's a switchback that hooks around and boom. you're back on the dirt again. from there we start climbing. it's smooth. it's nice at first and the higher you go the rougher it gets, although the last section just before reaching hagerman's pass is in surprisingly good condition, they've done a lot of work on it. So now we are faced with the the first big challenge hagerman's past. the start of this is very rocky and it does tend to be rocky a little higher up to. so this is going to be a good challenge.