Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 9, 2003

Day One of Leg Three
Each morning, we tend to take longer and longer to get out the door. Today, it took us over two hours to get out the door. Rich, Dan, Pat Mason, and I left together in the morning. We got slowed down a bit because Pat got two flats, one very shortly after the other. Nevertheless, we kept moving right along to the water stop, which was in Ridgeway. Ridgeway is about 6500 ft. above sea level, and for comparison, Montrose is 5806 ft. above sea level. While we waited at a gas station, a lady asked us to help her get her keys out of her locked pickup. She figured that she would ask us because we were skinny and might be able to reach in and grab her keys. We managed to pry open the back window of her truck, and Josh climbed through it and got the keys.
After that episode, we knew we had a pass to go over. The Dallas Divide topped out at 8970 ft. The climb was difficult, but not impossible. The view from the top was great. We ate lunch at the summit. The next ten miles after lunch were downhill. Soon, we began to follow the San Miguel river, so we continued to go somewhat downhill until we got to Norwood Hill. The "hill" was a short (about a mile and a half long) steep climb. After climbing the hill, we reached the town of Norwood. There, we had our second water stop on the front lawn of Margie, a nice woman that we met outside the grocery store. She invited us over, and we talked with her and her two daughters for a while. Sienna, who was going to be in the third grade, impressed us with her knowledge of dinosaur fossils. Margie provided us with watermelon slices. Thanks again, Margie.



The ride into Naturita wasn't too difficult. On the way, I found a deer skull and jaw bones. We had been looking for a skull to decorate the vans for some time, but nobody in the truck would take the skull because it still had fur on it. I made them take the jaw bone, though. When we got into Naturita, we took a break at a diner to get malts and shakes. I was slightly peeved when the juke-box ate two of my quarters.



When we started back up, we found that we had five hilly miles to Nucla. We actually ended up going a few miles past Nucla High School, where we were staying, because we missed a turn. We actually ended up arriving at a construction area that said "Blasting Area--Keep Away." We asked someone where the school was, and eventually found our way. Dan, Rich, and I then decided to go to the grocery store. I ran into a woman named Judi Arnold and told her about the trip. She gave me a donation and told me she wished she knew we were coming through town so that she could do something more to help us. I was touched by the gesture. Judi, I will give your contact info to next year's group so they will let you know when we are coming through Nucla again.



Dan and Rich each bought a half gallon of ice cream--we eat only the healthiest food! They had a serious craving to satisfy. They needed some help finishing the ice cream, so I ate a good portion of it. We were so full when we finished that we decided not to eat dinner. I was so tired that I didn't want to do anything but sleep, so I went to bed. I needed to get some sleep before the 4:15 a.m. wakeup the next morning.

Rajeev Mahajan