32. Denver, Colorado

Day 32:  Thursday, July 23, 1981
Big Thompson Canyon to Denver:  70 miles

I stayed warm most of the night in Rick's space blanket.  Toward morning, a wind came up and cooled me off.

For a change, we had a tailwind just about all day today.  The scenery in Big Thompson Canyon improved as we got farther from Estes Park and the commercialism.  One scenic section is very narrow, with sheer rock walls.

Well, I guess it looks the same as yesterday's section.

It's hotter now that we're out of the mountains.  And the humidity is increasing.  Today, it's downright muggy.

Buzzing through Loveland, Guy and I found one of Jack's bananas on the road, so we knew that he and Rick were somewhere ahead of us.  We headed straight south toward Denver, where Guy's sister lives, and rejoined each other in Lafayette for lunch.  We're back into agricultural terrain now, with rolling hills.  It resembles Michigan, except that the foothills to the Rockies are in the background.  We saw wheat, corn, cabbage, beets, and several other crops being grown.

From within 20 miles of Denver, we got into the suburbs.  It made for quite a change of pace from our desert and mountain riding.  More traffic, more stops, less scenery.  We headed straight for the hostel.

After leaving my baggage at the hostel, I went downtown with Guy, where we did a quick tour of the state capitol before Guy left for his sister's house on the west side.  Then I picked up some more money at Western Union and headed back.

If it's Thursday, this must be Denver...

We splurged this evening - spent $6 each for pizza.  They didn't serve beer - too bad.

The hostel here doesn't accept non-members of AYH.  So all of us had to join - in addition to our $11.25 for three nights, we forked over the $14 membership fee.