USA West 2020 Day 11, I ride from Pillsbury Crossing (Near Manhattan, Kansas) to the day’s campground at The North Spillway Campground in Jett, Oklahoma.

While today’s ride through Kansas and the northern sliver of Oklahoma did not offer up epic scenery, it was a relaxing ride with gentle rolling hills and ample greenery which was calming and much welcomed after Day 10’s beating of high miles on the Interstate. By the time I arrived in Wichita, KS it was hot with the air temperature around 100 degrees Fahrenheit and was not quite the dry heat from the west.

Much shorter ride day of 279 Miles including 44 miles for a grocery run to and from Cherokee, Oklahoma.

A beautiful ride on US Highway 6 starting in Silverthorne, Colorado.

Rolling back to Aspen Colorado on State Highway 82

USA West 2020 Day 10 I roll out of camp excited to ride over Independence Pass, only to find out that the road is still closed and won’t open until noon or later. Well bollocks!. So, I ended up rolling back to Aspen, Colorado to see if there was another back route option that would take me towards Denver and I-70 more easterly, there was not. I ended up backtracking to Glenwood Springs, Colorado and rode east on I-70.

I did manage a nice little detour on US Highway 6 at Silverthorne, CO and was rewarded with some epic Colorado Scenery to an elevation of around 11,000 feet. Then it was back down the mountain to catch I-70 were I got snarled in some dead stop heavy traffic due to road construction and some ice cold rain….oh joy lol.

I rolled through Denver and 500+ miles to to days destination at Pillsbury Crossing, Kansas were I setup camp at about 3am. Kansas Interstate riding was mostly battling the strong crosswinds that made passing big rig trucks exciting to say the least lol. Today was a long grueling day of almost all interstate miles totaling 716 Miles.

Here is USA West 2020 Day 9 From Green River, UT to Apen, CO. The original route plan was to ride over Independence Pass to Mount Evans and camp at the base of the mountain. However, Mount Evans was to remained closed for all of 2020. So now the plan is to ride over Independence Pass and grab a motel in Idaho Springs, CO.

Upon arriving to the entrance towards Independence Pass, I discovered that the road was still closed from Winter but would open then next day. So, I decided to disperse camp nearby and proceed over the pass the next day.