Day 41: Westcliffe, CO to Poncha Springs, CO Total Distance: 54.3 mi Moving Avg: 10.2 mph Moving Time: 5:18 Well, today was a pretty easy day, at least in comparison to yesterday and probably on an absolute scale too. I actually lost altitude overall. I had hoped to go another 6 miles and 1000' to Mayville, but I was being chased by a thunderstorm (the second of the day. The first hit at Cotopaxi) so I stopped in Poncha Springs. I am now 18 miles and 4000' from Monarch Pass. They predict afternoon thunderstorms so I'm gonna try really really hard to get an early start tomorrow, since I desperately want a clear view from the top. Today's scenery was amazing! Absolutely amazing. I still don't have a laptop (duh) so I need to conserve pictures. Even so, I just couldn't resist several panoramas. The Wet Mountain Valley is so intensely beautiful! One thing I noticed this morning, once the sun hits my tent it turns into an oven. Over a period of about 30 min, the tent went from bearable to not. This could be a real problem at Burning Man. Maybe I actually will have a tent AC (a swamp cooler or something). Or maybe I just won't sleep. Not having my laptop really does make planning harder. In 2 days I'll be splitting from the ACA route, so I bought some maps. It turns out that I still spend hours staring at maps even when they aren't computerized. But they just aren't as good. It's much harder to get distances right, for one. But at least paper maps don't break. I'm sure I'll be fine, I just want my bling back (after tomorrow, that is).