Into the Colorado Mountains

Wow, time is flying by, as I sit here in the AYH hostel in Breckenridge on the 26th of June, we have five weeks left on this trip. It has been a while since I have been able to get a good wifi connection so this may be a somewhat long post.
We got up in Sheridan Lake on Tuesday to beautiful day, sunny and cool with a light wind from the north.  On the road we had a 91 mile ride to get to Ordway to get back on schedule.  After 27 miles we stopped in Eads for a good breakfast and then back on the road and into a head wind for about 13 miles. Once we turned to the southwest we picked up speed and made good time for the rest of the ride.  A stop at a small rest stop in Arlington and then back on the road.  Lunch in a small cafe in Sugar City and then on to Ordway.  Now as we ride into Ordway we come up to the Ordway Hotel, an old building and I am thinking "this might be interesting".  Well it was, these were the nicest rooms that we have stayed in on the whole trip. The hotel originally opened in 1904 and a few years ago the current owners purchased it and remodeled every room.  David got a single room and we called it the "King David Suite".

To say the least David heard a lot about this room.

Wednesday we got up and headed for Pueblo, the biggest city is a long time for us.  The ride was good and we made excellent time on the 51 mile ride and there really was not much to say about this ride except that it brought us to a nice city.  The motel in Pueblo was OK and the five Amigos went out for dinner to DJ's Steak House and I had a buffalo steak that was the best meal of the ride to date. I forgot my sunglasses at the DJ's and had to go back a little later.

Thursday we got up and after a motel breakfast we headed for Royal Gorge and the ride was uphill and took us into the foothills of the Rockies.  We had our first climbs in a while and our legs got woken up to climbing.  We did have a very nice downhill from Wetmore to Florence and it lasted for ten miles.  Lunch in Florence and then we rode the worst road of the trip for seven miles into Canon City.  Very bad road surface, no shoulder, and heavy traffic. Oh, and the drivers in Colorado are the worst of the trip.  They do not give cyclists an inch.  I have had many cars pass me within a few inches.  Not fun!

Out of Canon City we had a seven mile uphill to Royal Gorge and at least there was a great shoulder.  The KOA campground at Royal Gorge was good and Sjef and I rented a small cabin for the two nights we were there, with air conditioning!

On Friday we had a rest day and while many of our group went rafting I rode to Royal Gorge and took a few pictures.

I walked across this wood deck bridge along with traffic.  The bridge rocks up and down and sways a little depending on how much traffic is on the bridge.  The gorge is deep and the Arkansas River flows through running high right now with snow melt from the mountains.  All in all this was a nice easy day and we got ready to head into the mountains on Saturday.

And head into the mountains we did on Saturday, with a 67 mile ride to Fairplay, CO. We climbed to an elevation on 9600 feet and for at least 30 miles had a strong headwind. This was a slow tough day of riding with the lowest speed of the trip at 8.96 mph.

We did stop for lunch in Hartsel in an old bar and had a good time there.

From Hartsel we rode the last 18 miles to Fairplay into a strong headwind. But we finally got to Fairplay and the motel we stayed in was better than most and after a good dinner we all turned in early.

Sunday was a big day for us.  We rode up to Hossier pass at 11,532 ft. (3,505 meters) and it was not a real tough ride.  The grades ranged from three to eight percent over ten miles. Once at the top we had a lot of hand shakes and backslapping since this is the highest pass on the entire tour.  The weather was perfect, about 70 on the top with sunshine.

Now after all of the picture taking and snowball fights it was time to head for Breckenridge, DOWNHILL for ten miles.  I put my helmet cam on and took a great video for the first five miles of the decent. This was fun and fast and we had a lot of chuckles after we got to Breck. We are staying at the AYH hostel, four to a bunk room but it is a really nice place.  They even did our laundry for us.

Speaking of laundry, before this trip, my friend Sjef had never done any laundry!  Well he has been turning into a regular laundry expert and when he gets home he may even do some laundry, time will tell.

We have a rest day tomorrow here in Breck and I will pick up my new Kindle and also mail out a package to Linda.

Life is Good

Bobo