Hostel dorm rooms - I think we're getting a little beyond them. Steve got allocated the top bunk of a triple decker and hit the floor hard when he tried to make his way down. Us and the Great Divide mountain biker were up earliest trying to be as painfully quiet as possible as we got all our shit together. Plus a shared dorm is not an appropriate environment for checking on Egg. Give me the privacy of a hotel room any day!
We got our money's worth at The Bivvi, pigging out on their excellent breakfast aimed at getting hungry hikers and bikers through their day - freshly cooked hot cakes and sausages, fresh made granola and fruit salad, yoghurt, bagels and muffins.
It was a rainy morning in Breck, but we had to head out in it as we had a long day ahead of us, unsure again of whether Colorado conditions would allow us to make our planned destination.
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| 11th crossing |
First port of call was Hoosier Pass at 11,990 feet. This would have been our highest pass if we had just stuck to the Transamerica Trail. The pass was only 4 miles in length from our approach side but it did have two really steep kicker sections on the inside of two sharp switchbacks that took your breath away. Apart from that, Hoosier seemed relatively simple and not as scenic as the passes on the Great Parks South route.
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| View from the descent off Hoosier Pass |
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| Coming down Hoosier Pass |
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| Into the dry open plains |
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| Front St - Fairplay |
From here we dropped out of the mountains and proceeded to lose all the elevation we had gained in Colorado in the process of an afternoon. Before we hit the flat, dry, high plains of Colorado we passed the historic towns of Alma and Fairplay where we stopped for coffee and banana cake. Fairplay is the town on which the comedy "South Park" is based. In this area the leaves on the trees were really turning a beautiful golden yellow already.
We thought we had left the Rockies behind us, but then out of nowhere more mountains started appearing, but these seemed a lot greener with different, shorter trees on them, some reaching all the way to their peaks.
We were cycling through the Arkansas Headwater Recreational Area along the Arkansas River, then at Johnson Village we turned onto the Collegiate Peaks Scenic Byway (Hwy 285). This area is really stunning. We were surrounded by quite a few of Colorado's 14,000 footers (Colorado has something like 54 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet high).
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| Collegiate Peaks |
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| View of the peaks from the scenic byway |
Around Johnson Village is also where the wind turned against us. It felt like we were back in Wyoming again! Despite a strong head wind on the final climb into Poncha Springs we made it into town at about 5pm. The closest campground was about 3.5 miles off route and as we were riding in it looked like it would rain again, so we are staying indoors for our third night in a row.
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| Before the climb into Poncha Springs |
CRANKING ODYSSEY STATS
Total Odyssey miles: 2,175
Overall Fastest Speed: Steve (46 miles per hour) Mandy (36.3 miles per hour)
Bludge Days: 2
Bonks: nil
Dog chases: 3
Dummy Spits: Steve (4) Day 10 - because it rained; Day 16 - because the rocks in the river were slippery; Day 29 - because it takes me so long to get ready in the morning; Day 36 - because I was blogging and Steve was dieing of starvation
Mandy (2.5) 0.5 Day 14 - those freakin' wreckless Idaho drivers!; Day 26 - because my bike computer had a meltdown; Day 28 - because Steve wouldn't help hold my bike up in the wind after watching it nearly fall over 3 times whilst I tried to put my clothes away in the panniers because it looked like rain ahead
Flats: Katie (4)
Wrong turns: 8
Beer of the day: Odell Brewing Cutthroat Porter
Lesson of the day: don't mess with Steve when he's tired and wants to go to bed
No. of days with no shower: 13
No. of days in a hotel: 11
Starting weight: Steve (90kg) Mandy (51.5kg)
Day 30 Rawlins weigh in: Steve (183 pds / 83kg). Mandy (110 pds / 50kg)
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