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We were in Colorado for 11 days and rode 448 miles
The hardest day of the trip was riding from Tribune to Eads, a flat 62 miles. We new it was due to be another hot one, but decided to go anyway. So we headed out into the Great Plains, 16 miles out we entered Colorado, and were already experiencing problems with a strong hot head wind. We checked the map and decided to cut the day in half and stop at a place called Sheridan Lake, 30 miles out.
We were already dreaming of a long cool swim in the lake. The disappointment was hard to disguise, when we got there the lake was a dry dust bowl, no café, no people, just dust. We had no option but to plod on as the temperature soared we wilted. By the time we got to Eads we were in a bad way I felt sick, had a pounding head ache and felt totally exhausted and Jeff was suffering even more than I was. We stumbled into the first gas station we found and attacked the soda fountain. When we came up for air the locals proudly told us that it was 105 degrees F and we really shouldn't be out cycling in that kind of heat. We had to agree with them. The weather was due to continue for another day or two so we set up camp and decided to stay put for a while. The gas station became home for the rest of the day we sat right under the air con. We met a lot of the locals and were invited to the nursing home for their coffee morning, where we met even more locals. A terrific storm blew up the next day and we were rescued from the park by David and Laurie their wolf dog and ginger the kitten. We didn't actually get a tornado but it was a very bad storm and we were very happy to be in hard accommodation.
The storm blew itself out and we were able to move on the next day, starting out at first light, hoping to avoid the heat of the afternoon. We had been given the name of yet another cyclist friendly person, who was willing to offer us a bed for the night. Gillian was wonderful; she was at work all day so we just went in and made ourselves comfortable. There was already another cyclist there. We met Gillian in the morning, had a tour of her property met her horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks. We had a lot in common, it turned out she was also a grotty yachty from New Zealand who had lived aboard a yacht for a good few years, before she became a land lubber and duck collector.
Gillian saw us on our way, with a dozen (potential ducklings) nicely hard boiled, and a promise to keep in touch. It was a day for Kiwi yachties, we met four of them heading east that day, and told them all about Gillian (she said we should spread the word).
We were moving away from the great dust bowl, and heading for the Rockies, getting excited at the prospect of some different scenery. There were hundreds of prairie dogs about, but they wouldn't sit still for a photo shoot. We also saw our first Buffalo herd.
Our next goal was Royal Gorge where we found the Fort Gorge camp ground, they were nice to bikers they gave us special rates and a free shower. They had to charge for showers because all their water had to be trucked in. They laughed when we asked for a shady spot of grass to put up our tent. They didn't have trees or grass just dust, but we did have a great view, we could see snow covered mountains in the distance.
The days were hot and we were climbing again, we stayed at a delightful cyclist's hostel called Schechter Hostel where we had our own little log cabin with wonderful cold spring water, and a not so wonderful cold bucket shower. There were a lot of fires breaking out, it seemed as though we were just keeping ahead of them.
As we topped Current Creek Pass we saw the jagged granite peaks of the Rockies looming before us, and our excitement was building. Wide basins lead across a high plateau to the tiny town of Hartsel where we had a great breakfast, and met a very talkative postman.
We were gaining a lot of altitude; at 10,000ft I was beginning to feel the effects of the thin air. We had a couple of short days, because of the height we were gaining and prepared ourselves for the highest pass on the route.
On Wednesday 21 June we climbed Hoosier Pass 11,542ft it wasn't a hard grade but it was a slow climb due to the thin air.
The view at the top made it all worth while, and the free fall down the other side was a great helter skelter ride on a narrow switch back road down into Breckenridge. One of the oldest and largest historic districts in Colorado, they also have the second most popular ski mountains in North America. It's place where you can shop until you drop (unless you are on a bike tour). We continued on to Frisco a quaint little town and a true bikers Mecca with well over 50 miles of paved cycle trails. They also had a huge reservoir complete with a marina and yachts. This little town had everything, we loved it. We camped on the edge of the reservoir surrounded by mountains and pine forest. We were back down to around 9,000ft and spent a very pleasant evening sitting around the camp fire drinking red wine and watching a lightening storm in the mountains with a Dutch couple who were touring in a motor home.
We went from one extreme to the other, now we were waking up to ice on the fly sheet each morning and had to get up later because it was too cold first thing. The sun soon warmed things up and the temperatures were much easier to handle during the day. At the top of Muddy Pass we crossed the continental divide again. We were right on the boarder of Wyoming, but Colorado had one more treat in store for us. We hit Walden just in time for their Rodeo, so we just had to stay for it since we hadn't seen one yet. It was great fun, and to top it the entire town had live music and dancing going on until the wee small hours. We had an early start so we didn't see the end. Wyoming is calling, we are entering cowboy country.
