Highest pass, haunted buildings, and into the flatlands

Leaving Breckenridge a handful of days ago we climbed up and over Hoosier Pass, stopping just briefly for a couple "highest pass of the trip photos" as a hail storm was just starting with the light show of a thunderstorm on the horizon. Just before descending we checked the phone and learned that baby Barton arrived and we were so excited!  Welcome baby Avery and congrats to Karrie and Steven Barton :)

After all that hard uphill pedaling we were rewarded with a nice long downhill cruise, soon passing out of the bad weather of the higher elevation, with great views aplenty. 

Along the way we passed through the very small town of South Park, CO, where the creators of the show South Park grew up. 

After calling one hostel/camping option on our map and being yelled at "We don't do that anymore! Leave us alone! We're retired and out of the game!" we gave Bill a call, who offers camping and bunkhouses, in the  small town of Guffey. Seemed like a nice enough guy, but very adamant about "you better not be stoppin' at any bars along the way! You guys are always stoppin' at bars and leavin' me hanging!" As we were still 30 miles away from Bills place he ended the conversation with "hurry up and start peddling!" Pushing off we were faced with a very strong headwind and didn't arrive at Bills until dark. Upon meeting Bill he first shook my hand then proceeded to yell at me "where the hell you guys been!" A couple minutes later Sarah rolled up and Bills demeanor did a 360...."Hey how ya doin' darling".....a total ladies man. Turned out to be a really good guy. He fed us some "world famous log dogs", which are some type of really good hot dog/sausage things with grilled veggies. Guffey was a very interesting and weird town, especially to roll into at night. A majority of the buildings are old and dated all the way back to the goldrush days, along with old  and rusty 1940-50's cars everywhere. So Bill pointed us to our bunkhouse for the night which was a old structure, just past the rotting horse carcass, where they used to divide up the profits back in the goldrush days. Stepping foot in the place was like stepping back in time. Having no lights or electricity and only our headlights added to the effect. Being super exhausted from a 70+ mile day we ate and crashed out.....2am found Sarah totally freaked out as she was awakened to a spirit in a poncho hovering over me and a cowboy sitting at the table. 2:30am found us on the road taking in our first sunrise of the trip. Following some great downhill through beautiful canyons ( no pics as the phone was dead) the end of the day found us very near Pueblo, CO and 6,500' lower than we had been just the previous day. After what was supposed to be one day off in Pueblo turning into two, due to lots of running around in the 100+ heat, we are pedaling through hot and flat Eastern Colorado. We've nicknamed this stretch of the ride the "Tour De Prisons", having passed four huge prisons in the last one hundred miles. Eastern Colorado and Kansas are the hot, flat, and dry portion of the ride, but so far things are going good. There's been a rise in town parks that allow camping and churches that open their doors to cyclists and it seems, after a couple unfriendly weird stores/towns in central Colorado, the people are getting nicer and nicer as we head East.....

Colorful Colorado

From where we left ya last....after pedaling through a beautiful stretch that made us feel like we were in a Nature special, having seen a sleek red fox and a bald eagle within five minutes of each other along with a handful of HUGE golden eagles, we cruised into the small town, pop. 50, of Riverside, WY for the night. The "town" consists of an RV park across from two bar/restaurants. After being fed a dinner of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn by a super nice fellow camper we met a CDT thru hiker who was camping across from us. After chatting for a bit, by really random coincidence, a friend from my PCT thru hike last summer was actually across the street at the bar! Had a couple beers, while hearing Highlifes stories of how rough and beautiful the CDT is, the whole time in complete disbelief of how paths can cross so randomly in life.

                   

We pushed off the next morning into a beautiful sunny day. A handful of miles into the day we passed into our fifth state....Colorful Colorado!

 

The day ended up being a little harder than either of us expected....52 miles of mostly climbing, a little bit of flat, and really no downhill to speak of. We pulled into the small town of Walden, pop. 734, with one thing on our minds...FOOD! We tried a diner by suggestion of some locals. Man what a disappointment! Sarah's dinner was so small she was almost in tears, however, a giant ice cream cone put a smile back on her face. It's funny how important food becomes when on such adventures. That night we threw out our tent in the mosquito infested town park and slept comfortably through a rainstorm. The next morning we began to climb higher into the mountains, up through a beautiful pine forest, feeling the largeness of the Rockies for the first time. We finally got to the top, with quads burning, to the first of two big passes we climb in Colorado and were rewarded with the first real downhill miles of the last day and a half. 

 

We cruised downhill into the town of Hot Sulpher Springs and as coincidence would have it met another PCT thru hiker, Lastonthebus, who I briefly met on trail last summer. We hung out and once again camped in the town park, along with some really funny English cyclists. The next morning we had a birthday breakfast at the Gloryhole Diner before parting ways with Lastonthebus, as he's mountain biking the Great Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada. 

The mornings ride was beautiful paralleling a river down through a very scenic canyon, with even a little tail wind helping us along. Soon we came along Steve and his goat "Leroy Brown". These two dudes are spending three years walking across the country, 10-15 mile per day, from Seattle to Portland, Maine. Along the way he's raising money for an orphanage in Kenya. 

 

The rest of the day had us slowly climbing up in elevation with the Eagles Nest Wilderness on the horizon and off to our right, which contains a handful of 12-13,000' peaks. 

We ended the day in the somewhat larger town of Silverthorne, pop.3,197, and as it was my birthday we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel room, much needed showers, pizza, and cable TV....just what the doctor ordered! The next morning we pushed off with the idea of a very short 15 mile day into Breckenridge, taking the rest of the day off, saving the last 2,000' climb up to Hoosier Pass, the highest elevation of our journey at 11,500', for the following day. A couple miles into the morning, while riding on the bike path from Silverthorne to Breckenridge, yet again we crossed paths with another comrade from my PCT hike last summer....Clutch....who's thru hiking the CDT and coincidentally decided to walk the bike path through town. 

After a bit of conversation we realized we were headed opposite ways on completely different adventures and parted ways to both get where we were going before the inevitable summer Colorado rainstorm. Another crazy coincidence. Arriving in Breckenridge we checked in at the hostel, ate, and hung about town. A bit touristy, but overall some relaxing time spent off the bikes....Until next time. 

Home, Home on the Range.....

From where we left off the last posting, the small town of Dubois, we pushed off in the morning with the intention of making it to Lander, WY...as did the rest of the group we had dinner with the night before....Bret a retired computer programmer and Isreal, Jordan, and Natalie from Tennessee....but not before we took a ride on the "Worlds largest Jackalope".

 

 

The ride was a beautiful one, as usual, but a bit harder than we were expecting. As Lander was a 75 mile day, along the way we decided it may be better to stop a little shorter and stay in the town of Fort Washakie, which is on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and would make a 60 mile day. In rolling though town we soon understood why some of the locals refer to it as "Fort Wayshakey". Let's just say it didn't really have the "let's stay here for the night" type of vibe, so we pushed on to Lander and boy was it worth it! Rolled into town tired and famished so we proceeded immediately to the local brewpub. Had a great dinner. When a super nice woman happened to notice we were cycling the TransAm, probably due to both the speed and intensity of which we devoured our food, she brought us chocolate chip cookies for dessert and told us a little of her cross country trip last summer on the Southern Tier. Lander turned out to be the best town stop of the trip thusfar. Free camping in the city park, along with 15-20 other cyclists, along with use of the city pool which also had showers. We couldn't pass up the opportunity of a rest day in Lander, so the next day we toured around town, ate, swam, had coffee, ate, napped in the park, ate, ate, and ate. We also met a load of other cyclists. The ones we both got the biggest kick out of were Sally and Patsy, two mid sixties grandmas who ride a two week section of the route every summer. They hope to finish the whole coast to coast ride by the time they're 70. Both are totally young at heart and an inspiration.

 

 

Given Lander is supposed to have the biggest Fourth of July celebration we just couldn't entertain the thought of kicking around town for three more days, and losing our mojo, so we pushed on to make Rawlins, WY for the Fourth. The next day the landscape and environment turned to complete and total desert.....HOT and dry. We peddled a shorter day and ended up camping at a Mormon historical site, where they were nice enough to let us stay. There we met David, a really nice Southern fella whose riding the route. He's also a journalist and his writing is published in his local newspaper back home in North Carolina. He mentioned us and included our picture. Here's the link.....

http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20130703/SP01/130709887/1023/david-freeze-ride-update-many-miles-on-a-hot-day

The next day was through more desert environment, however, the temperature cooled off a bit and we also had a nice tailwind. We ended up riding a record, for us, 88 miles. Twenty miles into the day we stopped at a diner, the only diner, in the middle of nowhere for breakfast. The type of place that will make you thankful for your place in life and remind you there really are some weird places in this country and world. Stumbling back outside into the bright sun, post breakfast, with our eyes burning from cigarette smoke and half of last nights dinner stuck to the bottom of our shoes we peddled on.....

The rest of the day we cruised towards Rawlins, with not so breathtaking scenery, but nevertheless thankful to be simply pedaling our bicycles. Rode into town tired with food on our minds. Chose what turned out to be a really good Thai restaurant. We're starting to notice more wondrous eyes looking our way in restaurants. Probably due to the fairly disheveled look after a long day on the bikes and our ravenous appetites. Camped in Rawlins and took yesterday, the Fourth, off...Kicked around town, relaxed, went to the movies, laundry, chores, ate, ate, and ate. We ended up watching the fireworks from our campsite as slight rain means wet roads, and wet roads means every cowboy in the county saddles up their pickup and heads over to Rawlins to burn out at and slide around every corner in town.....that mixed with the employee at the local liquor store mentioning "record sales" we figured it smart to stay off the roads. 

Pushing off this morning we soon met Steve and "Bones", two burly rough and tumble bikers, covered in tattoos, patched leather jackets, and all the standard Outlaw regalia. "Bones" asked to borrow my bike pump as his back tire was low. Pretty comical to have these two rough and burly, but totally personable and down to earth, bikers trying to pump up a tire on their Harley's with my little dainty bicycle pump. In parting, in hearing our next big town stop is Pueblo, CO, Steve responded with, "Sorry to hear that". When asked for a further explanation he mentioned that "if Colorado was to get an enema Pueblo would clog it". Not really sure what to make of that, but onward to Pueblo!