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.