Day 46: 40 Miles

Hartsel, CO to Breckenridge, CO

Today started out waking up wet and cold at 5:30 AM behind some junk cars in an open field. Last night’s sleeping arrangements were not the most ideal. By 6:30 AM I was packed up and headed to the gas station in town to pick up breakfast and use their bathroom. The field of course did not have bathrooms or showers so I wasn’t looking my finest this morning. I was excited to get on the road though as today would involve climbing to the highest point on the Trans Am route.

I rode with Steve this morning. We had met all the way back in Kansas and ran into each other again last night at the bar. Today’s ride was only 40 miles long and the beginning was not too hard. At mile 18 we hit Fairplay, which was the first real town I’ve seen in a while. Steve and I stopped at a coffee shop in Fairplay to grab some food and rest our legs before we started the hard climbing. Had we known how easy the 18 miles from Hartsel to Fairplay were I think we both would have pushed on yesterday and avoided camping in the field last night.

From Fairplay it was another 6 miles to Alma. There was a nice paved bike trail right next to the road for the entire 6 miles which was great because the shoulder on the road was almost nonexistent. When we reached Alma, the hard climbing started. We had been going uphill all morning, but it was so gradual that it was almost unnoticeable. We got to the bottom of a hill and saw that it was 4 miles to the summit of Hoosier Pass at 11,542 feet. The climbing was hard, but nothing harder than I’ve seen before on this trip. I actually thought yesterday’s climbing was more difficult. It wasn’t too bad to just put my bike into an easy climbing gear and slowly make it up the mountain. After 3.5 miles of pedaling, I was exhausted and expecting another .5 miles to go. The sign at the bottom must be incorrect, because just as I was thinking about taking a break I saw the sign that I had made it to the top.

We stopped for a few photos and then started the long decent down to Breckenridge. This was probably the easiest 10 miles I’ve had the entire trip. I didn’t have to pedal much at all. The road was a little dangerous with switchbacks, but the car traffic wasn’t too bad. Breckenridge is at 9,600 feet elevation, so in the 10 miles into town I dropped almost 2,000 feet. Steve and I decided to stay at the Bivvy, which is the nicest hostel I’ve stayed at on this trip. I’m hoping to check out the town of Breckenridge tonight, once I’m able to check into a room and take a shower. Tomorrow I am planning a short 18 mile ride to Silverthorne as a rest day. In the next few days I’ll continue to travel north through Colorado and should be in Wyoming in 4 days.