Sunday, June 14 Day 8 South Fork to Lake City, CO 75 miles
We cycled in rarefied air yesterday. We started the day at 8200 ft, rode over this pass at 10,898 ft, then went down some and back up to 11,530 ft before descending for the night at 8717 ft in Lake City. We had cold, rainy, and hailing weather by the end, but at least the weather up until lunch was okay other than a strong headwind.
My favorite part of the ride was in the morning following the Rio Grande River -- again. I just love riding next to rushing rivers.
Here's another view we had, and notice the railroad tracks that followed the river (you can see them in the top photo too).
And yet another, with those spectacular cliffs on both sides of the gorge. We continued to follow the river for 40 miles, when it turned off to the west toward its origin as we continued north. After a lifetime of thinking of this river only as the border between Texas and Mexico, I'm glad I got to see where it flows from Colorado.
Sue and I are at the 24-mile rest stop in Creed, an old silver mining town. In the late 19th century, its population was 10,000, while now it's 400. In the summer of 1890, its population grew 300 per day during the silver boom.
We headed southwest to follow the Rio Grande, and then when we turned north again, the headwinds became pretty strong.
This is my last picture of the Rio Grande. About five miles later it turned westward.
Climbing to our lunch stop at Mile 45 was harder for me than the Wolf Creek Pass climb the previous day (but not as long). The wind blew our lunch stuff all over. And when we continued north, it began to hail! They were small stones though, and it lasted only about 7-8 minutes. But two more times that afternoon we had hail again.
The road continued up and up until we reached our third Continental Divide crossing:
The van is parked in the background, and I pulled out my arm warmers, leg warmers, and full-fingered gloves. I knew there was a 10-mile descent, and I did not want to freeze the way I did the day before. Besides, the skies were getting pretty threatening, and we had the occasional rain and hail.
I continued on, first with a descent and then an ascent to Slumgullion Summit. The weather was deteriorating and getting colder, so I did not stop at the van except to get this picture of Rod and all the snow at that elevation:
I continued on down down down the long descent. It was NOT fun, due to rain, bad road, and lots of sharp mountain turns (referred to as a "technical" descent). I did, however, stop a few times for photos because the views were incredible:
I had to apply my brakes almost constantly to remain under control on the descent. At one point, the road straightened out for a ways and I let it go, but got quickly up to 45 mph and had to slow down again on such bad road surfaces. I was glad when I finally reached the bottom and rode into Lake City.
This was about the only photo I took in the village, as I was anxious to warm up at our lodge. I arrived before the others, and did not realize until later that the weather at the summit deteriorated by the time the others all got there, so they decided to ride down in the van. They even had sleet, and some lightning.
When the van and my luggage arrived, I finally got to warm up with a hot shower. What made this lodge special was not the rooms (only 9 total), but their restaurant. Bruno, who is French, is a primo chef. My lamb sirloin was superb, almost as good as Janet's.
I just wanted to add this final shot of Paul, Craig, and the tree-trunk post. We always have a great social time at our dinners. Bob gives us previews of the next-day's rides since he's done this before, and Paul tells us when we will depart, when our rest stops will be, and what to expect technically.
The lodge did not have good Internet, so no blog last night. I am writing this after the next day's ride. So, I do not need to give a preview, but some of you may like seeing the maps and elevation profiles, so here is today's: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7807064
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