Our real dive into the Rockies began a long run of breathtaking scenery. Coming out of Royal Gorge, we immediately began to gain some serious altitude. In a few days, we climed from 6,000 feet to 11,542 feet — the highest point on the TransAmerica trail: Hoosier Pass. This marked the first time we crossed the Continental Divide. The climb up to the summit of Hoosier Pass was arduous, but well worth it — a lookout, and a really nice downhill for the rest of the day.
We drifted down through the nice little ski towns of Breckenridge and Frisco, along the impressive array of bike pathways that thread through and around the towns, and around the giant reservoir that they surround. At lunch time in Frisco, appetites buoyed by the climb, we ordered the most enormous pizza I’ve ever seen, and proceed to finish almost all of it.
The day did not end quite as well as it began. We had decided to push on to Kremmling, Colorado — 40 miles from our lunch venue. As it turned out, this was a 40-mile stretch of road that featured 20 miles of incredibly strong headwind, followed by 10 miles of steep rolling hills that were not adequately indicated by the map. Fueled by frustration over some technological difficulties that have been plaguing me, I threw myself into the stretch, and I made it to our destination. Audrey stopped at a campsite 10 miles short. We met again in Kremmling the next morning.
Apparently Audrey did quite a bit of soul searching along that 40-mile stretch of road, and had decided, quite sensibly, that continuing to push herself to achieve high mileage days was silly given that she had plenty of time at her disposal. We took a final ride to Hot Sulphur Springs, then I pushed on and left Audrey to relax, take her time, and soak in the incredible scenery. I am certainly sad to lose a riding partner, but I can’t say I don’t think she made the right choice. I have found myself thinking more than once that it would be nice to have a little more time to spend along the way.
Posted by: sam