I've been wishing for cooler weather, and I finally have my wish. I'm not sure that the weather changed - it's my location that seems to be making the difference. It was a beautiful morning, with amazing clouds hanging over the mountains. At first there were some pretty dark clouds, threatening rain, but they cleared to allow big white clouds to contrast with the blue sky. And it was cool too.
Today didn't start out as a great day. It was another low energy day, and my stomach was a bit queasy. I think the altitude is getting to me. I thought I'd be OK since traveling by bike is a pretty gentle and slow way to gain altitude. Unfortunately, the slow elevation gain was from the eastern side of Kansas to Pueblo, Colorado. The 5000 foot elevation gain yesterday was apparently too fast for my body.
Matt and I had breakfast together, then headed out in opposite directions. I headed north, and he headed south. Before we split up Matt mentioned two sections of the route where he recommended I get a ride. One is a 6-mile nasty stretch of construction between Silverthorne and Kremmling, and the other is the section from Rawlins to Lander, Wyoming which he said was very dry, no services, and generally hard. I'll see...
I rode to Alma, which should have been a pretty easy ride. It was a slight uphill grade, mostly 1 and 2%. I was really dragging though. I did stop to take some pictures. I can always use the camera as an excuse to stop riding! I stopped at the coffee house in Alma that Matt recommended. I thought some hot tea would help settle my stomach, so I had tea and a bagel and sat for a while. The woman running the coffee house told me to make sure to drink a lot of water to combat the altitude problems. I told her that I was drinking lots of water and Gatorade - guess I'll have to continue with the liquids.
I talked with the other people there, including a guy who had done a several week tour on his own back in the late 80's. He asked me how my ride was going, and I told him that the ride overall was great, but that I was really dragging today and that I thought the altitude was bothering me. He offered to drive me to the top of Hoosier Pass, and I took him up on it. (What - she's taking another ride? Well, I hope I'm not disappointing all of my faithful readers. I'm doing what I need to keep myself healthy and happy.)
Then there was a slight change in plans. Jim from Michigan was sitting outside, and he was about to drive over the pass. Jim drove out here to do a several day mountain bike tour with some friends, and he was about to head home. He had an extra slot on his bike rack, and plenty of room for me and my trailer in his Jeep. Many thanks to Jim for the ride and to the unnamed Alma guy for offering to interrupt his work day to give me a ride.
Jim stopped at some interesting places on his drive from Michigan to Colorado. One of them really peaked my interest - he went kayaking on Lake Superior in Wisconsin. He said there are some caves that you can only access from the water. Maybe I'll have to stop in Wisconsin on one of my trips - that sounds like fun!
I have no doubt that I could have made it over Hoosier Pass on my own - I've ridden the equivalent before, both with and without hauling my gear - but I think that it would not have been a happy climb for me today.
Jim dropped me off at the top of Hoosier Pass (11,500 feet), and I promptly put my rain jacket on. It was cold up there. I started down, and stopped after a couple of minutes to put my rain pants on too. The layers stayed on until I got to Breckenridge. The change in scenery between the north and south sides of Hoosier Pass was amazing. The south side is open with very little vegetation, and the north side is forested. There are different kinds of wildflowers on the two sides of the pass too.
I spent about an hour walking through Breckenridge and getting some lunch. It took me a while to find a place to leave (and lock) the bike. The town was a bit too over the top for me. It seems to be a pretty high end resort town, and it was swarming with people. And it was just what I expected.
The one good thing about Breckenridge is that I found a bike shop that carried Pearl Izumi gloves. I started my trip with 2 pairs of gloves - one new, and one that I'd only worn this year. The sun and constant wear has totally trashed one pair of gloves, and I've been looking for a replacement for a while. Now all l'm on the lookout for is new shorts. I've noticed that the fabric on my shorts is showing more wear than I expected - even though I started out with 2 brand new pairs of shorts. I haven't found any place that carries the shorts I like, but I was told that there is a Pearl Izumi outlet store in the next town. Maybe they'll have what I need. It's amazing how much damage the sun causes!
There's a great bike path between Breckenridge and Frisco, and it continues on to Silverthorne. It was nice to be able to get off of route 9, which carries a fair amount of traffic and has no shoulders. It was still a slight downhill grade most of the way into Frisco, which was good for me given my energy level and given the fact that I was riding into a pretty strong headwind. The grade and headwind seemed to cancel each other out. I had fun watching the other cyclists on the path. It was pretty easy to tell the casual out-for-a-day folks from the serious cyclists. You can easily tell who's who from the riding style, but the thing that I found really amazing is that many of the out-for-a-day folks were not wearing helmets. I'm so used to seeing cyclists with helmets that it just shocks me to see so many people riding without them. Matt told me last night that he replaced his helmet after his fall. He said that the back of it was crushed, and the foam inside was cracked - and his head was fine. (For you non-cyclists reading my journal - bicycle helmets are meant for one crash only and they must be replaced after that.)
I saw one family on the bike path riding a very cool bicycle. The parents were riding a tandem, and their two kids were riding along on a tandem trailer bike. I didn't even know that the trailer bikes came in a tandem model. That was pretty amazing. Then I saw a father daughter pair on a single bike with a trailer bike. When I saw them the little girl had her feet up on the handlebars. I said "hey, you're cheating", and her dad said that as they were climbing the last hill she keep telling him how hard it was to pedal up the hill, then at the top told him she wasn't pedaling. He probably already knew that though. Must be interesting hauling a moving, squirming body - I think I'll stick with my trailer.
The day ended in rain. It wasn't a downpour, but it was enough for me to grab my rain jacket again. If it had been 10 degrees warmer I would have skipped the jacket, but with the cool weather that I've been wishing for I needed the extra layer. After I checked into my motel and showered, I walked outside to brilliant sunshine again. It's amazing how rapidly the weather changes here in the mountains! I walked around town, and then asked where I could find a grocery store. It turned out that the Safeway is on the outskirts of town (of course), so the purple Air Glide and I rode out there to pick up some fruit for today and tomorrow.
While I was at the coffee house in Alma I met the two women that Katie mentioned yesterday. I passed on her hello, and we talked for a bit. They recommended the Woods Inn here in Frisco. It looked like a nice place, but I was too lazy to haul the bike and trailer up stairs again, so I opted for the motel next to it. They were both the same price, and it's one step up from the driveway to get everything inside. It's two blocks from the main street, so I have easy access to restaurants. Frisco is another resort town, but much more low key than Breckenridge. The nice side effect of that is that there are a number of good restaurants here. I had a great dinner tonight at Tuscato - eggplant parmesan. I think it was one of the best meals I've had on this trip. I could very easily go back there tomorrow and have the same thing.
I'm going to stay here tomorrow. I'm hoping that another day of rest will help my body adjust to the altitude and will let me finally catch up on sleep. I feel much better tonight, but I don't want to push it. Frisco is at about 9300 feet of elevation, so I'm a bit lower than I was last night. I'll be going up and down for a while, but Hoosier pass was the highest point on my route.
After dinner I looked up to see a beautiful rainbow across some dark clouds. What a nice end to the day!
