Up at 5 am on the road at 5:36. 49° this morning, nice just a little bit of a wind.
Started off this morning without my jacket but got about 100 yards and thought better of that and put it on. Now my hands are freezing and my gloves are packed down in one of my bags so I’m not gonna bother searching for them. The suns coming up so hopefully it’ll warm up pretty quick. But a beautiful morning. Just cold.
6:07 AM 2.3 miles in. I couldn’t take it stopped and pulled out my gloves lots of shade up here and freezing
6:40 AM 4.4 miles in at 10,365 feet the climbing is really not that bad it’s a nice 3 to 4% grade so far but big chunky sharp rocks all over. Hoping I don’t slash my tires. I paid a premium for good tires just for this type condition so hopefully they’ll pay off.
7:09 AM 5 miles and 10,683 feet now I’ve had some 13% grade on chunky gravel so had to do some “hike a bike” this morning.
8:02 AM 8.3 miles and 11,288 feet, beautiful morning. stopping to catch my breath and snack on some gummy bears
8:21 AM at the summit of Boreas pass 11,482 feet 9.2 miles in on the day. I’ve been riding for just under three hours averaging 5.2 miles an hour it’s just been up up all morning. As a comparison the day that I did 120 miles I averaged 13 miles an hour. Feeling great but glad this climb is over. going to rest for a minute, have a snack then drop into Breckenridge and have breakfast.
8:50 AM about halfway down the mountain and had to stop in a spot where the sun is coming through to warm up, I’m freezing, feel like an icicle. Actually past four or five people tent camping up here they’re crazy.
9:15 in downtown Breckenridge eating breakfast at a doughnut shop. Biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, and coffee. Got a large cup of coffee and am using it as a hand warmer.
10 am leaving Breckenridge and getting on the bike path that I remember riding during my Trans Am trip it’s a really long cool path.
Rode the bike path to Frisco. If you’re in Breckenridge and want a good bike ride rent a bike and ride from Breckenridge to Frisco. it’s all a bike path, nice scenery and it’s all downhill. You could probably rent it from one of the bike shops ride it to Frisco and then have them go there and pick it up.
continued on the bike path all the way to Silverthorne.
11:30 stopped at REI in Silverthorne to pick up a new battery pack to Keep my electronics charged. The charging input port on the one I have broke. It’s fully charged so I can use it for a couple days but once it runs out then I have no way to recharge it. I saw a guy on a touring bike outside REI so I pulled up beside him and said hi and he looked at me and immediately said I know you. Your Steve across America. He said, I’ve been reading your blog for the past couple years planning for this trip. He said he used my blog and one other as his resource for doing the Trans Am which is on now. His name is Scott And he lives in Cincinnati. He said when you search for the Trans Am my block comes up as a mother top searches from Google. I had no idea. Since I did the Trans Am four years ago I probably only posted that blog three or four times before starting this trip. So, we talked for 30 minutes or so about his trip. Cool guy.
Well are y’all didn’t have the battery pack that I wanted, but the guy said that target would have them. So I rode a couple miles over to target, and picked up a new 20,000 mA battery pack. I’ll charge it tonight, because it takes eight or 10 hours for those things to get a full charge, and then once my broken one runs out of charge I’ll just throw it away.
11:15 stopped at Which Wich and got a Philly cheese steak sandwich, large diet coke, and strawberry shake. Took way too long to make the sandwich. I’m ready to get out of this town. Way too many people and too much traffic. But the wind is picking up and some weather is moving in, so sitting here planning my afternoon ride and waiting for the weather to move through a bit.
1 PM leaving Silverthorne, it’s windy and cold I might get caught in some rain.
2 PM 48.2 miles in and I’m at 8,518 feet now and headed to Kremlin. When I left Silverthorne it was cold I had put my jacket, leg warmers, and gloves on—At two now I’m stopping to take them off cause it’s getting hot again.
2:28 pm been on a main road out of Silverthorne finally got to a turn off on Ute pass Road so I’ll be back on gravel soon. I’m back down to 8,200 feet and will need to climb over Ute pass about 9,500 feet. Should be a piece a cake.
3:20 PM and still climbing 9,067 feet I have 56.3 miles in. Weather is nice winds calm I’m feeling good but every time I stop to take a break I get eaten up by mosquitoes so it motivates me to keep my break short.
3:48 PM at summit of Ute pass at 9,553 feet with 57.9 miles in for the day, and now that I’m at the top I can feel the wind again it’s nice but it’s going to be cold going down the other side, so I’m putting on a jacket. I’m hearing thunder behind me so I’m gonna get going.
4:30 PM 67.2 miles in I’m back to 8,378 feet and I’ve been trying to out run a thunderstorm since I topped the pass. I looked behind me and it was dark rain coming down thunder and getting cold, so I put the pedal to the metal coming down that other side I was hitting 45 mph coming down the mountain. The thunder storm is behind me coming my way. I’m trying to outrun it, I could feel a few drops of rain I just kept hammering down the mountain and eventually the pavement ran out and I thought I was in trouble, but it was smooth gravel surface hard packed and still on a downward slope so I continued to hammer.
Looking back now I think, I hope, I beat the thunderstorm today there’s nothing but white puffy clouds ahead of me.
5 PM at 71 miles and Came across a fence row with cowboy boots put on top of all of the fence posts for about a quarter mile.
74.6 miles in at 5:25 and met Jeremiah heading southbound. He is trying to make it Breckenridge…going to be a long hard ride for him and toward thunderstorms.
6:45 pm and finally make it to Kremmling. Checked into an old hotel in the middle of town. Took a shower and ate dinner across the street. Fantail shrimp special, with loaded bake potato, Texas toast, salad, ice tea, and two Coors lite. Back in my room now and am beat…need a good nights rest after I upload this and plan for my day tomorrow.
Pics:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t6b5qfsb119mylr/AAB2QkNrndSVr-KfJq5u0Dv_a?dl=0
