We pulled out of the Fairplay hotel about 8:30. We had a lovely long downhill run for about the first 28 miles. We were out of the big mountains and into more of a high plateau. Narrow shoulder and lots of traffic (including detoured traffic from US 285) so I wasn’t sightseeing too much. Here’s an idea of the scenery.
The traffic thinned out considerably at some fairly early point and really wasn’t much of an issue for most of the day. SAG stop at about 20 miles where, conveniently, there was a herd of bison to entertain us.
As we progressed, fresh mountains appeared on our horizon. And then one of our few climbs for the day appeared before us. No sign at the top but apparently we topped out at 9404 feet.
Although we were on a big downward trend today there were a few steep climbs thrown in. No surprise, given the hilliness of the terrain.
Approaching Canon City was a turnoff to Royal Gorge. I wasn’t really interested in the extra 8 miles, though. The helicopter ride was tempting but I passed on that too.
Really pretty rock colours and formations on the big downhill into Cañon City. I easily hit speeds in excess of 60 kmph, although with the bike’s gearing it’s hard to pedal meaningfully much past about 43kmph. Also hard to stop for a photo when you’re going that fast.
A few of us stopped in town for some lunch. At a population of about 17,000 people, this might be the biggest town we’ve stayed in yet. I don’t think of that as a particularly large town but there sure was a lot of traffic and the town was very spread out. The recommended route was on a bike path but when I read that it was unpaved I chose the roads through town instead.
It was a fabulous day. Lots of changes of scenery and so much downhill - wheeeeee!
Stats for the day:
Fairplay CO to Cañon City CO
125 km. 77 miles.
2129 feet up. 6520 feet down.
Average speed 28 kmph.
Temp: 5C to 27C. Overcast all day but very pleasant.
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