TA 2 - September 24

Maybe it’s that the days are just a bit longer, or maybe it’s the cumulative effect of it being day 14 in the saddle. In any case - I’ve reached the point where it’s hard to remember what this morning was like.

A little bit shorter day today, but my-oh-my that first 20 miles was hard!  Seems we were all looking down to see if we were riding on flat tires. In fact, it was just that most of that stretch was almost imperceptibly uphill. Not much - just enough to make it hard and to have climbed 1100 feet by the first SAG stop.

Some of the sights on the way out of town, including a crossing of the Arkansas River.

At six miles we passed through the small town of Florence. We started in Florence OR last year, and I’m beginning to think that every state has a Florence.

Every once in a while I stop to take a photo simply because I haven’t taken one for a bit.

As we got a bit further from Cañon City, the scenery changed to mountains to our right,

 And empty, flat plains to our left.

How appropriate that there was once a village in this area called Hardscrabble.

We’ve definitely changed climate zones. After several weeks of chilly starts in the morning, I departed this morning wearing no extra layers, and the temperature hit 30C by 10am. As you can probably tell from the photos, shade is now a scarce commodity. Betty, our SAG driver today, managed to find a bit of shade at 18 miles. After enjoying the shade and commiserating about the unexpected toughness thus far, we eventually headed back out on the road.  After another brief bit of uphill came this welcome sign.

At this point we left the mountains behind.

And headed out to the plains.

I did see one pronghorn off in the distance, but most of the wildlife seen were these giant grasshoppers all over our path. I’m guessing we all ran over at least one; there were thousands of them out there!

The road and shoulder were pretty rough through this stretch. Thankfully traffic was pretty light. Although it was to be a 55 mile day, we could start to see the buildings of Pueblo from about mile 28. The population is said to be just over 100,000 so it sure looks pretty spread out. We could also see the Pueblo Reservoir as we approached the city.

And my favourite roadside flower was very much in evidence.

At about mile 44 we turned onto the bike path by the Arkansas River.

Looks like there is a good kayak run in the river as you get close to downtown.

I made a stop in downtown Pueblo to see their Riverwalk. This is a 32 acre park that has returned a portion of the Arkansas River to its historic location in the heart of downtown Pueblo after being diverted in the 1920s due to a devastating flood that destroyed much of the city of Pueblo. I thought they’ve done a terrific job so far and apparently they are continuing to expand it.

Beautiful flowers downtown and some lovely old buildings. It is apparent that they are working hard to revitalize the area through both refurbishment and new buildings.

The final 10 miles was on bike paths. The surface was pretty good (with some rude exceptions) but the areas of town that it went through were a bit sketchy in places. Looked like lots of homeless people passing through. Finally - back into civilization and to the hotel. But - not before stopping at IHOP for a milkshake. It was a hot one out there today!

Nice day, but I could have done without the bike path at the end.

Stats for the day:
Cañon City CO to Pueblo CO
92 km. 57 miles.
2522 feet up. 2763 feet down.
Temps:  16C to 33C. Sunny day. Hottest one yet ....

TA 2 - September 23

Well, having summited the highest pass on the Trans Am route it was time to start some serious downhill.  We knew we could look forward to almost 7000 feet of downhill today; woohoo!  In general, I think our daily mileage will increase (accommodation permitting) but our climbing will decrease.  Another change to our days..... as daylight gets shorter and we move to the eastern side of the time zone, dinner time has moved up to 6pm so that the dish crew has a hope of finishing before dark.

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.

TA 2 - September 22

Yesterday was a well-deserved rest day spent in Dillon, CO.  My rental bike had not been shifting very well from the get-go, so Cy took it in to a local bike shop for some repairs.  I spent a pretty quiet day.  Walked down the hill to REI and to the Columbia outlet store.  No big purchases in either location but nice to be out for a stroll.  Lunch and dinner out with some of the gals, and then time to catch up on reading, emails, etc .

Today was a beautiful day in the neighbourhood!  The highlight was cycling to the highest point on the entire Trans Am route. Hoosier Pass at 11,539 feet. Not a lot of oxygen up there!  Maybe it will be all downhill from here (not!).

There are many bike paths in and around the Dillon area. We managed to stay on a bike path for the first 16 miles; all the way in to Breckenridge.  Lovely views of the Dillon Reservoir for much of it.

We had a good view of some of the ski hills coming in to the town. Breckenridge is just one of 3 or 4 big ski areas within spittin’ distance. I was surprised at just how busy the town was for the middle of September. Reminded me of Banff in many ways.

Even though it was an easy ride into Breckenridge we had managed to climb 1000 feet already. Sure felt rather easy. After leaving Breckenridge, though, the climb began in earnest. It may have been a bit steeper in places than previous rides, but overall it was a fairly pleasant climb. The thin air was an added challenge but really it wasn’t at all bad.  I’m a bit surprised that the altitude didn’t seem to affect me too much. The pass is a few hundred feet higher than the village of Namche in Nepal on the way to the Everest region. And I remember how poorly I felt there.  Maybe I should have joined that Nepal trip with Elli & co that leaves in a few weeks ......  Also - it’s less than 100 feet lower than the top of Mount Temple near Lake Louise!

Oh well - continuing on the downward trend again tomorrow. But first - a cool ride down from Hoosier Pass. I was glad to have all my layers on but my cold hands had a hard time hanging on to the bike sometimes as we covered the last six miles on a very bumpy and poorly maintained bike path from the town of Alma to the town of Fairplay.  I was in to Fairplay in good time; by noonish. Fairplay is our highest overnight location - 9953 feet.  There is a large open air museum called South Park City. It is a reconstruction of a Colorado mining town from the boom times of the 1850s through the 1880s. The museum opened in 1959 - 60 years ago.

Even after that stop I joined just about everyone else in waiting for our hotel rooms. Still in in time to catch some WNBA playoffs on tv.

Stats for the day:
Dillon CO to Fairplay CO
63 km. 39 miles.
3075 feet up. 2289 feet down.
Temp:  3C to 21C. Beautiful sunshine all day. Winds from all directions at various times, but not a factor.  A cool ride down the hill.