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Friday, July 17: Today, I figured, is supposed to be the gnarliest day in the mts through CO. It’s a day with a pass at 12,500 ft, with it’s climb to the pass being in the vicinity of 21+ miles. It’s Cinnamon Pass, and it’s a LONG pedal on gravel, dirt, and rock. So I just needed to get mentally prepped for this guy. Didn’t start too well this morning in Lake City when we were out of the motel at 6:45 AM and then we couldn’t find anyplace in the town that was open for us to get some breakfast. Really I just needed to pick up something that would tide me over for the ride. No gas stations, no cafes, no nothing. So we just had to sit in the van for 15-20 min to wait for something, anything, to open. Only good out of that is that the morning temp was 44 degrees, so we did need a bit of time for the temp to warm up. 


Finally found this little greasy spoon where we all got pancakes and coffee. Got rolling out of there as fast as we could to get Bill and I back to the end point from yesterday. The sky was cloudless as it was yesterday. Only trouble was that my legs were still sore and tight from doing 2 passes yesterday, this I knew that this one today was really going to put the hurt on. Could be one of those LONG days indeed. So we got out at our junction and readied to ride. I again had a pack full of mt clothing just in case of one of those mt storms out of nowhere. The forecast was really good for the first half of the day both in Lake City, our start point, and in Silverton, our end point. Nonetheless, I wasn’t taking any chances. 


So we bid farewell to Judy, who was going to have to drive 160 miles, to the north, to the west, and to the south, to get around the mt range that we were riding through. General consensus was that my van was in no way going to be able to drive on the whole route we were going on. Thus….one long assed support drive. We began riding at 8 AM sharp. There was a light wind out of the west-southwest. Got going on the gravel berm of Rt 30 southwest to Lake San Cristobal. Right at the lake the road split to a R & L, where the R is paved and the L is gravel. I went L, southwest on Rt 33. Now this pup was HILLY, as I was expecting this nice flat little loop around the east side of the lake. Nope! Now on the west side, the paved side, well, that was flat, really flat! Oh well, as I’ve said, the gravel roads know no gradient adjusting. 


This area, Lake San Cristobal is really beautiful, despite the incessant hills along the way, and there’s some awesome little campgrounds on that east side that are primitive camping. Got back to the junction of the west paved road and the east gravel road and that’s where it goes all gravel and turns back into Rt 30 again, or as my garmin gps calls it, CR 5 west. Went L, west and went through another series of rollers where you’re slowly climbing up more than your descending, so I was gaining just a bit of elevation on each and every roller. Bill and I separated somewhere right after the two roads junctioned. The scenery here is just awe inspiring, as you’re paralleling the Gunnison River and riding along this deep canyon formed by the river. Then then it took me through this great little mt meadows. The fabulous scenery really helped to take the sting out of some pretty dead legs. Shoot, I was just struggling in the saddle, and had to resort to going out of the saddle way more than I typically do - this just to generate some power where there isn’t any! So anyway, I just tried to do my best to ride while enjoying the scenery. 


Now as I was riding I’d always be looking to the west at the high mts, and I was really surprised, and pretty concerned that there were clouds moving in from the west across the very area that we had to ride though. Been out here enough to realize that this was NOT just cotton-ball clouds floating across the pass. This looked like a future sock-in storm forming. Nothing to do…Judy was gone, no phone service….SOL! So I just kept riding, hoping against hopes that this cloud mass would move off to the north or south and not continue to the east on top of us. 


The real climbing began at the Y where the Pass road goes to the R, and this Cottonwood Creek 4WD road goes to the L. I went R, and BAM, an in-your-face little cookie climb right out of the gate. That lasted about a half mile, and then it kind of leveled out a bit so I could get into the middle ring again. At the top, where it did level out, the road changed to more of the rocky variety that I experienced while riding up to Hermit Pass, though this one was far less intense. It did though, force me to concentrate much more on good lines and tracks. And it’s about this time that the army of ATC and ATV riders started passing me on their “lazy man’s” assault of Cinnamon Pass. At times there were a cadre of these things going by me, 3,4, 5 at a time. Now I know it’s public roads, but these folks and their loud engines and such just took that thrill out of backcountry mt biking. Very disappointing indeed. 


Not more than a mile or two further west and I had to begin doing hike-a-bike on these super steep pitches. I just don’t have the full on pie-plate for getting these guys. And really, there were times where I’d do my best on one of these steep ups, and I’d just have to hunch down to keep the front wheel from coming off the ground. So the steep stuff, I just couldn’t do in the saddle. OTS was totally undoable. I was totally ok with this, and just did my best to keep a good pace while walking - about 2.4 mph. My biggest concern was the weather, which was moving in fast. In front of me was a wall of black, with thunder and lightening in the background. 


This was the time I began to look up the road for little occupied and unoccupied cabins where I could high-tail it to when, and I do mean WHEN the storm hits. Continued for another couple miles of riding and hike-a-bike to about 18 miles into the ride, and then the rain came. I had been spotting a couple cabins as I rode, and there were two I could run to. I chose the further west cabin. My MO was to either knock on a door and ask for a place to wait out the storm, or if unoccupied, then just sit under an overhang or deck roof. Turned into a faint gravel drive, went around a gate and No Trespassing sign and bee-lined it to the cabin. 


Tuns out this guy was unoccupied, so I just parked myself under the roof of this entryway to a storage shed. It was perfect, about 10 feet wide by 8 feet long. Got the bike under the roof and me just as the rain just began hammering. I mean the whole mt top was whited out. Got out all my high country clothing and began putting everything on, goretex pants & jacket, my Mt Hardwear hooded jacket, my ear warmers, and my mt gloves. I was nice and toasty as the temp dropped, the wind picked up, and the rain just going crazy. I looked out at the mts I had to ride up and they were just totally gone in a white-out. 


Thunder boomed and lightening cracked all around me. I ended up just sitting down on the porch, bringing my knees up to my chest, and exhaling down inside my jackets to keep my core nice and warm. A couple time I almost fell asleep. Ended up waiting for a whole hour for this thing to blow over. And I wanted to make damn sure it was over, for if it was’t and I struck out again and got drenched, I’d be in a big world of hurt with the potential for hypothermia. Made sure there was blue sky to the west before I ambled out there to continue. Once I did decide to go, I kept all the clothing on just to make sure I’d build up a good heat having just sat there doing nothing for an hour. Only took about a mile and I had to stop to begin pealing gear off. Took everything off buy my long-sleeved polypro. Made it up the the American Basin junction and then pealed my polypro. And this is where the real steep, rocky stuff began. 


The ATC, ATV folks must have waited the storm out to, because all of a sudden there was this train of traffic coming up the mt past me. The road was pretty wet, but since it was more rock than dirt, there wasn’t much of an issue. The weather did indeed turn for the better, with blue sky and those cotton-ball clouds. And the wind was down to nothing for a bit. The last three miles of this thing was just brutal, with alternating riding and hike-a-bike. I’d do my best to pedal over the steep little bumps, but it was the sharp, steep switchbacks that really forced me off the bike for a stretch until the grade settled out a bit. 


Entered the treeless, high country where the wind really picked up. BUT, I could see the end of the line a mile or so up, where the vehicles were parked and the sun was reflection off of mirrors and windshields. Hell, I walked half of that last mile. At the top of the were a slew of ATC’s, ATV’s and 4WD vehicles. There were even a few rentals that should NOT have been on that road. These were drive by “Tourons”. Stayed longer than Hermit because I didn’t have a lacerated leg! Took some pics, dawned my mt jacket for the descent, and got the hell out of there. Heck I was already at 4 hrs into the ride what with that rain break, and I’d told Judy I’d be in Silverton in 4 hrs. Had to beat feet. 


Now the descent on the west side, this thing was just brutal, I mean it just did the plunge down like at a crazy grade. I had to bike-a-hike the first 1/4 mile just to make sure I didn’t end up in the ER for a 2nd time. Once bitten twice shy! Once the grade settled out just a bit, and I mean this was still pretty damned steep, I got riding again, with me doing the “hang the butt down into the rear tire” routine to keep the center of gravity as low as possible. And this just continued for 3 miles of some pretty hair raising descending. Meanwhile, the ATC’s and ATV’s just streamed by me like a plague of locust. Got to just above the Animas Forks junction, then took a hard L and got on FR 586/Rt 110. The descending was a lot less severe, but it was still serious enough that I had to really pay attention to what I was doing. Again, a steady stream of ATV’s, C’s and dirt motorcycles passed me going both up and down the pass. 


Now somewhere along the line here, around Eureka, was this massive campground and staging station for the ATV/ATC/Motocross crowd, and it was just a cluster&%^#@ of a place. God, talk about outdoor recreation?????? This place seems to signify the current state America’s idea of outdoor recreation. I was THE lone mt biker the whole day - other than Bill in back of me - in a world of motor heads in the backcountry. Hey, this is my blog and my opinion piece. 


Descended down to Silverton, where 110 turned to asphalt for the last 2 miles, and I went to the berm for the remainder of the ride into town. When the main street turned to nothing but pavement, I went one street over and rode the gravel parallel to our motel, the Canyon View Motel. All along the way back down I did not see Judy, and at this point I was about 5:30 hrs into the ride. She had about 170 mile drive to meet us, so I’d figured that she would be here by that time. Got the cell out and called her, with no answer. Did the same for Bill, and no answer. So I waited at the motel for a few and then decided to head back up main street to see if maybe I missed her on the way down. 


And that’s when I saw my black van, and a huge rush of relief shot through my body knowing that she was safe and sound. Flagged her down and she made me a couple turkey sandwiches along with some Powerade and water. I relaxed a bit, ate, drank, and then we took off back up 110 to look for Bill. We drove about 4 miles up into the canyon, fighting all the ATC/ATV traffic along the way, and then spotted Bill coming down. He gave us the cut-throat signal - meaning he’s done. Got him in the van and went back down to the motel where again, another storm blew through dumping about 45 min worth of rain. 


So I finished the day by riding about 38 miles with 4K of elevation gain, and an extremely tough day in the saddle. I have to give some kudos to Bill for staying with it today and getting this nasty of a ride in. The weather, the terrain, the motor traffic, and the elevation all combined to make this a really challenging day indeed. Later in the day Andrew made it here, and we all went out to a local microbrew for beer and pizza. Had a great time. So tomorrow I have just two more passes in CO and then I’m back into the foothills on the western slope. Drew will ride with me as Bill drives Drew’s car and Judy drive my van. My big pass tomorrow is Ophir at 11K. And then I have Lizard Head Pass at 10K. From there…it’s into the high plateaus of CO and UT.