The beauty of this ride is the ever changing terrain and circumstances. One morning we are eating breakfast in the comfort of our tent vestibule with not a soul for miles and 24 hours later we are enjoying eggs benedict and coffee at a cafe on the main street of the very upmarket town of Breckenridge..

It was hard to leave Salida and our great stay with Caitlyn and her dog Easton. I was looking smart (according to Alan) in my new outfit purchased at two of the many recycled clothing shops. Biking out of town we marvelled at all the people cycling everywhere, including a penny farthing. After getting a bit of food we followed the bike path along the Arkansas river with it’s slalom course and surfing waves – yes we could hang out here longer than 2 nights.

It was a big climb up to the large expanse of South Park – a large mostly untreed plateau. New Mexico was meant to have the bad roads but we struck our worst washboard surface yet on the relatively flat undulating terrain – we were also fighting a head wind for half a day of it.

It was a relief to get to Como at the foot of Boreas pass but disappointment that there was no shop or restaurant, luckily we did carry extra food just in case. This morning we were cycling by 6am (in case there was snow on the pass) and to get to Breckenridge in time for breakfast..

Caitlyn and Easton – our kind and friendly warm shower hosts in Salida

Salida has to be the most cycle fanatical town in the world, bike stands everywhere downtown and everyone commuting on all sorts of bikes

Note the coffee cup!

The start of the long climb out of Salida

Jo’s new outfit (green top and skirt) from one of the many recycled clothing shops in town

We didn’t appreciate these trees enough – the rest of the day and most of the next there was barely a tree to be found on our traverse of South Park

No lunchtime shade to head for unfortunately

But when we needed a campsite we got lucky and found some relief from the open country

Sunrise on some of the Collegiate Peaks (14,000′ peaks named after Yale, Princeton etc)

Gear item for the day – jo’s cycle pogies – they dome onto my cycle gloves for a warmer alternative to gloves

Bizarrely most of South Park is surveyed into thousands of sections, with the odd street sign – so far very undeveloped except for the occasional caravan and odd house

Heading from the open, very undevelop South Park to the money and tourism of Summit County ski resorts

So far not as many cows on route as expected but here there are a few as we get to the northern end of South Park

Just me, and my sha-a-a-adow

Starting up the climb to the pass from Como

An easy gradient to the 2nd highest pass on the route, follows an old narrown guage historic railway route that was put in to get minerals out

Not far from the top of Boreas Pass

An old railway wagon at the top of Boreas Pass (11,480′)

Cruising the old railway gradient down to Summit County

Still snow on some of the trails of Breckonridge Ski resort behind the lake

Hitting the big smoke of Summit County and ski town of Breckenridge

Laundromat blues?