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..