Aug 5, Day 41 - Hartsel

Breckenridge to Hartsel, CO
Distance - 51 miles, Av speed - 9mph

Still luxuriating in the supersoft Egyptian cotton sheets of the Great Divide Lodge, we decide to have room service breakfast – just because we can!

This means we can get an early start, as the skies are blue, the temperature cool, perfect cycling conditions for cycling up the Boreas Pass.

 

This is the second highest pass we go over, at 11,500ft but is actually one of the easiest climbs, partly because we start at over 9,500ft and partly because the road follows the old railroad line. Numb Stuff finds it hard to breathe in enough oxygen once we get over 10,000ft. Dirtbaby notices no difference because she always puffs going uphill! Otherwise, neither of us seem to be affected by the altitude.

This was a glorious climb, winding round the mountain and affording great views back down over Breckenridge.

More than once, we make the comment that it was such a good decision not to have cycled this yesterday as we would not have been able to see anything. We could see the impact of the heavy rain the day before.

We pass by the Baker Tank, which was used to refill the steam locomotives with water, then reach the top, to see the old station and a couple of cabins.

Already we can see the clouds forming, so we zip down the other side, just as it starts to rain. The temperature has dropped dramatically. Numb Stuff is still cycling in a t-shirt but refuses to stop to put gloves and coat on! He regrets this by the time we hit the bottom!

We finally put wet weather gear on, are joined by Bill and head to the little of Como. Here we find a great B&B/restaurant which has a massive wood burning stove! This stove heats the whole building – on they burn over 70 cords of wood each winter!

We thaw ourselves out next to the stove and with some great homemade chicken soup. Feels strange to be be sat by a stove in August! We are reluctant to leave here, especially passing the bar which is stocked with microbeers but we need to press on to make up for the lost time in previous days due to weather hold ups. However, the weather is doing its best to hamper us again – by now, the skies are very dark and we hear thunder all around us, as well as feeling the static electricity in the air.

  

It is always a hard call to judge whether to cycle in these conditions but we decide to go for it. We feel like we are cycling in a dry mini-corridor; all around us we can see rain hammering down, but for some reason we pretty much miss it all, except for a few drops on the final road down to Hartsel.

We are not sure what to expect in Hartsel. The map and book list no accommodation options, just a grocery store. Numb Stuff goes into the grocery store, which is like going into a time warp! Absolutely amazing – a carton of eggs turned upside down in the refridgerator, boxes of mac cheese on shelves with a quarter inch of dust and piles of used clothing and household items all for sale! The owner seems to be a fixture of the store itself, and we later learn that she is one of the most influential people in Hartsel and also one of the most generous. She tells us we can camp behind the community centre (where it is clearly posted “No overnight camping”) – all at no charge! We set up our tents on the concrete slab under cover from the approaching storm then head to the local bar.

The bar is called “HOB”. Officially, this stands for “Hartsel’s only bar” but after the owner’s passing, and willing the bar to his girlfriend, she promptly changes the name to “Hateful Old Bitch” cleverly keeping the same HOB sign out front, giving it her own personal flair! This place has attitude in spades!

We finish our beers and head to the blue trailer next door, where we have heard from various people along the way, serves up the best tamales in Colorado – Dorothy’s Homemade Tamales. And they were right!