Now this was a good day on the Divide. Colorado, you are not disappointing.
The riding today was hard but short, only 43 miles since I'm not trying to kill myself. It was stop here or ride another 30 or so to the next camp place with water, and I have some really hard days coming up so it made sense to take it easy today.
Not that today's riding was easy. The first 10 miles were a 1,000 foot climb on pavement, followed by a beautiful 3,000 foot climb on dirt through aspen and pine, creating a 27 mile 4,000 foot climb up to Marshal Pass, yet another Continental Divide crossing at 10,842 feet. It wasn't too steep though, and I was kept company by many motocross and ATV riders doing the same thing (the easy way).
After the climb it was a great 16 mile downhill into Sargents, despite a headwind for some of it. The dirt was nice and dirty, and roads nice and rough, and Snaphopper ate it all nicely. I'm having little of the issues I had last year when I started the divide since I know what to expect and have already learned the hard lessons, like run my tires as low as possible on dirt (and my fatter front) and that the hand pain will go away after a week or two.
So, I said goodbye to Steve from the UK today. He has to pace much faster than me to get done by the 16th. I, on the other hand, have am planning to finish around the 21st (or sooner, not sure). We had a good time in Salida last night playing darts and drinking beer in a pub since we knew it would likely be out last night to hang out. He pushed the extra 30 miles today, I explored Sargents.
AND SARGENTS IS AWESOME! Let me tell you. It's a small little hamlet, 30 people, nestled in a valley. I first rode around the town hoping to find a free place to stay, and struck up a conversation with a guy leaving an old 1920's school where he was closing up after a yard sale to raise money for new windows (1k a pop!) on the historically registered school. He gave me a tour of the school and I bought brownies to help out. I, however, was not able to hint my way into staying in the school yard for free, however.
Then I rolled back to the road where there is an RV Park/Campground/Resteraunt and paid 13 bucks for a campsite. I've had to pay to sleep every night so far. I HATE PAYING TO SLEEP, I CAN'T AFFORD THIS TRIP IF I HAVE TO PAY TO SLEEP EVERY NIGHT. The problem with Colorado is because so many people come here to adventure capitalism has decided they should have to pay for it. I'm right near the Continental Divide Trail, The Colorado Trail (which currently has a mountain bike race on it, I found out), and the Divide. Too many hikers and bikers around to them sleep for free on some grass, I guess.
However, it was OK this time.
So this RV Park / Resteraunt is under new ownership and they are really nice. Seems 7 people from West Palm Springs, Florida moved here to take over this resteraunt (great smoked meat, great food). So 7 of the 30 people who live here moved here from Florida a month ago. The town loves them too. They all hang out in the resteraunt Friday nights, and I saw the guy who gave me a tour again. Not it makes sense why he directed me here to sleep, he want to support the business.
There also a big dirt bike / ATV meet up this weekend here, which makes the campground kinda interesting, and I met Trip McGuffin, Fly Fisher from Texas, and we chatted away for a good while about - wait for it - fly fishing (pretty interesting, actually) as well as camping and backpacking, etc. I also met two riders on the Colorado Trail who came off-trail to Sargents to hitchhike into a bigger down because one broke his seatpost. Ouch. Of course, I've met scores of hikers as I've passed the CDT a few times, some through, some day, some doing the Collegiate Peak loop around Salida.
Now I write this next to a river, a great view of stormy hills, and dirt bikes. Tomorrow, I'll be in the middle of nowhere, and then Del Norte. After which I have to figure out how to water myself for a few days as I bike through EPA superfund mining sites which have contaminated all the streams I normally drink out of.
Stress for another day...