Bikepacking the Colorado Trail: Part 4
Day 6: Just below Searle Pass to Leadville
Stats: 28.95, Elevation Gain: 3,238ft, Moving time: 4h51m, Elapsed Time: 9h03m
We were on the trail at 4:50am, soggy as could be with almost all of our layers on. I’ll tell you what: one of my least favorite things about adventuring in weather is putting on wet shoes. I can handle most things, but wet shoes in the morning makes me grumpy. But so does having to wake up at 3:00am, so either way, it wasn’t going to be the best morning for me. The rain had ceased at some point in the night but everything was dripping and damp. We still had a bit to go before the tree line so riding through large wet roots was a thing. My headlamp wasn’t in a spot that I could really see over my baggage on the front of my bike so I was having a heck of a time.
Also, we had chosen not to eat breakfast, but just have a snack/munch as we rode and have a proper breakfast with coffee later. So, here I am, no good lighting, no breakfast, no coffee, 3am wake up call and wet cold shoes. How do you think things went? Aliza kept on trucking, which was great because it forced me to keep doing the same, even if I was crying just a wee bit. (Shhhh… don’t tell her). Finally I stopped and had a snack, which put a little fire under my tushy and I rode/hiked my bike a little faster to catch up with Aliza.
As the sun rose and we began to be able to see without lights, we were also cresting above the treeline and my mood lifted immediately. It was like we had transported to Ireland, or somewhere with rocky crags and spotted green patches of grass and I’m sure there were mountain sheep somewhere out there (though we didn’t see any). We got to Searle Passe at around 5:20am and celebrated with an obligatory summit dance. We crushed Kokomo Pass, which was our highest point of the trip so far at 12,022 ft. I think we did another dance, but it was short lived because it was friggin’ COLD up there! The wind about blew us over and it made us so glad that we had not ventured up there during a storm. We did talk to one rider who had been up there during hte storm the night before and said it was huge hail and scary lightning and thunder, which just validated us that we had made some smart decisions! Go team!
The descent from Kokomo was a blast. It was mostly rideable, as far as I can remember and it went pretty quickly, which was good because once again, the thunderstorms came right on time. The trail pops out on the road where the bike Wilderness detour leads toward Leadville. Though the pavement was fast rolling, the wind was strong. Aliza’s energy was waning quickly and her ability to put the pedal to the metal was long gone. We tried to motor together, but she wasn’t having it, so we needed to take it slow and steady. We were starting to realize that we would not be able to get to Buena Vista via our own two wheels unless we rode through the night because of how long everything was taking. So, we called ahead to the awesome Patty Sag wagon and he met us in Leadville just as the rain started pelting down. We hopped in the van and rode the rest of the way to Buena Vista where to our Airbnb where we would be spending the next day as a much needed Zero day. At first, I will admit that I was a bit disappointed by having to miss some of the trail and felt a little blow to my pride for getting some rides to specific points on the trail, but going into this adventure, Aliza and I had agreed that no matter what happened, we were in it together and we would make decisions together about what we needed to do to complete it together and that’s what we did! We went and grabbed dinner in Buena Vista - a cute little fresh foods place that I can’t remember the name of. Loads of laundry were done and we relaxed like nobody’s business.
Day 7: Zero Day: Buena Vista
Stats: 0 mi, Elevation Gain: 0ft, Moving Time: 0h0m, Elapsed Time: 24hrs
Our rest day was magical, but as with all rest days, I felt very restless. You go from pedaling your bike all day every day to doing absolutely nothing besides eating, resting, laundry, a quick bike wash and check and then going back to resting and eating. We ate Casa Sanchez Mexican restaurant and it hit the spot. This cute little joint had outdoor seating in their covered patio area and the meal included the most delicious sopapillas for dessert! We hear they sometimes include a shot of Tequila with the meal, but we didn’t order drinks in the first place, so they didn’t offer. We saw another table that got shots delivered all around, though, so I think the rumors are true!
We also had to make an obligatory stop to the bike shop in Buena Vista. My derailleur wasn’t shifting properly after a couple spills and some mud and grime, so I had them check that out. Aliza also got her crank looked at again. They got us in quickly and our bikes were ready to go in a couple hours. In the mean time, we treated ourselves to some mini belgian waffles in the little cafe that is attached to the bike shop. GET THESE IF YOU ARE THERE! They were only $3 or so for one and I could have eaten 10! (though I did a great job of restraining myself!).
We also ventured over to Cottonwood Hot Springs to have a soak.
The mineral hot springs in man made pools were a much needed reprieve for our tired legs. There’s also a little area where you can scramble down to the river next to the springs to take a quick cold soak, so of course we had to experience the thrill of immersing ourselves in cold river water. I’m a wuss with such things and while I soaked for a bit, I got out pretty quickly. Aliza was a champ and stayed in quite long. Patty even submerged his head under! His bravery would prove futile later though, because he started to feel under the weather and after some internet research, we “diagnosed” him with cold shock, which apparently can happen when going from one extreme temperature to the other. He felt very out of it and a bit dizzy and nauseous for the next couple of days, poor guy.
Anyway, I was glad we were only resting for one day and was anxious to get back on the trail. My grumpiness and tummy start to act up on rest days, though I know it’s so good for me, so I tried to just chill and headed to bed early after a good stretch session.
Patty in pure sopapilla bliss!
Day 8: Avalanche Trailhead to Shavano CG
Stats: 29.11mi Elevation Gain: 4688ft, Moving Time: 5h38m Elapsed Time: 8h54m
Ready to Roll at Avalanche Trail Head
Patty Sag drove us to the Avalanche Trailhead, which is where the bike wilderness detour meets back up with the CT proper. This way, we avoided a generally boring road/gravel climb out of Buena Vista. It was overcast and a little chilly and we assumed we were in for some weather that day.
The trail conditions in this section of the CT were spot on! We could actually pedal our bikes, it wasn’t too soggy and the ups and downs weren’t horrible. We did have to cross a couple of creeks, some of which had little bridges and some did not, but we were already sort of soggy anyway due to a misty rain, so it wasn’t a big deal to get our feet a bit wet.
Not too far into the ride, I managed to slide out a bit on a wet section and banged my derailleur again! Ugh! All the $$ out the door and now I had a derailleur that wasn’t shifting properly. I tried to adjust it on the fly and it helped a bit, but was limited in my gear options.
After descending off the ridge, we popped out on a road, so it was pretty quick riding for a while. This part of the trail is for both hikers and cyclists, and bypasses around private land. We saw a couple of hikers on this section, going the opposite way. I vaguely remember having a bit of a hard time mentally on this part, but I don’t quite remember. We stopped for a bit for some reason, but then obviously kept on truckin after a quick snack and a stretch.
At one point, after we returned to trail, we were on the 6.6 mile section where there are several water sources and good camping areas, though everything was just a damp soggy mess and we weren’t looking to stop here anyway. We did see quite a few hikers through this area. We decided to hunker down in a little shire area for some nom noms and ran into two day-hikers, young guys, who were out looking for mushrooms. The damp, moss and aspen covered hills definitely seemed like prime mushroom housing, and they showed us their bounty. They had foraged all types of mushrooms, some of which were definitely chanterelles, some lobster and some that they weren’t so sure about. They offered some of the chanterelles to us, and I took them up on it, but after riding with them for a bit they became a little too moist and broke down a bit so I ended up tossing them, but dang, they would have been good with my dindin!
From the end of this roller coaster trail, traversing down into creek crossings and up again and again, the rest of the trail was climb, climb, climb. From what I remember we could ride most of it, with small areas of hike a bike, but could be rideable if you had the legs. Somewhere in this area of the trail it had started raining profusely and we were soaked to the bone. We didn’t know how far we were going to get that day and decided to ride until we couldn’t any more. I think both of our morale was low and our rested legs wanted to rest for longer. We descended down a ways and the trail reaches the Angel of Shavano trailhead. Here, it was raining so hard, we could hardly see anything, so we pulled over at the day-use area at Shavano CG and joined some through-hikers in the pavilion in having a hot drink to try to warm our weary bones. The longer we sat there, it was very apparent that Aliza didn’t want to go any further that day. I probably could have made it happen, but we also knew that we had already done almost 5k ft of climbing that day, our legs were tired, and we had another big climb in front of us, which would lead to higher elevation, colder temperatures, and a chance of being exposed in a thunderstorm.
The rest of the through-hikers had decided to call it a day too and ambled their wet selves over to the campsites. We went and looked at the campsites and realized we were a bit late to the game, with no campsites open, we returned to the pavilion. It did say no camping, but we figured that we’d just go ahead and set up and if someone kicked us out, we’d let them deal with trying to find us a spot in the campground. We put our belongings in the outhouse, which was rather warm and we hoped it would dry things out a bit. Having the overhang at the pavilion as well as tables was a treat and we stayed pretty dry and warm for the rest of the night. We set up a tent on the pavement of the pavilion and stayed pretty warm! It was a great set up! And bonus! We didn’t get kicked out, though I do think we had a friend that visited us in the night and tried to munch our food. I always travel with a critter/bear proof Ursack and scent-proof bags, in which our food was stashed, so this staved away any critters that attempted to feast on our food.
Trying to find my mojo somewhere…