We left the hotel in Breckenridge, CO around 8:30am with our bags fully loaded. There was a beautiful bike path for the first 10 miles of our ride that took us along the Blue River and the Dillon Reservoir. After amazing views and few hills, my Dad and I got our first taste of the Colorado Rockies. We knew before we started that biking at altitudes of 9000+ feet with 40 pounds of gear and water on our bikes was simply something we could not train for.
The mild downhill of the bike path quickly turned to steep hills with 25-30mph headwinds. When we were about 15 miles from Kremmling, CO, we ran into a fellow biker, Kevin. He introduced himself to us, and we exchanged stories from the road and frustration about the headwinds. Kevin mentioned that he was out of water, and we quickly offered him some of ours (we expected to pass a place to fill up within the next few miles... we were wrong about that, and in hindsight, we really should not have offered him our water).
Kevin carried on, and we rested for a few minutes longer. About 5 miles later, we hit another obstacle. We came across a sign saying "pavement ends." This is not something you like to see when biking, but we did run into Kevin again! The roadway ahead was under construction and had been converted to one-lane, with construction workers directing traffic. We were held up there for about 40 minutes before we were able to start biking again. Luckily for us, the construction workers held traffic in both directions while we rode the 3 miles on unpaved roads.
The rest of the day was pretty tough. Lots of hills, unyielding headwinds (we had to pedal going DOWNHILL). We reached Kremmling, CO tired and a bit dehydrated (giving Kevin our water was a rookie move). We pulled into a "Kum and Go" gas station and downed some Gatorade and potato chips. We pulled into the Hotel Easton just a few blocks later, showered, ate, and relaxed.
Hebrew word of the day: רוּחַ פָּנִים. Or in English, 'Headwinds'. The headwinds today were maybe the most challenging part of our ride, and we expect them to continue throughout the trip.
Check out some of our pictures below.
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Thanks for coming along for the ride!
~CS
Nice job! Keep hydrating.
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