June 6, 2022
Red Cliff - Twin Lakes, CO
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Let me fess up. I decided to have an adult beverage last night, to celebrate having a good ride up our first pass. I ordered a gin and tonic, in Spoon's honor. Make that a double. It was so good, I had a second double. That is a lot of booze for a typically non drinker.
I was back in the room, tucked in to sleep by 8 PM. I was then wide awake at midnight. Thankfully, I don't seem to have a hangover. I've been drinking a lot of water. I need to go back to sleep for our 6 AM wake up. I don't know why so early, but we are meeting at 7:30 to start ferrying the bikes downstairs and loading them.
Earlier this evening (while drinking), I could not find the email that Oren mentioned from our cabin at Twin Lakes. It has the door code to get in (important!), and also says that they are no longer providing pillows because of COVID. In capital letters, it states to bring our own pillows. That's a new one. We traveled border to border in 2020 during the height of COVID. Pillows were provided everywhere. Last year in Michigan and Wisconsin, pillows were provided. As I lie here in bed, with a comfy pillow, it is surfacing in my brain that I would indeed like a pillow in Twin Lakes. I'm going to suggest we stop in Leadville at the Dollar Store.
It's 2 AM. I should try to go back to sleep. Go ahead and laugh at me. What was I thinking, ordering TWO doubles? That's enough booze to last the entire trip . . .
Yes, definitely too much booze. I was not thinking straight when someone knocked on the door at 2:30 AM. I opened the door. Outside stood a 25ish year old man, long, scraggly red beard, and a bald head. In his hand he held a silver bong. He asked me if I wanted some pot. "No, we're sleeping". I think I also said thanks for the offer. I have to laugh!
That woke Jacinto up. Neither one of us really slept after that. The 6 AM alarm was far too early. I got right in the shower to wake up. It was a rough sight in the mirror. My eyes had more red than white. It's a good thing I'd be wearing sunglasses all day. I didn't feel too bad though. Jacinto didn't get out of bed until I requested help getting the bikes downstairs. I doubt he was sleeping as our room had an interesting wiring system. In order for the bathroom lights to work, the bedroom lights had to be turned on.
Oren was outside, ready to go. He had his raincoat on, and was looking at the sky. It had been raining, but wasn't at the moment, except for a few stray drops. It might be a more exciting day than we planned!
I was extra happy that we knew to take Water Street (the low road) that went under the green bridge. There would be plenty of climbing later in the day. I started out with a vest and ear warmers on, but took them off as soon as we started climbing. We rode eight miles of gentle climbing, then there was a five mile to the summit sign.
Traffic continued to be reasonably light. I found it curious that several minutes would go by with no cars, then two would pass each other right next to me. This happened multiple times today. I still saw very few RV's, perhaps because this is such a twisty road.
I rode in my granny gear for half of the climb. There were a couple of switch backs. I ate one Perpetum tablet. I drank very little water as it was quite cool. It was 51 degrees when we left, but felt much chillier. We did not get the morning downhill wind. Perhaps the road was too twisty for the wind to build up?
I saw two deer, not together, a heron lifting off (beautiful), a beaver, and several antelope today. It was a good day for wildlife.
After the last switch back, I was able to stay in the middle chain ring. The ride went well, but I was still tired. Definitely more tired than yesterday. I don't know what I was thinking, drinking last night. What if I had been hung over? Then this would have been an extra challenging day.
Oren was waiting for me at the top. He had been in my sight most of the morning, but said he had been at the top so long that he had started to walk back down, thinking I had a flat tire.
I ate an apple at the top. Oren was ready to go, but we had an admirer come and talk. The man grew up in Red Cliff, and was taking a friend on a tour of Colorado. He admired our abilities.
Oren mentioned the dark clouds above us. It was best to get moving. I felt a few more random drops. That was it. We agreed to stop at Safeway. We had one more little climb to get there. I was ready to be done with climbing for today! I could have even stayed in Leadville, even though we only had 22 miles in. I was tired. We did a good day's work.
Oren went inside. I requested perfectly yellow bananas, and that is what I received! We sat on a bench outside and ate our lunch. I had half of my hamburger from last night. It tasted even better today.
The bench was old and splintery. I think I got a splinter in my butt. I debated how many years Oren and I have been friends and if I could ask him to check if the splinter was sticking out of my tights. I decided that was going a little far over the friend line and did not ask.
I told Oren I wanted to stop at Family Dollar and buy pillows. He was going to use a towel. I told him I didn't want a crick in my neck the rest of the trip. I was getting cheap pillows. In the end, he bought one also. Oren was very visible going down the road with a big, white rectangle on his bike. He should keep it the rest of the ride.
Highway 24 from Leadville wasn't fun. It's too bad as we had an excellent downhill run, and also fresh pavement. There was a new style of rumble strip I haven't seen. It was exactly the white line, and wasn't too deep. But it did make noise when I bicycled over it. Sometimes we had a shoulder, mostly it was 6-12" over the white line. The rumble part was rumbling enough that I wanted to ride to one side or the other of the line. I did have one truck honk at me, he didn't honk at Oren. Then he got stuck behind a big RV. Serves him right.
There is a good dirt backroad that Jacinto took years ago with Ride the Rockies. I pitched the idea that if it was good enough for RTR, then we might consider taking it. The dirt road was four miles shorter and slightly less climbing. I thought that might be appealing. Nope. Knowing what I know now, about the heavy traffic, I would have pushed to take the dirt road, or just gone and and ridden it myself.
I was most happy to take the turn at Granite onto Highway 82 and get away from the traffic. There are cabins right at that intersection, and a sign saying store. Oren asked if I had ever checked them out. Yes, but the store wasn't there before. The cabins look a little rough on the outside. I think we were both ready to be there. We had a six mile climb to Twin Lakes, which we will repeat downhill tomorrow.
We were riding uphill, into a headwind. Lucky us. Then we got to the lee side of the mountain and the road leveled off some. I was counting down the miles and how long it would take me to get to town. 2 PM, I think.
Twin Lakes is a beautiful spot, with Mount Elbert, and the lakes below.
I stopped at the only place in town, wanting to make a reservation for dinner. We knew they weren't open for lunch. Which means they also weren't open to take our reservation. I didn't think that one through.
We went on to the cabins, just a couple of doors down. I'm in cabin #1. The wi-fi works in the cabin. The last time we stayed here, we were in the last cabin and the wi-fi didn't reach.
Oren inspected my bed for bedbugs. It passed. He didn't believe me until he looked with his own eyes that there were pillows on the bed! Now what do we do with our pillows? We aren't going to use them even one night?
Oren took his bike right in the cabin. We won't be able to put our bikes in until right before bedtime, it's too small.
I could see Jacinto on the Strava link. He was taking the dirt road around. The end report on that was that the detour around Leadville was very rough and not recommended. Road 10, off of 24, which comes into Twin Lakes the back way only has a couple of miles of good dirt. Jacinto said that is the way to go.
He was sprinkled on more than we were, but never got wet. He has too many photos. I'm off to took at them right now. Oren has gone to the little store for a snack, but we are planning on dinner at 5 PM. No alcohol for me tonight!
Tomorrow is an easy, downhill day to Buena Vista. We could have gone on into town today, but I was anticipating the usual afternoon south wind, and didn't want to fight that to town after riding the pass. Also, Twin Lakes is really cute and this trip is all about visiting the places I've enjoyed previously. So, we have 25 downhill miles tomorrow. It's a partial rest day to set us up for the big climb over Cottonwood Pass.
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 152 miles (245 km)
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spoon
PS, believe it or not, Spoon is on the wagon for this upcoming BAK tour
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