Section 4 Silverthorne, CO to Platoro, CO - D20

06/29 Day 20 Colorado  Breckenridge, Como, Hartsel, Salida (96 miles)

We at least ate breakfast in our room, thank you Lafrancaise, and got an early start.  The climb out of Breckenridge was amazing!  We were climbing up to Boreas Pass on railroad grade, paved road then well-grated dirt.  The grade was the easiest we’d been on (or would be as it turns out), chatting easily during the climb.  Along the way we crossed the Colorado Trail and just had beautiful views of the ski resorts and mountains beyond.  The top of Boreas Pass was 11,400ft and a CD crossing.  There was an old mail building and refuse left over from it’s long ago railroad past.  While we lingered here, the S. Africans arrived and they were still taking pictures when we left. 

Ascending Boreas Pass 

Baker Tank - where steam locomotives took on water

Summit Boreas Pass elev 11,482 ft

The S Africans - Luke and Marion

What a fantastic descent!  Then, what a bummer – right at the bottom, STB realized her GPS had fallen off.  I waited (and took pictures of the really pretty yellow flowers on the side of the road) while she turned and climbed back up to find it. 

I don’t know how I forgot this – STB reminded me, once underway again a huge bee flew into my helmet.  Such perfect 10.0 dismount helmet toss there has never been! 

STB goes back up for her GPS

As I amuse myself

Regaining composure, we continued towards Como – originally I think a mining town, then important for the railroad, but not much now.  The cues noted a post office and store, both closed.  We got to the Como Depot B&B just as the boys were coming out.  They had gone over the pass the evening before, stayed the night here and by the smell of things, had just finished a hearty breakfast.  Since 2^nd breakfast had become a Tour Divide matter of fact, we pulled in with the S. Africans right behind.  The owners were very nice and quickly got us hot coffee and breakfast sandwiches we could take with us.  Again, it was a place where they would not let us pay for our meal but we happily made a donation to their museum fund.  These are the small gems of the Tour Divide – good thing too because the next 32 miles sucked. 

At the Como Depot B&B

Head wind and wash board.  Another Tour Divide staple and worse in Colorado than any other state.  We put our head down, criss-crossed the road looking for smooth spots and made for Hartsel.  Just as we hit the highway, we met a young man on a road bike.  He was with a supported group that was doing Habitat for Humanity building in communities along their route.  Pretty cool.  He was super giddy to meet us which always took us aback.  He had just watched the Ride the Divide film before starting on his trip and was excited to run into TD racers. 

The westerly highway miles in to Hartsel gave us some much needed wind relief.  When we stopped for lunch at the oh-so-fine Hob Café and Saloon, more of the road ride group arrived and of course we ran into the boys.  A quick look through the South park Mercantile next door revealed only out-date food so we pushed on to Salida with what we had. 

From Hartsel, it was south again and into the wind.  Oh, and did I mention washboard?  Clouds started rolling in and just ahead of them, we experienced these micro burst of insanely strong wind gusts.  Because of the turbulent dust thrown up, we would dive into a ditch or culvert and cover our heads.  There was only a bit of rain with any of it but there were a couple of these bursts during the day.  We learned the pattern and started making the ditch dives earlier rather than later. 

Right as we were rolling into Salida, a cyclist came up and asked if we were the Sheila’s.  It was Scott Morris of TopoFusion “TopoFusion focuses on mapping software for outdoor pursuits” and the provider of the GPS track we were using on the Tour Divide.  Though it was cool to run into him, I need to pee.  With hurried exchanges, I told Scott and STB I wasn’t hanging around.  Thankfully there was a ball park at the top of the hill with a port-o-potty.  There was a small girl standing outside the door.  She informed me her friend was inside but that she needed to go too.  As kindly as “Evil Aunt Sheila” could muster without traumatizing a child, I pressed them to get a move on. 

We found a sweet little hotel near by (no computer).  Dinner was at a great pizza place down the road and the Safeway grocery was on the way.  Not a bad set up.  Shower, eat, shop, prep, sleep.