WoooHoooosier

Day 35

Breckenridge, CO to Cañon City, CO

Distance: 96 miles

Highest Point: 11,539 ft (highest point on the TransAm Trail)

Elevation Drop on day: 4,250ft

Hangover severity: mild

Reading last night’s blog this morning, I decided that in future it would be wise to attach a breathalyser to my computer on nights such as yesterday to ensure the writing actually makes sense, rather than consisting of a bunch of disconnected ideas thrown together in a random order… 

But that’s life. I’ll leave it as it is – it can act as a reminder for next time I have a glass of wine too many.

So, I awoke this morning with a sluggish hungover feeling, but nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Packing up and leaving the condo was hard as I felt pretty comfortable there, but eventually Steed and I made it out the door and onto the road.

The day started with a long and fairly steep climb up the Hoosier Pass, the highest point on the TransAm Trail at 11,539ft. With a mix of left-over alcoholic head-spin and the elevation, it was quite a struggle to move my carcass up and around the switchbacks. But eventually I made it to the top, where it was FREEZING!!

After a few photos, I put some extra clothes on to start the descent but, arriving in the small town of Alma, CO just a short while later (the highest town in the USA), I was still chillier than I would like to have been. Even a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a latte wasn’t enough to warm me up.

Then, just as I was leaving, I heard someone shouting my name, and turned to find Katie and Eric who I chatted to at Relish last night. They’d been out hiking and had climbed this…

Quandary Peak it’s called, and it’s over 14,000 ft – hats off to them.

What a lovely group of people I met last night.

Bidding them a fond farewell and leaving them to their well-earned lattes, I only managed around 5 minutes down the road before I caved.  Delving down to that no man’s land that is the bottom of my panniers, I yanked out not only my trusty Gore WindStopper, but also…. The Smelly Roberts!

Yes, the Smelly Roberts (my full-length leggings) have now made their debut appearance on this trip. It’s a long story as to how they got their name, but it’s not because they are smelly. On the contrary, today they were as fragrant as Jeffrey Archer’s wife on any given court appearance. And, in any event, items of attired that don’t smell good in those panniers get a liberal squirt of the ironing spray sent to me by Valerie – it’s just how I’m rolling these days.

But deciding on what to wear today throughout the ride was as complex a question as Einstein’s Riddle, with as many costume changes as a Madonna concert.

Once I’d completed the initial descent, I started climbing again. My Raisin d’etre for the afternoon was to climb over the top of Currant Creek Pass at 9,504ft (pun intended, no signage so no photo), because obviously climbing one pass of over 11,000 ft is not enough for the day…

After that, I had in my mind what I’d been told at the coffee shop in Alma, when I still had 75 miles to go, “well, it’s down hill all the way with the wind behind you”.  Of course, it has a hint of truth but, as ever, it is not really the whole story. Because as soon as you tell yourself that you can relax, every small intrusion into that feels like an imposition, So, the odd steep spiky climb into head wind that I had to endure seemed like it lasted an eternity. But I got through it.

Arriving at my motel for the night, I showered up and wandered into town to see what was open on a Sunday night (not much) but found a hopping little pizza place to fill a gap for the night.  Sleep now muchly needed…

Me x